Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jan 15, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 16, 2019 - Jan 30, 2019
Date Accepted: Apr 16, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Transitional Experiences of Internationally Qualified Midwives Practicing in Australia: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study
Background:
Approximately 13% of the total Australian midwifery workforce is internationally qualified. Although the internationally qualified midwives (IQMs) play a significant role in the Australian midwifery system, there is limited understanding of their transitional experiences.
Objective:
The objective of this study protocol is to explore the transitional experiences and views of IQMs practicing in Australia, through the investigation of demographic profiles and key challenges that influence a smooth transition.
Methods:
This paper presents an explanatory sequential mixed methods study protocol. This protocol incorporates an e-survey and individual interviews. The e-survey in the first phase will be distributed to IQMs in Australia via the website e-bulletins of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and the Australian College of Midwives. Additionally, potential respondents will be recruited via social media (ie, Twitter and Facebook) and associated snowball sampling. Data from the e-survey will be statistically analyzed. At the end of the e-survey, respondents will be asked whether they are willing to take part in an interview. The results of the e-survey and relevant literature review will help to develop a guideline for interview questions for the second phase. In phase two, a purposeful sample of participants will be recruited using the same selection criteria as for the e-survey. Semistructured interviews will provide a deeper insight into the transitional experiences of IQMs. Data from the interviews will then be thematically analyzed.
Results:
An integration of the e-survey results (phase one) and interview findings (phase two) will be synthesized to explore and better understand the transitional experiences of this group of midwives. It is anticipated that data collection and analysis will be completed by June 2019 and results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications in late 2019.
Conclusions:
This research protocol may generate new knowledge about the transition of IQMs in Australia. These findings could be used to formulate recommendations to inform the transition of future IQMs in Australia.
International Registered Report:
DERR1-10.2196/13406
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.