JURNAL INTERNASIONAL KEBIDANAN 2020-2023 UNIVERSITAS KEDOKTERAN GUILAN VOLUME 31 ISSUE 3.
JOURNAL OF HOLISTIC NURSING OF MIDWIFERY.
Midwifery Trained Registered Nurses’ Perceptions of Their Role in the Labor Unit

JURNAL INTERNASIONAL KEBIDANAN 2020-2023 UNIVERSITAS KEDOKTERAN GUILAN VOLUME 31 ISSUE 3.
JOURNAL OF HOLISTIC NURSING OF MIDWIFERY.
Midwifery Trained Registered Nurses’ Perceptions of Their Role in the Labor Unit

Midwifery, Work performance, Obstetrics, Parturition

Introduction: A Midwifery Trained Registered Nurse (MTRN) is a member of the multi-
professional maternity health care team in Sri Lanka. Her contribution to the maternity care

team is poorly understood, often undermined, and undefined. In the context of low- and
middle-income settings where traditional midwives play a crucial role in domiciliary care, the
MTRNs role as a member of the multi-professional hospital-based maternity care team has
not been well-described.
Objective: The study aimed to describe MTRNs’ perceptions of their role in the Labor Unit
within the multi-professional maternity health care team at five tertiary care hospitals in the
Capitol Province of Sri Lanka.
Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 186
MTRNs working in labor rooms in the study setting. All MTRNs in the selected hospitals were
invited and included in the sample. A postal survey was carried out using a pre-evaluated,
pretested self-administered questionnaire, and descriptive statistics were derived.
Results: All respondents were females, aged 27 to 60 years (Mean±SD: 40±8.3 years). The
majority (66%) was less than 45 years old. Almost all (>96%) MTRNs perceived 12 tasks of the
listed tasks as their primary responsibility. Regarding other tasks, they perceived a high degree
of overlap between their role and those of the doctors and midwives. Although almost all
MTRNs rated the level of interprofessional collaboration from Registered Nurses (RNs) and
doctors as average to good, nearly half (49%) of them rated support from midwives ranging
from very poor to average.
Conclusion: A high degree of perceived overlap between MTRNs’ tasks with those of the other
members of the maternity care team can cause role confusion, conflicts, and poor patient
care. MTRNs’ role in the Labor Unit within the multi-professional maternity health care team
was controversial. Clarifying the MTRNs scope of practice will help improve interprofessional
understanding of roles and responsibilities and collaboration.

Sunethra Jayathilake , Vathsala Jayasuriya-Illesinghe , Kerstin Samarasinghe , Himani Molligoda , Rasika Perera

July 2021, Volume 31, Number 3

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