Navigating the challenging landscape of delivering healthcare services in resource-strapped environments with minimal support, midwives and nurses frequently experience stress, burnout, and secondary trauma. While the recognition of the mental challenges faced by midwives and nurses is growing, there has been less focus on addressing their emotional well-being. It is now acknowledged that the emotional state of healthcare providers profoundly impacts the quality of maternal and newborn healthcare. In Ghana, midwives and nurses–primarily female–play crucial roles in providing healthcare. They collaborate within multidisciplinary teams that include physicians, consultants, and diverse medical and non-medical staff at healthcare facilities and often face challenges in professional autonomy. In some cases, this leads to a cycle of mistreatment between providers and clients. Improving the well-being of midwives holds the potential to interrupt this cycle, contributing both to improved provision of health care and advances toward gender equality.
ConvoCare (CC) is an innovative, locally contextualized, and simple peer-support initiative that encourages midwives and nurses to openly engage in discussions and collectively address stress, offering mutual support. ConvoCare…Zomunchi! means “togetherness” in Hausa. CC is designed to assemble social clubs of eight-12 health workers at convenient locations for discussions and sharing experiences, using a deck of cards to prompt discussions (for detailed information, refer to brief one oftwo). CC was tested in two regions in Ghana. The study assessed the acceptability and perceived consequences of the CC initiatives in eight out of the 11 health facilities actively hosting CC sessions in the Greater Accra and Central regions.