Loading...
Midwives’ perceptions of the support they provide to new graduates and the role of the health service in Australia : A survey of midwives
Stulz, Virginia M. Cummins, Allison Davis, Deborah Hastie, Carolyn Sweet, Linda Bradfield, Zoe Griffiths, Marnie McKellar, Lois Jefford, Elaine Sheehan, Athena
Stulz, Virginia M.
Cummins, Allison
Davis, Deborah
Hastie, Carolyn
Sweet, Linda
Bradfield, Zoe
Griffiths, Marnie
McKellar, Lois
Jefford, Elaine
Sheehan, Athena
Citations
publications.citations-section.null.title:
Altmetric:
Author
Stulz, Virginia M.
Cummins, Allison
Davis, Deborah
Hastie, Carolyn
Sweet, Linda
Bradfield, Zoe
Griffiths, Marnie
McKellar, Lois
Jefford, Elaine
Sheehan, Athena
Gray, Michelle
Cummins, Allison
Davis, Deborah
Hastie, Carolyn
Sweet, Linda
Bradfield, Zoe
Griffiths, Marnie
McKellar, Lois
Jefford, Elaine
Sheehan, Athena
Gray, Michelle
Abstract
Problem
Evidence suggests new midwifery graduates are leaving the profession prematurely during the initial graduate years due to workplace stress.
Background
Graduate midwives are essential to provide a future midwifery workforce. Support for new graduates in the initial years of practice is essential in retaining them in the midwifery profession.
Aim
The aim of this study was to explore midwives’ perspectives of the support they provide new graduates within existing midwifery graduate programs, and their experiences and perceptions of the health service processes to support midwifery graduates.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was undertaken with a purposive sample of Australian midwives. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse frequencies and percentages of responses. Spearman’s correlational analyses were used to determine associations between the variables. Responses to open-ended questions were analysed by content analysis.
Findings
In total, 167 midwives responded to the survey. Just over a third (34.1 %) of midwives felt they had sufficient resources to support a midwifery graduate. Half (50.9 %) of the midwives engaged in reflective practice with midwifery graduates. The majority (97 %) of midwives reported that they felt it was important for midwifery graduates to have a mentor.
Discussion
A lack of protected time to provide mentoring opportunities and support new graduates to gain further experience and education was identified. These findings support the need for a formal mentorship program to be introduced.
Conclusion
This study offers insights into the perspective of midwives dealing with the realities of striving to support midwifery graduates in their initial years of practice.
Keywords
midwifery graduate, midwifery, attrition and retention, workforce, mentors
Date
2025
Type
Journal article
Journal
Women and Birth
Book
Volume
38
Issue
3
Page Range
1-9
Article Number
Article 101913
ACU Department
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian College of Midwives. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).
An error occurred retrieving the object's statistics