The initiation of Dutch newly qualified hospital-based midwives in practice, a qualitative study | 51 Table 1. Background characteristics of NQMs working as hospital-based midwife (N=21) Characteristics N (%) Midwifery education The Netherlands Amsterdam/Groningen Rotterdam Maastricht Belgium 11 (53) 8 (38) 1 (4) 2 (8) 10 (47) Year of graduation 2015 2016 2017 6 (28.5) 6 (28.5) 9 (43) Age Mean Range 26 22-34 Employment contract (hours per week) 0-36 (flexible) 16-32 32 –36 ? 3 (14) 8 (38) 9 (42) 1 (5) Hospital General University 19 (90) 2 (10) All participants worked (n=20) or recently worked (n=1) as a hospital-based midwife. Except for one, all NQMs had the Dutch nationality, 47% graduated in Belgium, and the remaining 53% in the Netherlands. Participants had a contract for between 0.4 to 1.0 full time equivalent (FTE). Three participants had a temporary employment contract with flexible working hours and worked between 24 and 36 hours per month. Most participants (n=19) worked in a general hospital, two were employed by a university hospital. An overview of the results is shown in figure 2 and categorized as job demands, job resources, personal resources and personal demands. Job demands The most important job demands (see also figure 2), according to the participants, were: high workload, becoming a team member, learning additional midwifery skills and procedures, providing care for women in mid and high risk and, job insecurity. High workload NQMs faced a high workload when they work on a maternity ward. Coordinating several delivery rooms at the same time was new for NQMs. During internships they only had to support one delivery at the time, but as a hospital-based midwife they had to manage different births simultaneously.
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