Witches or wise women

Abstract

This article presents findings from my PhD study entitled Midwifery knowledge and the medical student experience. The research study sought to explore the question: ‘What do medical students learn from midwives?’ In the first part of this dual-phase project I conducted a Delphi study with an international panel of midwives to examine the concept of ‘midwifery knowledge’ (MacVane 2013a). Data from the Delphi survey were used to inform the second phase, which employed a longitudinal case study approach to explore medical students’ experiences of working with midwives during a specialist obstetric rotation. Thirteen medical students, who were recruited from a fourth-year cohort, participated in interviews at the start, middle and end of their specialist obstetric rotation. The students spent the majority of the rotation at their local teaching hospital (LTH), but also spent an interim two-week period at a variety of district general hospitals (DGH).