Midwifery students' evaluation of midwifery practice experiences in Australia: A national survey

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Bogossian, F
Hyun, A
Bloxsome, D
Brown, A
Cooper, S
Hunter, S
Kearney, L
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2025
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Abstract

Aim To report the findings of the first 12 months of a national survey of midwifery students’ evaluation of midwifery practice experiences in Australia. Background Accreditation standards for midwifery programs globally and in Australia, require evidence of monitoring and evaluation of student midwifery practice experiences. In 2022 the National Placement Evaluation Centre was commissioned to measure and enhance the quality of nursing and midwifery practice experiences. Design Survey Methods A national survey of midwifery students who completed midwifery practice experience in Australia between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. Results Midwifery practice experiences (n=871) were evaluated; most were rostered placements in a maternity unit. Overall, the quality of the clinical learning environment and of learning support were rated highly and 87% of students were very satisfied with their midwifery practice experiences. Older students and indigenous students rated their midwifery practice experiences lower than younger, non-indigenous students. Higher quality PET-(Midwifery) scores were associated with antenatal placement (p 0.004). Students who were aged 30 to 39 (p<0.001) and conducted their placement between 15-21 days (p=0.010) or 29 days and longer (p=0.029), rated lower than those completing their placement with 1-7 days. Conclusions This national study provides benchmark data and valuable insights into the midwifery student practice experiences across Australia. Future research should continue to monitor and ameliorate the nuanced dynamics of participant and placement characteristics, ensuring that all students, regardless of age or background, have access to high-quality, supportive midwifery practice experiences that prepare them for the demands of contemporary midwifery.

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Nurse Education in Practice

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© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advance online version.

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Curriculum and pedagogy

Midwifery

Nursing

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Bogossian, F; Hyun, A; Bloxsome, D; Brown, A; Cooper, S; Hunter, S; Kearney, L, Midwifery students' evaluation of midwifery practice experiences in Australia: A national survey, Nurse Education in Practice, 2025, pp. 104409

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