What are the benefits and challenges of mentoring in midwifery? An integrative review

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this review was to synthesize best available evidence on mentoring programmes for midwives who have worked within the clinical setting for more than 1 year. Background: Lack of job satisfaction, stress, burnout and limited managerial support contributes to midwifery workforce attrition and the ongoing global shortage of midwives. Mentoring may be one way to improve staff retention, leading to positive clinical and organizational outcomes. Design: A five-step integrative review approach, based on a series of articles published by the Joanna Briggs Institute for conducting systematic reviews, was used to develop a search strategy, selection criteria, method for quality appraisal and the extraction and synthesis of data. Methods: Relevant articles were sought from the following databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, PubMed, MIDIRS and Scopus. The search and screening process was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis 2009 checklist. Narrative analysis was used to develop four main categories derived from the results from the included studies. Results: Eight studies were included in this review from which four themes were developed that are relevant to mentoring in midwifery; the impact on midwives’ direct environment, their immediate relationships with peers and management, and the overarching influence of the organization directly impact the accessibility and support midwives receive in mentoring programmes. Conclusion: To enhance staff retention in the workforce, midwives require support from the wider organization in which they work. Relevance to clinical practice: Understanding midwives’ perspectives of mentoring programmes will directly influence the development of midwifery-specific mentoring programmes, which may lead to improved staff retention in the midwifery workforce.

A scoping review of mentorship in allied health: Attributes, programs and outcomes

“…Most allied health mentorship programs allow mentees to select their mentors, facilitated through an online mentoring platform (Chang et al, 2021; Mantzourani et al, 2021; Peregrin, 2012). Being unable to choose a mentor has the potential to yield sub‐optimal outcomes, especially if the assigned mentor is the mentee's manager in the workplace (Wissemann et al, 2022). In general, mentoring relationships in nursing and midwifery are embedded within organisational structures (Kakyo et al, 2022; Wissemann et al, 2022), whereas, in allied health, most relationships remain external to workplaces.…”

“…Being unable to choose a mentor has the potential to yield sub‐optimal outcomes, especially if the assigned mentor is the mentee's manager in the workplace (Wissemann et al, 2022). In general, mentoring relationships in nursing and midwifery are embedded within organisational structures (Kakyo et al, 2022; Wissemann et al, 2022), whereas, in allied health, most relationships remain external to workplaces. This difference may be because mentoring in allied health focuses on the unique needs of the mentor and mentee involved, not the organisation or employer.…”

“…Another barrier to the success of the mentoring relationship was lack of time, being the second most frequently described barrier. Wider literature demonstrates that a lack of time to engage in mentorship is not isolated to allied health but is also present in nursing and medicine (Enson et al, 2022; Kakyo et al, 2022; Wissemann et al, 2022). Because mentorship is the type of relationship that occurs longer term and has the potential to last a lifetime, being unable to invest sufficient time in the relationship may compromise goal attainment and other potential outcomes (Odell et al, 2022; Terry et al, 2017; Wissemann et al, 2022).…”

Maternal Health Considerations: Highlighting and advancing opportunities for improved maternal health

“…Aligned with the impact on healthcare workers, Wissemann et al 24 focused on midwives and the importance of the availability and impact of mentoring programmes for staff retention and quality of care. This review aimed to analyse the effectiveness of mentoring programmes for midwives with over a year of clinical experience, given the challenges like job dissatisfaction and limited support contributing to midwifery attrition globally.…”

Clinical mentorship of midwifery students: The perceptions of registered midwives

“…Currently, the South African healthcare system is overburdened with numerous litigation, specifically in maternity services (Mathope, Du Preez & Scheepers 2023 ) where unskilled practitioners are often cited as a contributing factor to poor maternal health outcomes (Greenway, Butt & Walthall 2019 ; Mathope et al 2023 ). A study by Wissemann et al ( 2022 ) promotes mentorship as a means to retain staff and improve clinical and organisational outcomes. Similarly, clinical mentorship of midwifery students, who are the future of the profession, is extremely important as the authors work towards improving maternity care outcomes.…”