Transition to practice for newly qualified midwives in the Netherlands

Abstract

In the Netherlands newly qualified midwives (NQM) have to work in practice, without formal mentorship and support. Midwives are fully qualified, autonomous medical professionals when they complete their bachelor's degree. Dutch NQM depends on informal support systems, mostly provided by colleagues and peers. NQMs seem to initiate informal support by themselves. For primary care NQMs, colleagues are sometimes employers and therefore not always safe for deliberating their questions.