A Questionnaire-Based Study to Compare Attitudes of 78 Midwives Before and after Management Changes in Work Schedules and Performance-Related Pay at a Women’s and Children’s Hospital in China, March to October 2022

BACKGROUND Change management has become an important tool for hospitals to continuously improve themselves in a competitive market. This questionnaire-based study aimed to compare the attitudes of 78 midwives before and after management changes in work schedules and performance-related pay between March and October 2022 at a women's and children's hospital in China. MATERIAL AND METHODS The survey utilizing a job involvement scale and a self-designed questionnaire was distributed through WeChat group chat for all midwives of the hospital. The hospital has 87 midwives. A total of 78 midwives participated in the questionnaire survey. RESULTS The midwives' score ranges of work initiative, work attitude, work value, work recognition, and work enthusiasm and focus before change management were 21-39, 19-37, 23-29, 12-18, and 12-20, respectively, but that after change management they were 22-39, 19-37, 23-30, 13-18, and 14-23, respectively. After change management, both of the P values for work attitude and work enthusiasm and focus were less than 0.05, 80.23% of the midwives were willing to work across the 2 campuses, and all surveyed midwives agreed on unified accounting of performance pay under the condition of working across the 2 campuses. Their views changed from "maintaining the status quo: taking the initiative - passive resistance" to "questioning" to "openness to change: acceptance". CONCLUSIONS The change management implemented within our department is feasible and the clinical risk is controllable. More attention was paid to the midwives' perceptions and humanized management was applied during change management, leading to a success of change.