The lived experiences of student midwives subjected to inappropriate behaviour

Abstract

‘Inappropriate behaviour’ can be described as the thousand ‘slings and arrows’ that, on a daily basis, eat away at civility; such behaviours may be one-off events, or individual put-downs, that nevertheless cause the receiver significant harm. In this thesis, inappropriate behaviour is conceptualised as different from bullying, which involves the repetition of behaviours and is defined and supported within various legislation. Whilst there is research that focuses on the nature and impact of workplace bullying, there is very limited research that considers the impact that inappropriate behaviours can have on an individual.

This interpretive phenomenological investigation, whereby Heidegger’s philosophical approach to phenomenology was used as a methodological framework support, explored the lived experiences of eight student midwives, who had experienced inappropriate behaviour within their academic and clinical environments. The research illustrates the nature of such experiences and further explores the resulting effects.

The experiences disclosed by individual participants were initially identified as struggling, being out of sight out of mind and loss and bereavement. The main findings revealed three interpretative themes that described what inappropriate behaviour represented for the participants and how it impacted upon them. These were: ‘Breaching Covenant’, ‘Dispossession’ and ‘Liminality’. Each theme incorporated one super-ordinate theme, betrayal and struggling (Breaching Covenant), loss and bereavement (Dispossession) and finally angst and anonymity (Liminality).

For the participants, inappropriate behaviour was seen as single acts most commonly perpetrated by clinical midwives, without a sense of malice or intention to cause harm. It is important that the difference between bullying and inappropriate behavioural acts become known by of all those involved with student midwives’ education and a concerted effort in changing attitudes is made to enable the development of both clinical and academic environments, where inappropriate behaviour is strongly contested and vigorously opposed.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Sarah Parsons: orcid.org/0000-0002-2542-4745

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