'Maternity clinic on the net service' and its introduction into practice: experiences of maternity-care professionals.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences of maternity-care professionals using an Internet-based network service, called Net Clinic, and the opportunities and obstacles they encountered in Net Clinic while organising their work and developing their know-how.

DESIGN: Qualitative information gathered from semi-structured thematic interviews.

SETTING: Four maternity care units in Eastern Finland (one antenatal ward in a university hospital, one antenatal ward in a central hospital, two maternity clinics in the community).

PARTICIPANTS: Five midwives, two public health nurses and three doctors.

FINDINGS: All participants considered adequate privacy protection a prerequisite for development. They anticipated that because of their computer skills, young people would be able to use information and communication technology (ICT) as part of maternity-care services naturally. Managerial support, such as allocation of time and equipment, was extremely important during the introductory phase. The participants were divided into three groups based on their experiences of implementing Net Clinic: (1) 'doubters' did not believe in their own ICT competence and were afraid of using Net Clinic. They also showed resistance to Net Clinic. Doubters wanted versatile and personal guidance in ICT skills; (2) 'accepters' agreed that progress in ICT would inevitably affect their work. Development was considered difficult without awareness of the benefits of ICT, and Net Clinic was expected to increase their workload. Accepters preferred to have one-to-one ICT training; (3) 'future confidents' saw ICT as a useful tool for developing maternity care. They recognised the opportunities implicit in network collaboration and wanted versatile user training in ICT. They wanted successful network service models and were eager to develop them. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE: Families will increase their knowledge levels, as those who will be future parents are learning to use public network services at school. The increasing diversity of family structure will be a challenge to maternity care. Changes in maternity services can be accomplished with new e-Working models developed through diversified co-operation and with managerial support. The crucial question will be the attitude of maternity-care professionals towards Internet-based network service in their work.