Fairy tale midwifery 10 years on: re-evaluating the lived experiences of newly qualified midwives

Abstract

Newly qualified midwives (NQM) experience a reality shock upon initiation of first post. Despite efforts to smooth the transition to NQM status, there remains an incongruence between the expectations (‘fairy tale’) and the realities of practice. Transition and preceptorship programmes aim to increase competence and confidence, and improve the lived experiences of NQMs. Preceptorship, however, is unstandardised and supernumerary shifts and rotations to clinical areas may be affected by service demands. Sources of support in practice include peers, preceptors and midwives on shift. No new themes emerged when comparing contemporary and original research, suggesting data saturation has been reached, although it may still be pertinent to consider the experiences of NQMs in order to reduce attrition rates and increase job satisfaction.