PRE-REGISTRATION MIDWIFERY PROGRAMS - A CASE-STUDY EVALUATION OF THE NON-MIDWIFERY PLACEMENTS

Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of non-midwifery placements i n enabling pre-registration (direct entry) student midwives to learn a bout caring for childbearing women with medical, surgical or mental he alth problems and needs.Design: case study. Setting: a large midwifery education department and three acute general hospitals in England. Pa rticipants: 15 student midwives in the first intake of one college's t hree-year diploma programme in midwifery plus the practitioners involv ed in their education. Main outcome measures: the learning needs of st udent midwives, who have no previous health-care experience, to enable them to care effectively for women with medical/surgical/mental healt h problems; the teaching processes and learning opportunities related to these aspects of care; how the views of teachers and practice place ment staff compare with those of the students; the factors that influe nce the teaching and learning processes and experiences for pre-regist ration student midwives. Findings: the broad range of experiences in m edical/surgical/mental health placements enabled students to increase in maturity, and confidence and develop their communication skills, Th e variety of placements enhanced student understanding of the multi-di sciplinary team's contribution to health care, students learned new pr actical skills which were transferable to maternity care contexts and all students had opportunities to care for adults with most of the med ical/surgical/mental health problems seen in childbearing women. Concl usions: this action research project provided data for curriculum deve lopment and helped to avoid premature reaction to individual staff and student response, The value of the medical/surgical/mental health pla cements and the importance of staff and student preparation for effect ive learning was established, Whilst it might be essential to identify what and where student midwives should learn, it would appear that de veloping each student must be an equal, if not greater, priority for c urriculum designers.