Abstract

The study presented in this paper demonstrates how nurse midwives used video on mobile phones to support patient education in a maternal and child health project in rural India. The main goals of the study were to understand how the technology impacted the workflow of the nurses and to assess the acceptability of the use of video during patient encounters. The study was based on interviews of the midwives, observation of patient visits, and an analysis of logs from the mobile devices. The overall results were positive; the midwives accepted use of mobile video as part of the workflow for postnatal care examinations. Using video changed the process of patient education, in some cases making it a more focused activity. The use of video also led to midwife multitasking, which was enabled by the technology. The study suggests that the midwives felt that their authority was enhanced by the use of video.