58 | Chapter 3 evidence the demands put on Dutch NQMs by the process of becoming a trustworthy team member and working under insecure employment conditions. Additional personal demands are personality traits: perfectionism, self-criticism and fear of failure. We identified specific personal resources, such as being an extravert and having sociable traits, next to calmness and self-reliance in our study, In line with the findings of Fenwick et al.,23 we found that the importance of a supportive team with available colleagues is an important job resource for NQMs.23 The importance of the support from team managers, helping NQMs or hindering (when lacking) to make their initial period in practice successful is similar to previous findings.19 However, Dutch NQMs mentioned the need for experienced colleague midwives and supportive obstetricians as important to adapt to the complexity and hectic nature of a maternity ward. Dutch hospital-based NQMs lack opportunities to work together with experienced midwives as opposed to other countries, where NQMs are provided with mentors.4,21,23 This highlights the absence of formal mentorship and support programmes for these starting professionals in the Netherlands. A lack of support from experienced midwives can also hinder the further development of professional identity and sustaining resilience, as shown by Hunter and Warren.20 Adamson et al.34 make similar observations on the importance of formal collegial support in their study on social workers’ resilience. In our study NQMs explicitly mentioned working together with others in the same shift as a job resource, which differed from other studies. This could be explained by the socialization of midwives: they are mostly prepared for working in primary care, where they work mostly alone in the community.35 Working with women was mentioned by our NQMs as a job resource, similar to previous research.23,36 In contrast with other studies on NQMs, in our study the variety and unpredictability of the job was mentioned as rewarding. It provided Dutch hospitalbased NQMs with excitement. A possible explanation for this finding could be the Dutch organization of maternity care, whereby most midwives work in primary care settings.30 Hospital-based NQMs in our interviews compared their work in the hospital with community-based midwifery. Although NQMs have had placements in both contexts, during the interviews participants compared the variety of their work in the hospital with the work as a midwife in the community: caring for low risk women. Personal resources such as openness and calmness helped hospital-based NQMs in their work, similar to findings by Butler et al. about being an effective communicator.37 Job demands such as the high workload, becoming a team member, providing care for women with medium- and high risk, and insecure employment conditions have been
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