A qualitative study on the academic approach to the professionalization of midwifery in turkey

This study was designed as a qualitative descriptive study to map out the challenges and suggestions in regard to the problems of professionalization of midwifery in Turkey and it was presented as a master thesis in June 2012. The study was conducted in seven universities in Turkey which provided master programs in midwifery. The study participants included twenty faculty members in midwifery departments in these universities who consented to participate. An interview guide consisting of 10 semistructured open-ended questions was used as an instrument of data collection and interviews were recorded. The process of data collections was conducted as face-to-face interviews by a researcher between 28th June 2011-7th December 2011. The recordings were transformed into text. Written audio recording outputs were analyzed by the content analysis which is one of the qualitative data analysis method. Major problems of professionalization of midwifery in Turkey were found as incompetent legislative regulations in midwifery, insufficient professional organizations, problems of autonomy, and insufficient scientific researches in the field. The participants suggested updating the legislative regulations, opening doctoral programs in midwifery departments, strenghtening professional organizations, supporting clinical midwifes to conduct scientific researches. In light of the results, it was concluded that professionalization of midwifery has still certain structural problems. It is maintained that regulations to be made in line with the suggestions in this study will certainly enhance professionalization of midwifery. It was pointed out that it is required to support graduate programs in midwifery, to open new doctoral programs, to support midwifery departments in terms of equipment and human resources, to clarify job definitions, to decrease the number of students in these faculties and to enact legislative regulations in regard to midwifery profession.