Providers perspectives on a team-based maternal health care delivery in Ghana: A qualitative study

Interprofessional team-based care is crucial in ensuring respectful and dignified maternal services. However, there is limited research that explores this issue from the perspectives of health care providers in Ghana. The study sought to explore the perspectives and experiences of health care providers working in a collaborative team-based setting at a health in Ghana, with the aim to improve respectful and dignified maternal care. We used a descriptive qualitative study and conducted semi-structured interviews with 35 participants from diverse cadre of health care providers, including Midwives, Nurses, Nutritionists, Pharmacists, Physicians, Radiographers and Sonographers. The data were subsequently transcribed and analysed thematically. The findings revealed four overarching themes namely roles, facilitators, barriers and strategies to overcome barriers experienced by healthcare professionals within an interprofessional team-based setting providing respectful and dignified maternal services. Providers' primary roles in enhancing respectful and dignified maternal services within interprofessional team-based setting included enhancing patients' outcome, improving healthcare professionals' outcomes and optimizing facility outcomes. The facilitators to respectful and dignified maternal care were clear role definitions, transparent communication, personal empathy and professional competence. Conversely, barriers to the delivery of respectful and dignified maternal services within a team-based setting noted in participants' responses included infrastructural deficiencies, inadequate staffing, discrimination and negative professional attitudes. Participants' proposed strategies to overcome these barriers included investments in infrastructure, enhanced professional competence among staff and improved interprofessional communication within and between teams. Addressing these barriers could inform the development of policies and clinical practices aimed at advancing respectful and dignified maternal care. The study can also contribute to the design and formulation of an operational manual required to shape interprofessional team-based respectful and dignified maternal care in Ghana and other similar contexts.