The clinical support for midwifery students is critical to the quality of graduates produced at higher education institutions. A significant concern for lecturers and registered midwives is to produce graduates who are safe and competent practitioners [1-3]. Midwifery students spend 50% of module time in clinical placements for work-integrated learning. Therefore, a registered midwife who supports students in clinical placements has an extremely important role to create and maintain a positive working experience, increasing students’ enthusiasm and ensuring their retention in the profession [4-6].

Midwifery students value the clinical support they receive during their transition from a student to a confident midwife practitioner. The benefits of clinical support are evident in various mentorship, preceptorship, or clinical supervision models, and it is supported widely in the literature [7-9]. However, literature on the perceptions of mentors or preceptors concurs that clinical staff feel unprepared in their roles to support students in clinical placements [10-15]. Furthermore, time constraints and the core function of registered midwives, which is to deliver patient care, hampers opportunities to support students during clinical placement for learning [15].

Findings from other studies also showed positive outcomes in the student-mentor relationship, even more so when mentoring is undertaken in a planned method [3,6]. In addition, providing support and training to registered midwives to take on the role of a clinical mentor or preceptor is highly recommended in many developed countries such as New Zealand, Scotland, and the United Kingdom [15-18]. Very few studies conducted in African countries relate to the clinical support for midwifery students [2,19]. One study called the MOMENTUM project was conducted in Uganda and supported by the Royal College of Midwives (United Kingdom). The project aimed to address the poor quality of mentorship for midwifery students by developing a context-specific model for mentorship in Uganda [19].

In South Africa, registered midwives working in clinical placements assume the role of clinical mentors. These clinical mentors do not receive any formal support or training and, therefore, experience conflicts in their roles and expectations. Poor collaboration between lecturers and clinical staff, negative feelings, lack of confidence about student support, and large student intakes create negative attitudes toward clinical supervision [2,20]. Currently, in South Africa, there are no known support structures for registered midwives who support students in clinical practice. Hence, the quality of midwifery mentorship is questionable, and the need to train and support registered midwives to mentor students in maternity care units has become necessary.

Identifying and analyzing the interventions to support mentorship training on a global capacity has not been previously conducted in South Africa. There are also no scoping reviews on clinical support structures or interventions to strengthen midwifery clinical support. The results of this systematic scoping review will identify interventions to strengthen the clinical support for midwifery students; subsequently, through data analysis, these results could help in developing a comprehensive mentorship training guide for midwifery clinical practice.

Interventions to strengthen the clinical support for midwifery students in practice will be extracted from this review, and data will be carefully analyzed to develop a comprehensive guide or framework for clinical mentorship. As of August 2021, the electronic search, the data extraction, and the analysis have been completed. The results paper is expected to be published within the next 6 months.

The quality of clinical support for midwifery students in placement learning is well debated as some clinical staff feel unprepared to instruct new students [12,13]. Mentors play a vital role in shaping students as qualified midwives, and the mentor-student relationship affects confidence in practice [25,26]. Thus, the poor support received during clinical practice may lead to inadequately prepared graduates who contribute to the high maternal mortality rates, especially in African countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa.

According to the 2008 Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirements, trained mentors undertake assessments and provide feedback on preregistration midwifery students' proficiencies. This expectation can be especially useful in the South African context, as students have to fulfill long hours in clinical placements to achieve clinical requirements and hours. However, contrary findings were found in other studies using the same, abovementioned requirements. Studies found that mentors had difficulties assessing, supervising, supporting, and guiding students in practice [11,27-29].

The fundamental aim of midwifery education is to develop a safe and competent practitioner who will resume full responsibility and accountability for practice [30]. Ensuring that midwifery students are equipped with the necessary skills to provide high standards of care remains a challenge for lecturers and clinical mentors. Therefore, reviewing and analyzing best practice interventions, strategies, or models that strengthen clinical support for midwifery students is urgently needed.

This systematic scoping review aims to review and analyze the current clinical support systems available to midwifery students globally and identify a suitable intervention to strengthen clinical support for midwifery students in South Africa.