Applying the participatory-based approach into the

Mother’s Residency Department (MRD) at Caritas Baby

Hospital (CBH)
Service Learning Project
Research by Ibrahim Alkhmour / Raid Owidat / Wafaa Musleh
September 2015
Mother’s Residency Department in Bethlehem
• The Mother’s Residency Department (MRD) is
part of Caritas Baby Hospital (CBH)

• 28 beds can accommodate women

• Department in transition to improve its capacity

and services to the women

2
Apply PBA in this transition
• Participatory-based approach requires
1) putting into place focused activities
2) invite the different parties - in this case CBH Mother’s Residency
staff and resident mothers - to engage in such a qualitative interactions
in order to shape their learning experience.

• Assumption:
1) cognitive change will lead to a change in the behavior of the
employees.
2) will empower the mothers and will help overcome psychological
and social problems and equip them with psychological tools to
cope and deal with their life challenges.

3
Assessments
• 20 women in 4 focus groups

• Introduce yourself in simple words (name, age, area, number of children…

and anything you want to say)
• What do they want in life?
• Do they work? How do they spend your daily life?
• What are your goals in life? How do you achieve them?
• What are you interested in?
• Do you face any discrimination in your life? As being a mother, woman?
• Can you describe your relationship with the extended family?
• Do you expect to be taught anything while staying in the hospital?
• What is your evaluation/feedback of the services provided at the MRD?
• How do you see that we could develop the services at the MRD sector?

4
Assessment of the resident mothers in MRD
• Daily life
Women come from patriarchal communities, male-
dominated, not working outside their household. Focus is
on raising the children and the household, not time/energy
for self-care.

• Discrimination in daily life

Mothers face verbal and physical abuse from husbands or
extended family members.

5
• Goals in daily life
Making their husband and family happy. Raising their
children.

• Interests in life
Some women would like to work outside their household.
Others wanted to continue their studies or be better in
raising their children, learn about breast feeding, diseases
and other development/medical topics.

6
• Expectation of lessons in MRD
Very happy to receive extra information about
developmental and medical topics; a great willingness to
learn more.

• Feedback on services MRD

Happy with the place to sleep, but services are regarded as
average. Not always kind treatment from staff; no attention
for their name and needs.

7
Staff Assessment
• 10 female employees, 5 of them are Practical Nurses, 2
are Social workers and 2 are from the Education Field,
as well as the Manager and she is a social worker.

• Noticed issues:
1) Lack of common vision
2) No prioritizing of women’s needs
3) Dynamics between senior (long-term) staff and junior

• Result: Collaborative planning for common goals

8
Conclusion
• Based on this approach, the collaboration between all
stakeholders will eventually enhance the educational
activities tremendously and help meet the desired goals
of health promotion and awareness in our targeted
community.
• Service-learning approach is the most effective way of
responding to the pervasive health needs of
communities and underserved populations with the least
expense and the most benefit.