Abstract:

Introduction:
The concept and practice of mentoring are viewed as important prerequisites of midwifery education. The role of the midwife is in statute: to facilitate student learning, provide clinical supervision and assess in clinical practice, this is in order to safeguard the public from students who are not ready to qualify as midwives (NMC, 2008).

Rationale for study:
This research was prompted by my work as senior midwifery lecturer. I found that, for the majority of student midwives contentions were relating to inadequate mentor support, clinical supervision, and feedback on their clinical performance and getting their practice assessment book completed during their hospital and community placement. Therefore, I was unclear about the quality of the students’ mentoring experience in producing competent midwives, even though several policy documents stress the importance of learning in practice for students who spend fifty per cent of their training in the workplace (ENB and DoH 2001; DoH 2010). Several studies have shown that providing an effective mentoring system for student midwives is challenging for many stakeholders (SCOPE 1998; Begley 2001; Jones et al. 2001; Kroll, et al. 2009; DoH 2010; Hughes and Fraser 2010). Furthermore, few studies have reported on student midwives’ mentoring experiences.

The main research question for this study was, what are student midwives’ impressions of their mentoring experience during their practice placements? This general question encompasses three dimensions:
a. An exploration of students’ mentoring experience in the hospital and community.
b. Examination of the mentor-student relationship, from student midwives’ perspectives, and across different clinical contexts.
c. Identification by student midwives' of ways mentors promoted or inhibited their learning.

Methodology:
Nine students were recruited from five different practice placements; all undertook midwifery training at the same University in London. In-depth interviews were conducted to obtain accounts of their mentoring experience. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim, then analysed using interpretive and narrative analysis (Langdridge 2007). I identified key themes and categories that represented students’ mentoring experiences.

Findings:
Four distinctive categories identified from the data were: (1) the mentor student relationship before practice commences, (2) the mentor-student relationship during the experience, (3) the act of providing maternity care and (4) reflecting on the experience. These categories are reflected through two main themes, the mentor-student relationship and the learning experience.

Conclusion:
• The culture of the National Health Service needs to change, so that all stakeholders see mentoring students as part of the working life of a midwife rather than an extra burden or responsibility.
• Students need to pay more attention to the information that they are given about mentoring from lecturers in preparation for their practice placements. Students also need to be prepared realistically for their role in clinical practice to help reduce their anxiety.

Keywords:

Student midwives, midwifery education, mentorship and mentoring experiences.