The Relationship Between Midwifery Students’Views of the Profession and Their Levels of Professional Belonging

This descriptive and correlational cross-sectional study examined the relationship between midwifery students’ views of the midwifery profession and their levels of professional belonging. The study population comprised 478 midwifery students at Karabük University. A total-enumeration approach was used; all eligible students were invited to participate, and the study was completed with 215 students who volunteered to participate (response rate: 45.0%). Data were collected using a Demographic Information Form, a descriptive questionnaire assessing students’ views of their education and the profession, and the Midwifery Belonging Scale. Analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0. The mean age of the students was 20.71 ± 1.79 years, 44.7% ranked midwifery among their first five programme choices, and 78.6% reported being happy when admitted to the programme. Satisfaction with midwifery education was moderately and positively correlated with a professional and autonomous perspective (r = 0.368, p < 0.001). Professional belonging was weakly and positively correlated with satisfaction with midwifery education (r = 0.239, p < 0.001) and with a professional and autonomous perspective (r = 0.138, p = 0.043). The perceived impact of education on professional perspective was not significantly correlated with these variables. Fourth-year students had higher satisfaction with midwifery education than first-year students. Professional belonging was also weakly associated with age. These findings indicate that educational satisfaction, professional perceptions, and selected student characteristics are associated with professional belonging; however, the cross-sectional design does not permit causal inferences.