Undergraduate midwifery students' sense of belongingness in clinical practice

Abstract

Clinical placements form a large and integral part of midwifery education. While much has been written about nursing students' clinical placements, less is known about clinical experiences of undergraduate midwifery students. In nursing, belongingness has been demonstrated to be a key factor in clinical learning but little is known about this in midwifery education. This study sought to examine undergraduate midwifery students' sense of belongingness in their clinical practice. A quantitative design using an online questionnaire was employed. A tool adapted by Levett-Jones (2009a), and previously used with nursing students, was utilised to examine sense of belonging in undergraduate midwifery students. Sixty undergraduate midwifery students from two campuses at one Australian university participated in the study. Students were drawn from a single Bachelor of Midwifery degree and a double Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Midwifery degree. On completion of a scheduled lecture, students were invited by one of the researchers to participate in the study by completing the online questionnaire and the link provided. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Midwifery students generally reported similar perceptions of belongingness with previous studies on nursing students. However, a few differences were noted that require further exploration to fully understand. Midwifery students experienced a sense of belonging in their clinical placements. The findings contribute to understandings of the experiences for midwifery students and provide a foundation on which to develop future clinical placement experiences.