Midwifery student's perceptions of completing a portfolio of evidence for initial registration: A qualitative exploratory study.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) has set regulatory standards, that require midwifery students to verify how they have met ANMAC standard 8.11 requirements prior to registration as a midwife. The most common formats for recording achievement of the ANMAC requirements are paper-based or electronic portfolios. Research was conducted to compare student's experiences of completing their university portfolio format. Focus group interviews were held at two south east Queensland universities. This study has found that there is disparity between universities in the level of detail documenting evidence of midwifery experiences. The paper-based portfolio was criticised for not having sufficient space for the students to explain the extent of their experiences, in contrast students completing the ePortfolio felt their reflective entries were excessive. Some students felt the portfolio was not being used to its full potential with suggestions that all experiences that fall within the midwife scope of practice should be recorded as evidence of practice experiences. Students felt the current ANMAC Standard 8.11 requirements limit the range of experiences and are repetitive in requiring up to 100 recordings for some experiences. No nationally agreed format exists of how students are required to document their required ANMAC experiences.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest This study received ethical approval from two universities. There was a potential conflict of interest as the researchers were academics at the universities the participants were studying at. However, no student at any-time was approached or conversed with about the research project by a midwifery academic/researcher known to them. This study engaged an academic from the opposite university to recruit and interview the participants at the other university.