LO1: Critically analyse the physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual factors that can contribute to and arise from childbearing complications and additional care needs

This learning outcome will address your Knowledge and Understanding

Take note that this learning outcome requires you to critically analyse…

Physical – Think about the physical factors that can impact on maternal health  and additional care needs.

Cultural and Spiritual  – consider how cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices can impact on health behaviours and outcomes. Does the woman’s/family’s way of living relate to the woman’s condition? If so, how? How might advice/guidance affect her cultural beliefs? (This does not always relate to ethnicity or religious cultures)

Social – Think about any link between social needs and health care and outcomes within midwifery. Consider the woman’s family and how appointments/hospital admissions might affect her family/job.

Psychological – how does being told that their pregnancy is considered ‘at-risk’ affect a woman’s psychological well being? If the newborn requires care in a neonatal unit or requires further investigations/treatment, how might this make the parents feel? How can you support parents who might be separated from their baby? What about supporting a woman’s partner, who is likely to be worrying about the woman and baby?

This learning outcome will address your Knowledge and Understanding

Take note that this learning outcome requires you to critique…

Consider the work of individuals, organisations and professionals and how processes contribute to the detection and management of care for women with additional care needs. How can this improve outcomes? What informs relevant practice and processes and is this evidence based? Apply your discussion to the woman and baby you have selected for your client profile and the role of the midwife.

This learning outcome will address your Ability

You need to demonstrate an understanding of the additional care need relevant to the client your essay is focussed on. Consider other professions who may be involved in providing care for the woman, her baby and family and how the midwife collaborates with others.

What strategies can support the multi-disciplinary team to work well together? Think about

·        Identification

·        Escalation

·        Communication – written and verbal

·        Understanding and respecting one another’s roles

Introduction (about 300 words or less)

State what the essay will include – you should come back to the introduction when you have finished your essay to make sure that you have included the things that you have said you would include.

Confidentiality – state how this will be protected (e.g. pseudonym) in line with the NMC code. Ensure clinical placement areas, staff and service-users are not identified.

State that this is a client profile, based on a woman with a particular condition and what that condition is.

Main body of the essay

You may want to introduce the woman by providing a short paragraph about what happened to her

You may then wish to provide some information about the specific complex needs condition. This will provide context for discussions in your work. If you are talking about predisposing factors relate these to your client.

Address each of the learning outcomes, as suggested on the previous pages.

Remember to use a range of evidence… you should not be reliant on guidelines. Guidelines are based on evidence – you need to find and use the background evidence. You might say that a particular action was taken/offered in accordance with a particular guideline but should then relate discussions to original evidence.

Conclusion

This should summarise the main points (remember what the learning outcomes are, so there should be some reflection of the introduction). No new information in the conclusion. No more than 300 words

What are the key points?

General tips

Try to use more than one source of evidence for each discussion – this will help you to be more critical in your writing.

Check your referencing against the guidelines in ‘Library and Summon’ – this is a fairly straight-forward way to create a good overall impression. Ensure that your reference list matches the sources that you have cited and that it is presented alphabetically (use the A-Z function on the toolbar to do this for you). Complete your reference list as you are reading sources. You can always remove something you later choose not to include.

Avoid using direct quotes wherever possible – using your own words demonstrates more clearly that you understand what you are saying. If you have to use a direct quote, make sure that this is presented correctly. See the referencing guidelines about how to do this. All work you submit should be your own. Undertake the academic integrity module on Brightspace of you have not already done so. Refer to the assignment brief specific guidance on the use of A.I.

Is your work double/1.5 spaced and written using Arial/Calibri font?

Does your work have a title and word count (this does not include your reference list)?

Does your work have a logical flow?

Do sentences make sense?

·        An essay written about a condition that you have come across in practice, will not entirely meet the assessment task unless you relate this to a ‘client’. This application will help you to demonstrate that you can link theory with practice – this is what will be expected of you as a midwife and is likely to earn you a higher mark for your work.

·        To use an academic tone throughout your discussion; try to avoid colloquial language and terms such as ‘we’, ‘our’ ‘they’.

·        Write in the third person

·        To use a range of academic literature to underpin your discussion; this will demonstrate your knowledge, understanding and evidence of wider reading.

·        To double/triple check your in-text citations and references adhere to academic referencing conventions i.e. APA 7th – Remember, this forms part of the marking criteria and you will lose marks if this is incorrect

·        To take advantage of the opportunity for formative assessment. You can submit and receive feedback on a plan for your written study (up to 500 words) via Brightspace before 9th January 2024 at 13:15hrs.