Fairy tale midwifery ten years on: facilitating the transition to newly qualified midwife

The first article in this series, published in BJM Vol 27 No 10, identified that newly qualified midwives continue to experience reality shock on initiation of first post, despite preceptorship programmes that aim to ease transition from student to qualified practitioner. Mentors are important in facilitating student decisionmaking, criticality and reflective practice, and share such roles as teaching, support and role modelling with preceptors. Although transition begins at the inception of midwifery training, there is a paucity of research exploring the role of mentors in preparing students for autonomous practice. The recent shift to replace mentors with practice supervisors and assessors provides an opportunity to consider strategies to better prepare student midwives for autonomous practice and mitigate against fairy tale midwifery