Introduction
Maternal deaths as well as disabilities rank at the top of leading contributors to females’ disease burden. According to World Health Organization, about three hundred thousand worldwide die yearly during pregnancy or childbirth. Statistics suggest that a large portion of the recorded deaths happen in low-resource areas. Women of color in the United States are three times more probable to succumb to complications related to pregnancy than the whites. Past research has revealed that the mortality ratio associated with childbirth or pregnancy for black women is 25:1, 10:3 for Hispanic females, and 6:0 for whites per 100,000. The leading cause has been established as hemorrhage, embolism, and pregnancy-induced hypertension. This essay aims to establish the medical or non-medical interventions one can implement to reduce the rise in maternal fatalities during childbirth.
Nursing Metaparadigm
The nursing metaparadigm establishes a good basis for the nursing practice. It is a vital theoretical framework that focuses on practices, beliefs, and knowledge on human beings associated with disease prevention, health, and healing practices. A nurse named Florence Nightingale dedicated a significant part of her life to assisting others in the 19th century (Bender, 2018). She created a foundation for the contemporary nursing metaparadigm of the environment to support patient wellbeing in the medical field. In the 1800s, little was understood concerning bacteria and the way illnesses were contracted or spread (Bender, 2018). During her time, nurses and doctors were more concerned about curing diseases. Fewer people in healthcare focus on aseptic methods or hygiene, for instance, using bleach to interfere with bacteria growth (Bender, 2018). They did not know that something simple such as sufficient shelter, could support the wellbeing of an individual. Nightingale supported the environment theory and recognized the positive impact it could have on patients’ health.
There are four metaparadigms of nursing: person, health, environment, and nursing. The first one focuses on the individual receiving the care, which may include their spirituality, family, culture, and friends (Deliktas et al., 2019). The concept dictates that the spiritual life can aid in the treatment or healing of an individual, for example, pregnant women can be protected from fatalities if they connect to their spiritual selves. Environment as a metaparadigm consists of internal and external factors associated with the patient (Deliktas et al., 2019). This can include an interaction someone might have with a visitor and the surroundings. According to this metaparadigm, females can be protected from succumbing to pregnancy complications if the nurses consider proper hygiene around the patients. The microorganisms might be the sole reason for their issues.
Another metaparadigm is health, which represents a patient’s quality or wellbeing. It may encompass the access or availability of healthcare services to a patient (Deliktas et al., 2019). Since a larger portion of the females dying during childbirth lives in low-resource areas, the availability of medical resources should be considered to reduce the rise in maternal mortality. The fourth metaparadigm in nursing refers to how nurses will apply their skills and knowledge when taking care of patients (Deliktas et al., 2019). The professionals in the field need to do what is in their capacity to help save the women’s lives during childbirth.
Nursing Theory
Self-Care Deficit Theory
The self-care deficit concept was developed by Dorothea Orem when she worked on improving the quality of the nursing profession in general hospitals in her area. The theory interrelates ideologies in such a manner as to establish another way of viewing a specific phenomenon. Despite being relatively simple, it is generalizable to various patients (Silva et al., 2020). Nurses can use it to guide and enhance the practice, however, this must be consistent with other laws, principles, and theories. Some of the major assumptions of the concept include that people are different, they need to be self-reliant as well as responsible, and someone’s knowledge of possible health issues is essential to promote self-care behaviors. As described by Orem, the theory specifies when nursing is needed (Silva et al., 2020). She claims it is required when someone cannot provide effective self-care. She identifies five techniques of assisting: acting and doing for others, guiding them, supporting, offering surroundings conducive to individual development, and teaching.
When it comes to maternal health, most people lack the knowledge and skills of self-care, thus, the self-care deficit theory targets the nurses to remind them of this situation. The concept is applied to their work as it provides a precise definition of their role in treatment, prevention, and care. Nurses conduct five activities to re-establish the individual’s capacity for self-care (Silva et al., 2020). They include guiding a patient, performing care action, offering psychological or physical assistance, teaching, and ensuring positive surroundings for growth and development. Therefore, the ideology defines and explains the roles and responsibilities of the nurses while simultaneously providing a nursing care goal. The objective is to help patients accomplish and maintain a proper level of self-care.
For instance, while caring for vulnerable patients such as pregnant women, a nurse is needed to apply their knowledge to establish the appropriate self-care actions that patients must conduct. Acknowledging that some of the activities cannot be performed by a patient, it is the nurse’s role to develop an ideal manner of fulfilling the deficit (Yip, 2021). On the one hand, if an individual lacks the physical capability for particular actions, the nurse practitioner is allowed to perform the actions on their behalf. Hence, they fulfil the patient’s needs for self-care (Yip, 2021). On the other hand, if someone does not possess guidance or knowledge, the nurse has to provide education.
Maternal Role Attainment Theory
The maternal role attainment concept was established as a scheme for nurse practitioners to offer proper healthcare interventions for nonconventional mothers to enable them to adopt a solid maternal identity successfully. Even though this ideology can be utilized throughout pregnancy or after childbirth to aid females in connecting with their children, it can also be beneficial for adoptive women and those in foster care. The procedure assists the mother in forming a bond with the child, which helps build the association between the two (Fasanghari et al., 2019). This theory’s main idea is the developmental and interactional process, which happens over time.
The female forms an attachment with the child, obtains competence on how to take care of them and expresses pleasure in her maternal role. The process adheres to four phases, including an anticipatory stage that addresses the psychological and social adaptation to the role and learning expectations (Shrestha et al., 2019). The second phase is the formal stage, where the role assumption happens. It targets behaviors determined by others in the woman’s social system. The third phase is the informal stage, whereby the mother develops her mothering ways (Shrestha et al., 2019). The last one is the personal stage which represents the phase in which a mother is confident in her capability to play the maternal role. The maternal role attainment and self-care deficit theories are similar as they aim to equip a patient with knowledge and skills of care.
Outcome
Complexity Theory
Complexity Science and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)
Complexity science deals with complex systems as well as issues that are dynamic, multidimensional, and unpredictable. It consists of a set of interlinked parts and relationships. Unlike linear thinking, complexity science is described by non-linearity (Alexander, 2021). Complex adaptive systems refer to systems that are complex in a manner they are dynamic networks of interactions. However, the trait of the ensemble may not be foreseeable based on the components’ behavior. They are adaptive in that the personal and collective characteristics evolve and self-organize according to the change-initiating micro-events (Alexander, 2021). They are a complex macroscopic collection of partially and similarly linked micro-structures created to adapt to the altering surroundings and raise their ability to survive as a macro-structure.
Maternal Health Within the Framework of Complexity Science
It is important to understand that complexity science deals with unpredictable matters, including pregnancy complications. This means that it can aid in identifying how to equip an individual with knowledge and skills that may help them when a problem arises and there is not close to nursing care (Alexander, 2021). This would be helpful to the phenomenon of interest as it allows the pregnant women and the people around them to be ready when problems emerge without them expecting.
Specific CAS and Principles of Complexity Science
An example of a complex adaptive system includes individual hospitals and healthcare organizations. Patients can obtain proper care that focuses on them only (Turner & Baker, 2019). It is important in certain situations, such as when the condition concerns pregnancy or giving birth. Women at this time need much care to allow them to give birth without problems. These facilities help to prevent mortality and fatalities that may emerge as a result of carelessness. Complexity science dictates concerned with issues that cannot be predicted (Turner & Baker, 2019). A complication during childbirth is something even physicians and nurse practitioners cannot foresee. Therefore, it teaches equipping knowledge in advance to deal with such situations. This can happen more effectively in individual healthcare since it becomes easier to have all the information about a particular woman (Turner & Baker, 2019). This means that by being the foundation upon which the facility is built, it serves the purpose of positively impacting maternal health.
Conclusion
The essay has established the medical and non-medical interventions one can implement to reduce the rise in maternal fatalities during childbirth. The WHO claims that there are about three hundred thousand deaths yearly during pregnancy or childbirth, which is alarming. To bring the number down, it is important to understand that childbirth or pregnancy complications can be unpredictable. Equipping the patients with the knowledge and skills to care for themselves in a difficult situation would ensure that the rate of maternal mortality decreases. Additionally, the environment someone is in is important; therefore, it is essential to consider cleaning the surroundings to prevent the growth of microorganisms that might cause the problems.
References
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Fasanghari, M., Kordi, M., & Asgharipour, N. (2019). Effect of a maternal role training program based on Mercer theory on maternal self-confidence of primiparous women with unplanned pregnancies. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 8(4), 5. Web.
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Silva, A., Silva, S., Fonseca, C., Garcia-Alonso, J., Lopes, M., Cardoso, I., & Pinho, L. G. D. (2020). Promotion of functional independence in the self-care deficit of the elderly with orthopaedic disease and technology. In International Workshop on Gerontechnology (pp. 149-160). Springer, Cham. Web.
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