Mobilizing the World Cafe Method for Adequate Development of Non-Technical Skills of Midwives in Morocco: A Pilot Experiment

This article explores the development of the most critical soft skills in midwifery through the use of a participatory method called the World Cafe in the context of continuing education at the Formation and Simulation Center (FORSim) in Settat, Morocco. Non-technical skills include a set of metacognitive abilities that complement technical skills to ensure the safe execution of technical activities and the parturient's satisfaction. In order to develop these midwifery skills through the World Cafe method, we invited nine midwives from two maternity units in the Casablanca-Settat region, with whom we elaborated our psychological, organizational, cognitive, and interactional (POCI) model. The study took place over a full day, structured into three distinct steps: a self-assessment of the level of mastery of the eight soft skills in the POCI model, four cycles of the World Cafe and, finally, a discussion of and feedback about the method. The use of the World Cafe method allowed for a dialogue on the possibilities of managing and addressing issues related to non-technical skills among midwives from various hospital settings. Based on the results, we found that the participants enjoyed the non-stressful atmosphere of the World Cafe and were very productive. The assessments and feedback from the midwives participating in this study suggest that managers can adopt the World Cafe approach to develop non-technical skills and enhance midwives' interactions and soft skills as part of their continuing education.