O87 - Experiences of Early Career Midwives (ECM) who aspire to work in Midwifery Continuity of Care (MCOC)

Abstract

Early Career Midwives (ECM) can work successfully in Midwifery Continuity of Care (MCoC) models, however rarely have this opportunity. This research explores the facilitators and barriers to ECM’s securing positions, and working successfully, in MCOC models. This presentation is part of a larger body of work which aims to design a professional development pathway that can be used to prepare ECMs to work in MCOC and overcome the identified barriers. It is widely accepted that MCOC is the ‘top’ model of care. This work aims to provide help to midwives join MCOC models early in their career, and be ‘together at the top’. Semi structured interviews were conducted with ten ECMs – five of whom had succeeded in working in MCOC, and 5 of whom were still working in other models of care. These interviews were thematically analysed to look for common themes and ideas. Using Delphi technique, the findings will inform a co-designed survey to collect data from a larger sample of ECMs. Three themes were identified. “Back yourself” incorporating ideas around believing in yourself and intentionally building your career in the direction of MCOC. “Maybe I’ll be ready”, expressing positive and negative feelings at the end of their new graduate year towards working in MCOC - including enculturation, confidence, skills acquisition, and observing the treatment of MCOC midwives. And “Celebrated”, describing the feelings and experience of becoming a MCOC midwife as an ECM. This research is important because of the drive to provide the ‘top’ model of care to more women. Difficulty staffing these models hinders this. The experiences of these midwives highlight possible ways forward in addressing the barriers to using ECMs to staff MCOC.