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Discursive constructions of student midwives' professional identities: A discourse analysis
Connie Mcluckie1, Yvonne Kuipers1
1School of Health and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH11 4BN, United Kingdom.
Nurse Education in Practice
|November 26, 2023
Summary
This study reveals that midwifery standards create an illusion of autonomy for student midwives, making their professional identity formation seem automatic rather than agentic. This impacts the social practice of midwifery.
Area of Science:
- * Professional identity construction in healthcare.
- * Socio-cultural and political influences on professional roles.
Background:
- * Professional identity is crucial for understanding professional roles and impacts policy, regulation, education, and practice.
- * It influences self-esteem, self-efficacy, confidence, and success.
- * In midwifery, professional identity is intrinsically linked to autonomy, confidence, competence, responsibility, and accountability for safe care.
Purpose of the Study:
- * To analyze how student midwives' professional identities are shaped by discourses in policy, professionalism, and education.
- * To offer new insights for informing policy, educational strategies, and professional practice in midwifery.
Main Methods:
- * Adapted critical discourse analysis of the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council's 2009 Standards for pre-registration midwifery education.
- * Analysis involved three steps: discursive practice, linguistic features of the text, and social practice.
Main Results:
- * Midwifery education and practice discourses are embedded in socio-political and historical contexts.
- * Identity construction is framed by rules of competence, confidence, and character, emphasizing responsibility and accountability.
- * Regulatory power and medico-legal discourses position midwifery as subordinate to medicine.
Conclusions:
- * The Standards present authoritative, legislative, and controlling discourses that foster an ideology of professional status and agency.
- * This creates a sense of 'imaginary autonomy,' making the transition to becoming a midwife appear more automatic than agentic.
- * These discursive constructions have significant implications for the social practice of midwifery.
Keywords:
Discourse analysisIdeologyMidwiferyProfessional identityProfessional standardsProfessionalismRegulationStudent midwifeMore Related Videos
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