Introducing video recording in primary care midwifery for research purposes: procedure, dataset, and use.

Background: video recording studies have been found to be complex; however very few studies describe the actual introduction and enrolment of the study, the resulting dataset and its interpretation. In this paper we describe the introduction and the use of video recordings of health care provider (HCP)-client interactions in primary care midwifery for research purposes. We also report on the process of data management, data coding and the resulting data set.

Methods: we describe our experience in undertaking a study using video recording to assess the interaction of the midwife and her client in the first antenatal consultation, in a real life clinical practice setting in the Netherlands. Midwives from six practices across the Netherlands were recruited to videotape 15-20 intakes. The introduction, complexity of the study and intrusiveness of the study were discussed within the research group. The number of valid recordings and missing recordings was measured; reasons not to participate, non-response analyses, and the inter-rater reliability of the coded videotapes were assessed. Video recordings were supplemented by questionnaires for midwives and clients. The Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) was used for coding as well as an obstetric topics scale.

Findings: at the introduction of the study, more initial hesitation in co-operation was found among the midwives than among their clients. The intrusive nature of the recording on the interaction was perceived to be minimal. The complex nature of the study affected recruitment and data collection. Combining the dataset with the questionnaires and medical records proved to be a challenge. The final dataset included videotapes of 20 midwives (7-23 recordings per midwife). Of the 460 eligible clients, 324 gave informed consent. The study resulted in a significant dataset of first antenatal consultations involving recording 269 clients and 194 partners.

Conclusion: video recording of midwife-client interaction was both feasible and challenging and resulted in a unique dataset of recordings of midwife-client interaction. Video recording studies will benefit from a tight design, and vigilant monitoring during the data collection to ensure effective data collection. We provide suggestions to promote successful introduction of video recording for research purposes.