Midwifery competence: Content in midwifery students' daily written reflections on clinical practice

Objective: to examine the content in midwifery students' written daily reflections and in their supervisors' written feedback during clinical practice at birth units. Method: a total of 388 reflections written by a cohort of 18 midwifery students and written feedback provided by their supervisors have been analysed using content analysis. Findings: one main category, transition to midwifery competence emerged and was interpreted as a process of development in midwifery skills over time. This main category encompasses five categories: evaluations, own actions, communication, own emotions and insights comprising fourteen subcategories. As the education programme progressed there was evidence of development from fragmented reflections about care and learning to holistic reflections on learning. Comments from the clinical supervisors contained acknowledgement of the students' reflections or comments with a didactic content. Conclusions: daily written reflections on practice may be a useful pedagogical tool as reflective writing helps students to be active in transition to midwifery competence. Professional development may be facilitated by insights generated by reflection. Amount and content of feedback varied between supervisors which can result in a discrepancy in pedagogical value for individual students. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.