JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Midwifery educators are highly concerned about the quality of clinical support offered to midwifery students placed at healthcare facilities for clinical learning. The unpreparedness of midwifery practitioners to carry out mentorship responsibilities threatens the quality of midwifery clinical education.

Objective:

This review was undertaken to identify clinical support interventions available for midwifery students, globally. The outcomes of the review will be utilized to develop a framework to guide mentorship training for midwifery practitioners who support students in clinical placements, in South Africa.

Methods:

The Arksey and O’Malley (2005) methodological framework guided this review. Keywords such as midwifery students, clinical support or mentorship, and midwifery clinical practice were used during the literature search. Primary articles of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods design published between 2010 and 2020 were considered for this review. Data charting and synthesis captured studies related to clinical support interventions available to midwifery students in practice; and data were analyzed using a thematic content analysis approach.

Results:

The analysis of findings highlighted four themes; (1) Strong partnerships and collaborations between HEI and hospital placements provides opportunities to train and support registered midwives who mentor midwifery students during clinical placements; (2) Continued consultations between crucial stakeholders contribute to a better understanding of students’ clinical expectations; (3) The duration and structure of the training should consider the core responsibilities of clinical practice and; (4) The program content is central to the quality of support offered to midwifery students during clinical practice. These themes are thus carefully integrated to develop a framework to guide mentorship training (Figure2).

Conclusions:

Training midwifery practitioners on mentorship is likely to improve the quality of clinical support that midwifery students receive during clinical placement. A framework to guide mentorship training may be solution that midwifery educators are awaiting. Implications for midwifery clinical education: The developed generic framework to guide mentorship training is likely to encourage midwifery educators to pursue more mentorship training opportunities and hence improve the quality of midwifery clinical education. Clinical Trial: International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/29707.