Introduction

Previous Change

For

Against

Strategy

Unfreeze - Stage 1

Tactics

Change

Re-freezing

Conclusion

References

Bibliography

Appendix

Ground Rules

Background Work

Plan of Teaching SessionsHomePage

 

Against

Due to own limited experience with the change process, a powerful, experienced and motivated midwife will be asked to join to help with the change process.

Hostility to the proposal will arise amongst community midwives and some community members. Community midwives will argue that parent education they are offering meets the women’s needs, although they are offering anecdotal evidence to support this. They can also argue that women are not already attending existing parent education classes what would make the bus more attractive? To tackle this problem, the ‘Rocky’ bus organiser will be invited for an interview to talk about her experiences and to evaluate the women’s responses to the bus. A question/answer session will convince the midwives, managers and the local community that this change is an advantage to the women. In addition, the previous change agent will also be asked about the pitfalls of the previous change but also the positive aspects, so that the new change agents can learn from their experience.

Reluctance held by some midwives and managers would be the major obstacle to overcome, not to mention the objection and rejection by the community. But to overcome their fears, anxiety and queries they will be involved with the decision making and also the plans for the change. Their fear is of the unknown, once this changes then the plan for delivering parent education can go ahead. Haynes (1992) argues that change is often perceived as a threatening event, ritualistic practices are often adhered to, in attempt to avoid making decisions. She continues on saying that by discussing their feelings about the change may help to minimise resistance, which can produce disharmony.

At present, some midwives are ignorant about their client’s needs; this acts as a force against the implementation of the change. A tactic devised to solve this problem would be to hold a study day to make midwives aware of the religious and cultural issues of the Pakistani women and their families. This will be done through inviting outside speakers, such as the volunteers of the Ammy Ki baji project and representatives from the community i.e. Pakistani GP’s, Health Visitors and Social Workers to come and talk about the Pakistani women’s needs. To encourage attendance a buffet meal will be provided throughout the day. A question and answer session will be incorporated within the day so that the midwives can test their perception about the needs of Pakistani women.

It is a great advantage that the volunteers for the Ammy Ki Baji project can communicate in more than one language. They will also be officially invited as innovators on behalf of the women and the community to talk about their fears and concerns. In turn, the volunteers can reflect back to the meetings voicing the opinions and views of the community and women. They can act as advocates, hopefully these volunteers will be very influential to the community producing excellent results.

By using the right tactics, it would also change the feelings of the community. Involving them as much as possible, letting them know what the intentions and aims are and how the change is going to be brought about could turn around their fear and threat with the previous bus.

For this change to become established and implemented then we need the wider community in Alum Rock to trust us as much as possible and the only way to gain their trust again is to take the change to them (Barber, 1998).

This change in practice may also mean extra work ands less hours for the community midwives. Time is very important when there is work to be done and this very much applies to the midwives in Alum Rock, thus faced with another problem. To overcome such problem is that the new bus and the ‘Rocky’ bus can emerge together to help each other. In this way the women will not be only learning parenting skills, increasing their knowledge about pregnancy and childbirth but also learning English as a second language, this in turn can increase the funds if evaluated well. By emerging two services together will cut down on financial implications because resources will be shared, and the women will be accessing both services.