The challenges of balancing woman centred care with supervising midwifery students

Midwifery matters Internationally, the important influence that quality midwifery care has on a woman’s - and her family’s - long term health has been widely researched and accepted (The State of the Worlds Midwifery, 2014). Within the midwifery profession, practising midwives have an important influence on the effective provision of quality teaching and learning to midwifery students within the clinical setting (Carolan, 2013). Midwives in the practice setting face the challenge of providing supervision to midwifery students whilst maintaining safe woman centred care and professional accountability (O’Brien et al., 2014). Clinical education is a core component of students’ learning and socialisation to the midwifery profession, with emphasis placed on their ability to integrate theory into practice (Brunstad, & Hjälmhult, 2014). Practising midwives may act as mentors to students but can sometimes underestimate their significance and value to student experiences.