Compassion in Action: Transformative Education for Effective Birth Advocacy
clinical breakout
DATE: Friday, November 8th
TIME: 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm
FACULTY: Elisabeth Howard, PhD, CNM, FACNM & Cynthia Voytas, MSN, CNM
As part of the ACNM Reducing Primary Cesarean learning collaborative, a series of innovative labor support workshops were developed in an Academic Tertiary Care Center that has an in-hospital birth center, which is now accredited Alongside Midwifery Unit. The midwifery-developed workshops included educators, doulas, wellness experts, and nurses using theory-guided evidence in an experiential format to educate all birth team members on nonpharmacologic support techniques for physiologic birth.
Recognition of both explicit and implicit bias is incorporated into each workshop. Improvisational comedy allows participants to experience in-the-moment collaboration through safe and fun games. While traditional simulation immerses participates, this is innovative in that it is comedy-based, meaning learners are less likely to feel like their actions are being tested or watched. This allows learners more freedom to fail, which can create communication and empathy learning opportunities. Each of the games in this session will reveal to participants and audience members the importance of empathy in communication, the role of bias in everyday actions, and the ways in which communication and rapport can be built.
Learners come away with experience in and competency in 15 different labor support techniques including intermittent auscultation. The workshops have been conducted successfully over two different health systems with high impact on perinatal core measures, learning engagement and satisfaction.
Faculty
Elisabeth Howard, PhD, CNM, FACNM
Elisabeth (Liz) is Director of Midwifery at Women and Infants Hospital RI. She has been a CNM for 35 years and is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Alpert Medical School, Brown University.
She received her BA in Sociology from William Smith College, her MSN from Yale University, and her PhD in Nursing from Vanderbilt University. She is a Watson Caring Science Institute Senior Scholar.
She has conducted research on physiologic birth, reproductive decision making, quality of life, and interprofessional education. She has served as the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) representative to the National Quality Forum and as the project manager for Women and Infants quality improvement project with the Healthy Birth Initiative: Reducing Primary Cesarean Project, the multi-hospital nation-wide quality learning collaborative. She is the contributing editor for the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing’s Clinical Expert Column, associate editor of the book Obstetric Triage Protocols, and author over 50 peer reviewed publications.
Cynthia Voytas, MSN, CNM
Cynthia (she/her), has worked in women's health for over 25 years. She studied comparative literature and German at the University of Wisconsin and completed her midwifery education at Frontier University. Cynthis has traveled widely, teaching secondary school in Slovakia, hiking in the Alps and on Mauritius, and spending a year in Ghana.
