Clinicians’ attitudes towards a co-leadership structure for maternity emergency teams: An interview study

ABSTRACT

Shared leadership improves team performance in many domains and is present in some interprofessional healthcare teams. Despite the dominant paradigm of a singular obstetrician leader in maternity emergencies, co-leadership, a specific form of shared leadership, has been identified as a potentially beneficial to clinical care. This qualitative interview study addresses the gaps in knowledge regarding clinician attitudes toward co-leadership and how a co-leadership structure might be implemented within a maternity care setting. Twenty-five clinicians (midwives, obstetricians and anaesthetists) working in the birthing units of two tertiary maternity units were interviewed and a conventional content analysis conducted. Clinicians viewed co-leadership as potentially beneficial to patient care through improved leadership performance and co-leader back up behavior. Implementation of co-leadership was thought to require a supportive organizational culture, agreed patient management protocols and the participation in simulation training. Enacting co-leadership required adaptable leadership sharing practices, effective communication, and high levels of trust between the co-leaders. These findings inform the future implementation strategies for co-leadership in interprofessional healthcare teams.

KEYWORDS:

• Shared leadership
• healthcare team
• maternity emergency

Acknowledgments

Dr Sarah Janssens is supported by a Betty McGrath Health Practitioner Research Fellowship. A/Professor Marshall is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) ECR fellowship grant (1130929).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2022.2070607

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council [1130929].

Notes on contributors

Sarah Janssens

Sarah Janssens is the Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.

Sharon Clipperton

Sharon Clipperton is a midwife and simulation educator at Mater Education in Brisbane Australia,

Robert Simon

Robert Simon, now retired, was a senior leader at the Centre for Medical Simulation where he shared his expertise in teamwork training and healthcare simulation.

Belinda Lowe

Belinda Lowe is an obstetrician, gynaecologist and simulation educator based at the Gold Coast, Australia.

Michael Beckmann

Michael Beckmann is the Director of Mothers, Babies and Women’s Health Services and the Chief Digitial Health Officer for Mater Group, Queensland Australia.

Stuart Marshall

Stuart Marshall is a human factors expert and Anaesthetist based in Melbourne, Victoria.