The nurse-midwives who work at Jacaranda Health’s two maternity hospitals in Nairobi believe deeply in providing the highest quality care to the women who visit the centers.
It’s why they take seriously their commitment to implement the “5S” — sort, set-in-order, shine, standardize, sustain — quality improvement system, an innovation that is anything but typical in health care of low-resource areas of the world. Using the 5S roadmap, the nurse midwives ensure that each “delivery trolley” is complete with the necessary tools for birth. They make certain that the delivery pack, medication, and essential equipment is available in the right quantities, easily accessible, and in a consistent place as they anticipate the upcoming arrival of a new baby.
Nurse-midwives are not only responsible for providing the care, though. They “own” the quality initiatives undertaken at Jacaranda Health’s maternity hospitals because, as front-line staff, they are trained as quality ambassadors to carry forth both the implementation of and messaging about quality improvement as a key innovation in the quest to improve maternal and newborn health in low-resource settings.