A Qualitative Study of Systems-Level Factors That Affect Rural Obstetric Nurses' Work During Clinical Emergencies

Maternal morbidity and mortality is rising in the United States. Previous studies focus on patient attributes, and most of the national data are based on research performed at urban tertiary care centers. Although it is well understood that nurses affect patient outcomes, there is scant evidence to understand the nurse work system, and no studies have specifically studied rural nurses. The authors sought to understand the systems-level factors affecting rural obstetric nurses when their patients experience clinical deterioration.

The research team used a qualitative descriptive approach, including a modified critical incident technique, in interviews with bedside nurses (n = 7) and physicians (n = 4) to understand what happens when patients experience clinical deterioration. Physicians were included to better understand the systems in which nurses work. Clinicians were interviewed at three rural hospitals in New England, with a mean births per year of 190.

Six systems-level factors/themes were identified: (1) shortages of resources; (2) need for teamwork; (3) physicians' multiple conflicting and simultaneous responsibilities, such as seeing patients in the office while women labor on the hospital floor; (4) need for all team members to be at the top of their game; (5) process issues during high-acuity patient transfer, including difficulty finding available beds at tertiary care centers; and (6) insufficient policies that take low-resource contexts into account, such as requiring two registered nurses to remove emergency medications from the medication cabinet.

Rural nurses need policies and protocols that are written with their hospital context in mind. Hospitals may need outside support for content expertise, but policies should be co-created with clinicians with rural practice experience.