References
Fairy tale midwifery ten years on: facilitating the transition to newly qualified midwife
Abstract
The first article in this series, published in the
Seminal work (Kramer, 1974) indicated that newly qualified practitioners experience a reality shock on initiation of first post, which is supported by subsequent literature (Maben and Macleod-Clark, 1996; Godinez et al, 1999; Gerrish, 2000; Montgomery et al, 2004; van der Putten, 2008; Kitson-Reynolds 2010; Kitson-Reynolds et al, 2014). Newly qualified midwives (NQM) are expected to be competent novice practitioners who, over the course of a defined preceptorship period, acquire more specialised clinical skills and confidence in practice (Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] 2009; Department of Health [DH], 2010). This period of preceptorship is intended to ease the transition from student to midwife, although programmes remain unstandardised and evidence suggests that the level of supernumerary status and exposure to clinical rotations vary between NHS Trusts (Clements et al, 2012; Avis et al, 2013; Mason and Davies, 2013; Bannister, 2014; Foster and Ashwin, 2014; Wain, 2017). Original phenomenological research, upon which this series is based (Kitson-Reynolds, 2010; Kitson-Reynolds et al, 2014), suggested incongruence between new registrants' expectations of practice (their self-imposed ‘fairy tale’ that was perpetuated by peers, lecturers and midwives alike) and the reality of midwifery
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