Understanding the process of becoming a professional midwife through the lived experiences of students

When registering with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), newly qualified midwives are considered professional because they have completed the undergraduate (UG) programme which is mapped to the NMC standards of proficiency for midwives (NMC, 2019) and The Code (NMC, 2018). However, the process of becoming a professional as experienced by student midwives across the entire UG programme, which includes both the practice setting in the National Health Service (NHS) and theory taught in the Higher Education Institute (HEI), is not well known. Understanding this process is relevant to inform midwife teachers and midwives in the practice setting in supporting students in their becoming professional midwives.

The participants for this study were recruited from the third year (final year) of a UG midwifery programme using purposive sampling, and to explore their experiences of becoming professional, social phenomenology (Schutz, 1962) was selected because it reflects a view that people learn through their life-world experiences and their interactions with others. Reflecting this research framework, data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using Colaizzi’s method (1978). In line with Schutz's theory (1962), the interview questions explored the students’ experiences prior to and during the UG programme with three key themes being identified.

These themes were firstly, that students’ formative experiences from their childhood and wider, for example the birth of their children, were influential in their decision making and their expectations of the professional midwife. Secondly, students articulated their understanding of what it means to be a professional with their 8 experiences revealing that they had learnt this from both practice mentors and midwifery teachers. In relation to practice mentors this second finding shows the complexity of the clinical midwife’s role in navigating the culture of maternity services, steering a path between managing their responsibilities to women and promoting individualised care (NMC, 2019, 2018). This finding extends beyond what is already known of how the culture of maternity services impacts upon the professionalism of midwives in the care of women.

From the second finding the third surfaced; an emerging theoretical framework which I refer to as ‘conceptualising professionalism’. This framework will be used to support students understand and critically appraise midwifery professionalism, challenging them to consider what they observe and interpret between theory and practice, and practice and theory, as they develop their own professionalism in the process of becoming professional.

The findings from students’ experiences provided evidence to support some of what is already known about becoming professional but also claims of new knowledge. This new knowledge is that the culture of maternity services is impacting the process of students learning to become professional, and the value of students learning in two different practice settings.

The recommendations from this study are to better understand students’ motivations for wanting to be midwives by valuing their pre-programme experiences and expectations, and to better support students as they explore how the culture of maternity services impacts the process of their becoming professional. The findings of this study are not generalisable, but they are relatable to other midwifery 9 academics and curriculum because midwifery programmes share NMC standards for education (NMC, 2023c) and midwifery students undertake their practice in the National Helath Service (NHS).