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The purpose of this monograph is to present the first English translation of a unique French colonial report on women living under colonial rule in West Africa.

The issue begins with a discussion of the contribution this report makes to the history of social development policy in Africa, and how it serves the on‐going critique of colonisation. This is followed by the English translation of the original report held in the National Archives of Senegal. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes, translator’s comments, a glossary of African and technical terms, and a bibliography.

The discussion highlights contemporary social development policies and practices which featured in identical or similar forms in French colonial social policy.

As the report demonstrates, access to basic education and improving maternal/infant health care have dominated the social development agenda for women in sub‐Saharan Africa for over a century, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in the Millennium Development Goals which define the international community’s agenda for social development to 2015. The parallels between colonial and post‐colonial social policies in Africa raise questions about the philosophical and cultural foundations of contemporary social development policy in Africa and the direction policy is following in the 21st century.

Though the discussion adopts a consciously postcolonial perspective, the report that follows presents a consciously colonial view of the “Other”. Given the parallels identified here between contemporary and colonial policy‐making, this can only add to the value of the document in exploring the values that underpin contemporary social development practice.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize studies that have examined patient safety culture in maternity units and describe the different purposes, study designs and tools reported in these studies while highlighting gaps in the literature.

Peer-reviewed studies, published in English during 1961–2016 across eight electronic databases, were subjected to a narrative literature review.

Among 100 articles considered, 28 met the inclusion criteria. The main purposes for studying PSC were: assessing intervention effects on PSC (n=17), and assessing PSC level (n=7). Patient safety culture was mostly assessed quantitatively using validated questionnaires (n=23). The Safety Attitude Questionnaire was the most commonly used questionnaire (n=17). Interventions varied from a single action lasting five weeks to a more comprehensive four year package. The time between baseline and follow-up assessment varied from 6 to 24 months. No study reported measurement or intervention costs, and none incorporated the patient’s voice in assessing PSC.

Assessing PSC in maternity units is feasible using validated questionnaires. Interventions to enhance PSC have not been rigorously evaluated. Future studies should report PSC measurement costs, adopt more rigorous evaluation designs and find ways to incorporate the patient’s voice.

This review summarized studies examining PSC in a highly important area and highlighted main limitations that future studies should consider.

The quality of maternal healthcare training is the most optimal degree of health in the delivery of effective, efficient and quality healthcare in midwifery discipline. Student accoucheurs studying at the Free State School of Nursing are faced with resistance, discrimination, rejection and unacceptability by pregnant women during their clinical placement at the Free State maternal healthcare institutions. This results in poor quality of training of student accoucheurs in maternal healthcare. Considerable studies have been conducted on males in midwifery nursing, but no guidelines have been developed to facilitate student accoucheurs' acceptance and improvement of the quality of training in maternal healthcare, hence the purpose of this study.

A descriptive, explorative qualitative design was used in this study. Qualitative focused group discussions (n = 32) were conducted through purposeful sampling method. Data was analysed thematically.

Three main categories emerged: student accoucheurs' related factors with social interactions and relations as a theme; maternal healthcare users’ related factors with transcultural diversity and socio-economic status as themes; nurse training institutions and maternal healthcare institutions service providers-related factors with gender inequality in the work place as a theme. Ultimately, the guidelines to facilitate acceptance and improvement of quality training of student accoucheurs in maternal healthcare institutions were developed and recommended for implementation.

The paper developed guidelines to facilitate acceptance and improvement of quality training of student accoucheurs in Free State maternal healthcare institutions.

Seeks to assess maternity care for women with Type 1 diabetes in relation to recommendations in a national clinical guideline using a criterion‐based clinical audit. The audit covered all 22 consultant‐led maternity units in Scotland, focusing on 268 completed pregnancies in women with Type 1 diabetes. Results are presented and discussed. Concludes that a national audit to monitor the impact of clinical guidelines proved feasible. Antenatal care is organised in line with guideline recommendations but there is lower provision of formal prepregnancy care. Pregnancy planning and periconceptual care fall short of recommendations but care during pregnancy is meticulous. Adverse pregnancy outcomes remain commoner than in non‐diabetic pregnancies.

In a wider debate on defining and measuring quality in health care, there is a particular need for frameworks for understanding and managing quality in specific specialties. This article addresses the definition and measurement of quality in maternity care. It develops a pro forma for monitoring and hence managing midwifery quality.

The linkage between internal and external satisfaction is an understudied topic in the service field. This study aims to address this gap by proposing an original research model, the service excellence chain (SEC), that connects the internal and external perspectives by conjoining performance-excellence models and the service-profit-chain approach. Theoretical assumptions and quantitative measures are proposed by using advanced statistical techniques.

The SEC is investigated through an empirical study in the healthcare sector, focusing on an Italian hospital and involving two of its core units. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. First, internal and external customer satisfaction were separately tested through structural equation modeling. The linkage between internal and external satisfaction is then proposed by mathematically defining a synthetic index, the internal and external customer satisfaction index (IEGSI), modeled through Bayesian networks (BNs) and object-oriented BNs to provide an overall measure able to predict organizational improvement.

The distinct measured models show good internal validity and adequate fit both for patients' and employees' perspectives. The IEGSI allows rigorously connecting internal and external satisfaction by developing conjoint scenarios for organizational improvement.

This study proposes the SEC model as an innovative way to connect internal and external satisfaction. The findings can be useful both for private and public organizations and may provide several useful insights for healthcare managers as well as for policy-makers in relation to developing strategies for improving service quality.

This paper aims to identify the specific parameters in developing a framework to assess the structural vulnerability of hospital buildings in Sri Lanka against tsunami. Along with that, the adaptability and suitability of the existing global frameworks in the Sri Lankan context are to be assessed.

In this study, Papathoma tsunami vulnerability assessment (PTVA)-4 model was used as the base in developing the abovementioned framework. Its adaptability and suitability in assessing hospital buildings in the country were considered under the case studies conducted in six selected hospitals in the Southern coastal belt of Sri Lanka. Under these case studies, data collection was done using the Rapid Visual Screening method where assessments were carried out through visual observations. The collected data were analyzed according to the aforementioned model for its suitability in evaluating the structural vulnerability of hospitals in Sri Lanka, against tsunami hazard.

From these case studies, it was identified that the use of the PTVA-4 model alone was insufficient to assess the structural vulnerability of the hospital buildings against the tsunami. Therefore, the model must be further improved with more relevant assessing attributes related to hospitals, suitable for the Sri Lankan context.

This paper identifies the specific structural assessment parameters required in assessing hospitals in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka, considering tsunami as the main hazard condition.

The routine use of intrapartum electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) has resulted in an increased burden of operative and vaginal instrumental deliveries for women at low obstetric risk. Such modes of delivery increase maternal mortality and morbidity risks. This study aims to explore midwives' values, attitudes and beliefs when using intrapartum fetal monitoring techniques in clinical practice.

A total of 58 registered midwives across two NHS Trusts in one region in the north of England were interviewed using a qualitative approach.

Midwives attempted to manage the psychological burden of the threat from clinical negligence by using EFM. This meant that some midwives used electronic monitoring regardless of clinical need. Midwives lack confidence in the ability of EFM to accurately detect fetal compromise but are aware that the visual monitoring record is recognised as a valuable piece of legal evidence. The midwives' perceptions of professional self‐efficacy in seeking to avoid a claim in clinical negligence contributed to defensive practice. Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted in only two hospitals in one region of England; however the Trust demographics were similar and midwifery practice within the unit reflects national maternity standards of care.

Multidisciplinary strategies may be required to overcome barriers to the effective implementation of clinical guidelines where intrapartum fetal monitoring is concerned and Trust audit departments must undertake regular audit cycles in order to ascertain practice compliance with best evidence.

The paper provides information so that midwives' knowledge regarding the limitations of EFM can be improved.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate frontline meetings in hospitals and how they are used for coordination of daily operations across organizational and occupational boundaries.

An in-depth multiple-case study of four purposefully selected departments from four different hospitals is conducted. The selected cases had actively developed and embedded scheduled meetings as structural means to achieve coordination of daily operations.

Health care professionals and managers, next to their traditional mono-professional meetings (e.g. doctors or nurses), develop additional operational, daily meetings such as work-shift meetings, huddles and hand-off meetings to solve concrete care tasks. These new types of meetings are typically short, task focussed, led by a chair and often inter-disciplinary. The meetings secure a personal proximity which the increased dependency on hospital-wide IT solutions cannot. During meetings, objects and representations (e.g. monitors, whiteboards or paper cards) create a needed gathering point to span across boundaries. As regards embedding meetings, local engagement helps contextualizing meetings and solving concrete care tasks, thereby making health care professionals more likely to value these daily meeting spaces.

Health care professionals and managers can use formal meeting spaces aided by objects and representations to support solving daily and interdependent health care tasks in ways that IT solutions in hospitals do not offer today. Implementation requires local engagement and contextualization.

This research paper shows the importance of daily, operational hospital meetings for frontline coordination. Organizational meetings are a prevalent collaborative activity, yet scarcely researched organizational phenomenon.