A study of student midwives' experiences during their two-year education programme.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the opinions, feelings and views of student midwives of their education as they progressed through their two-year programme in Ireland, with the intention of interpreting and understanding the working and learning world of the participants so that future students might be assisted to improve their educational experiences. DESIGN: Triangulation, using quantitative and qualitative methods. A phenomenological approach was used to guide the qualitative section of the study. SETTING: All seven midwifery schools in Southern Ireland. PARTICIPANTS: All students in the first intake of 1995 in every midwifery school (n = 125). DATA COLLECTION: Individual and group interviews, diary-keeping and questionnaires. The design and conduct of the study are described in this paper and the findings will be presented at a later date.