Background: Professional midwives have an important role to play in midwifery training to\nproduce a competent midwife. According to the social learning theory, professional midwives\nact as role models for students. When allocated for clinical learning experiences in the training\nhospitals, students will have the opportunity to observe the well-trained, skilled, and\nexperienced professional midwives. The whole process will enable students to integrate theory\nwith practice and they will become competent.\nAim: The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting integration of midwifery\nnursing science theory with clinical practice as perceived by midwives.\nSetting: The study was conducted at the training hospitals in Vhembe district of the Limpopo\nProvince, South Africa. These hospitals were: Donald Fraser, Siloam, and Tshidzini.\nMethods: A qualitative explorative, descriptive and contextual design was used. A Nonprobability,\nconvenient sampling method was used to select 11 midwives from the following\nhospitals: Donald Fraser, Siloam, and Tshidzini, in Vhembe district. In-depth individual\ninterviews were conducted. Data were analysed through open coding method.\nResult: One theme and five sub-themes emerged from the analysed data, namely: shortage of\nmidwives, attitudes towards student midwives, reluctance to perform teaching functions,\nlanguage barriers, and declining midwifery practice standards.\nConclusion: Shortage of midwives in the clinical areas led to fewer numbers of mentors whom\nthe students could observe and imitate to acquire clinical skills. Some of the midwives were\nreluctant to teach students. Recommendations were made for both training institutions and\nhospitals to employ preceptors for students in the clinical practical.
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