48 | Chapter 3 Job demands of health care professionals that are related to negative outcomes are: a high workload, high emotional load, staff shortage, stressful situations with patients,14 little support from management, few development opportunities, lack off professional recognition,15 and long working hours.16 Job demands on NQMs are different from the demands on more experienced colleagues: facing a reality shock in practice,17 facing in practice a midwifery philosophy of care different from their own values,18,19 and delay in securing employment and work allocations.4 Job resources reported by health care professionals include the variety of the work and the patients,14 and for midwives, supportive midwifery partners, work flexibility and autonomy as potentially protective for burn-out symptoms.15 For NQMs, job resources differ from experienced colleagues: positive support and mentorship from colleagues,4,20,21 working with clients in continuity of care,22,23 and postgraduate training programs for mentors.19,21 In different occupations, hope and optimism,24 extraversion, self-efficacy and conscientiousness,9 are important personal resources. Neuroticism and perfectionism are personal demands, both for newly qualified and experienced midwives.16,25,26 Neuroticism is characterized by a tendency to negatively interpret events and characteristics like self-consciousness and vulnerability.27 What is not known are the specific job demands and job resources are for In the Netherlands, a percentage of newly qualified midwives start work in maternity care as a hospital-based midwife. They are particularly prepared for working autonomously in the community. This context involves becoming a team member on a labor ward, without formal support programmes. Furthermore, research shows a gap of knowledge about personal resources and personal demands on NQMs which help or hinder them in their work as a hospital-based midwife. The aim of this is study was therefore to identify job demands, job resources, personal demands and personal resources of Dutch NQMs working in a hospital setting during their first years in practice. The research question for this study was: Which specific job- and personal demands and specific job- and personal resources are perceived by Dutch NQMs who start work as hospital-based midwives? The outcomes of this study will help us to build specific support programmes to ensure NQMs’ well-being in their first year in a hospital setting in the Netherlands. Next to identified job demands and job resources, specific knowledge about NQMs’ personal demands and resources helping or hindering them, help us to prepare graduates for
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