Final year students’ perceptions of learning to be a midwife in six British universities

Summary Midwifery education in the UK has been delivered through the University sector since the mid-1990s, with the requirement to create safe, effective clinicians who are equipped to engage with research and evidence based practice. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of focus group data from 120 senior midwifery students at six British universities to explore the experience of learning to be a midwife. Thematic analysis of the data suggests the following themes pertain to the experience of a number of students: ‘teach yourself midwifery’, knowing it all, right way of doing things, the importance of physical skills. These themes suggest a dissonance for some students between the andragogical methods of learning espoused by universities, and the expectations of students, who express the belief that there is a fixed and finite body of knowledge, without which they feel disempowered, anxious and ill-prepared for clinical practice. This paper argues that there are unresolved tensions between the perceived demands of practice environments and regulatory bodies and the philosophical stance of universities. For some students the concept of a broad discursive education is a distraction from training in discrete clinical skills.