Guidelines for student accoucheurs' acceptance in maternal healthcare

PURPOSE: The quality of maternal healthcare training is the most optimal degree of health in the delivery of effective, efficient and quality healthcare in midwifery discipline. Student accoucheurs studying at the Free State School of Nursing are faced with resistance, discrimination, rejection and unacceptability by pregnant women during their clinical placement at the Free State maternal healthcare institutions. This results in poor quality of training of student accoucheurs in maternal healthcare. Considerable studies have been conducted on males in midwifery nursing, but no guidelines have been developed to facilitate student accoucheurs' acceptance and improvement of the quality of training in maternal healthcare, hence the purpose of this study. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A descriptive, explorative qualitative design was used in this study. Qualitative focused group discussions ( n = 32) were conducted through purposeful sampling method. Data was analysed thematically. FINDINGS: Three main categories emerged: student accoucheurs' related factors with social interactions and relations as a theme; maternal healthcare users’ related factors with transcultural diversity and socio-economic status as themes; nurse training institutions and maternal healthcare institutions service providers-related factors with gender inequality in the work place as a theme. Ultimately, the guidelines to facilitate acceptance and improvement of quality training of student accoucheurs in maternal healthcare institutions were developed and recommended for implementation. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper developed guidelines to facilitate acceptance and improvement of quality training of student accoucheurs in Free State maternal healthcare institutions.