The Effect of Student-Midwife Support Circle Intervention on Burnout, Resilience, and Professional Belonging Levels of Midwifery Students

Overview

Midwifery students are exposed to multifaceted stressors such as traumatic and unsupportive clinical experiences and psychosocial burdens; this can negatively impact emotional well-being, leading to secondary traumatic stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, and decreased sense of belonging. In this context, there is a growing need for structured and supportive interventions aimed at strengthening students' self-efficacy, resilience, and perceptions of social support. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of the Student Midwife Support Circle Intervention on midwifery students' levels of burnout, resilience, and professional belonging.

While midwifery is a field that provides a high level of job satisfaction, the health and well-being of midwives can be emotionally strained and significantly affected by negative workplace stressors. Prominent stressors include exposure to traumatic events and organizational factors such as unsupportive and functionally inadequate work environments. Clinical practice in midwifery is a fundamental component of midwifery education, and student midwives are exposed to similar occupational stressors as professional midwives during this process. These stressors include witnessing traumatic events during childbirth, observing disrespectful treatment, coercion, and abuse of mothers, and exposure to violence and bullying. Such experiences can negatively impact the health and well-being of midwifery students and contribute to the development of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue. Furthermore, mismatches between expectations and clinical experiences, exposure to traumatic clinical experiences, and accompanying emotional distress can increase the risk of early departure from midwifery programs. Midwife students face many factors such as the adjustment process to the university environment, heavy academic workload, and economic stress. Another increasingly prominent source of stress today is the decrease in opportunities for professional support and connection with midwifery colleagues in clinical practice. This situation can negatively affect the development of a sense of belonging, which is closely related to student participation, professional identity development, and the support of emotional health and well-being. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in identifying interventions to support the emotional health and well-being of midwife students. While there is extensive literature on interventions developed for qualified midwives and nurses, research addressing interventions specific to student midwives is limited. Current studies show that intervention components such as mindfulness, psychological resilience, mentoring, and clinical supervision, as well as reflective group practices, provide positive psychological effects. Evaluation of some intervention components, such as stress management and mindfulness, revealed specific and significant benefits for student midwives, despite the limited sample size. Mentoring, particularly peer mentoring, stands out as an effective intervention approach. In an evaluation of a peer mentoring program developed for student midwives, various positive outcomes were reported, including increased self-confidence, strengthened social bonds, and increased emotional support. Similarly, professional mentoring programs integrated into the clinical supervision of trainees have also been reported to have positive effects such as the development of mutual trust, the creation of a safe learning environment, and the support of a sense of belonging. Studies show that student midwives can strengthen their self-efficacy and psychological resilience through strategies such as listening to the experiences of others, writing-based reflective practices, and creative arts-based approaches. One intervention that brings together many of these approaches in a holistic structure is defined as Student Midwife Support Circles (SMSC). Unlike other reflective or informational group practices, Student Midwife Support Circles (SMSC) offer a supportive, nurturing, and student-centered space where students from all grade levels come together in a circle to participate in a semi-structured but flexible session facilitated by a recognized midwifery academic. These two-hour, voluntary, extracurricular sessions; the sessions are held on campus in a safe and comfortable environment with cushioned seating and dim lighting. Sessions are offered regularly, with frequencies varying between bi-weekly and bi-monthly, based on student needs and feedback. Student Midwife Support Circles sessions have a multi-component structure that includes creating a safe space, sharing experiences through storytelling and non-judgmental listening via guided meditation or mindfulness practices, and personal reflection through focused speaking, crafting, or writing activities. Each session is conducted with clearly defined rules within the framework of confidentiality, respect, and self-responsibility principles, and includes reflective questions structured around a specific theme. The processes and practices carried out within the Student Midwife Support Circles are explicitly positioned as both opportunities for personal and professional development and self-awareness, as well as transferable skills for participants in their developing midwifery practices. The Student Midwife Support Circles approach was previously adapted and implemented as a strategy at another Australian university to increase the retention and support the academic success of first-year undergraduate midwifery students. In that study, students reported various benefits from participating in Student Midwife Support Circles, including strengthening peer relationships, developing a sense of professional identity and belonging, increasing self-confidence, and supporting psychological resilience. Accordingly, the aim of this planned research is to determine the effect of the Student Midwife Support Circle Intervention on midwifery students' levels of burnout, resilience, and professional belonging.