Background: In Rwanda, the maternal death audit conducted from 2009 to 2013 identified 1060 maternal deaths, which were recorded through Health information management system (HIMS) on a total of 1,533,177 births that occurred in health facilities. The overall facility maternal mortality rate (MMR) was 69.1 per 100,000 live births (Sayinzoga et al., 2016). Therefore, an urgent need to provide quality health care services in healthcare settings to contribute to maternal and child mortality was revealed. Even though, Rwanda has made a positive progress toward achieving reduction of maternal and new born mortality rate, there is still a need to do more to enhance quality of emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC) to continue improving and achieve the acceptable standard. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is a model of care in which different healthcare providers work together to achieve a better patient outcome (D’Amour et al., 2005). In Rwanda, EmONC involves an interprofessional collaboration between teams, composed mainly by doctors, particularly general practitioners, nurses and midwives and anesthetist providers, which are commonly known as anesthesia technicians in Rwanda (Livingston et al., 2014; Sayinzoga et al., 2016). However, there has been no research conducted to assess how these teams collaborate to deliver better quality of care, though IPC is an important aspect to achieve high quality healthcare service. Ineffective IPC can contribute to an increase in maternal and newborn maternal mortality ratio.
Mentorship programs have been conducted by Training, Support Access Model for maternal new born and child health (TSAM- MNCH) project in Rwanda to enhance quality of maternal and new born care. In that mentorship, IPC was an important component and mentors have received IPC trainings. However, little is known about mentees experience in applying IPC in their practice.
Hypotheses/Objectives: This study aims to understand the experiences of healthcare professionals who benefited from mentoring program working in maternity services in five district hospitals in Northern province of Rwanda, to explore the barriers and benefits in implementing the IPC approach to care.
Proposed Methods/Methods: The study have used a qualitative descriptive design (QD) and has recruited 30 healthcare professionals, including Anesthetists, medical doctors, nurses and midwives working maternity and dealing with EmONC. Interviews have been conducted using a semi structed interview guide. In accordance with QD design, interviews recorded have been transcribed verbatim and content analysis is being done to identify emergent categories and themes
Future Applications/Directions (for Spark/Create) OR Results/Discussion (for Innovate)
The results from this study will contribute to the body of knowledge and provide information related to the barriers to successful implementation of IPC, as well as the knowledge translation of mentors which will reflect the effectiveness of the mentorship provided. This information should be useful for the programs organizers as well as policy makers, administrators, and implementers including those in the TSAM- MNCH project, Rwanda Ministry of Health and district hospitals to address the challenges of having IPC as a key component for quality healthcare service delivery to contribute to the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality rate in Rwanda.
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