How did COVID-19 reshape midwifery students’ education?
COVID-19 reshaped midwifery education by compressing placements, moving core teaching online and exposing operational gaps, while students continued to rate staff support highly and treat placements as the anchor for learning. Across the COVID-19 topic in NSS (National Student Survey) comments, tone is strongly negative (68.6% negative; index −24.0). In midwifery, the overall mood is more positive (52.8% positive), but the student conversation concentrates on placements (17.8% of comments) with a near‑neutral tone (−0.8), so the priority is to protect real‑world experience and tighten delivery, assessment clarity and wellbeing support.
Student surveys and text analysis illuminate how these shifts land in practice, helping programme teams adjust curricula, placements and support quickly enough to maintain readiness for professional registration and safe practice.
How did teaching and learning adapt?
Adapting midwifery courses, traditionally reliant on in‑person interactions, to remote delivery required rapid redesign. Teams introduced interactive platforms to simulate clinical scenarios and enhanced virtual classrooms for real‑time engagement. This enabled continuity of learning and assessment, but gaps in hands‑on practice remained a concern. Programmes now focus on maintaining the balance between theory and practice and sequencing modules so online components scaffold in‑person skill acquisition as soon as access is possible.
How did clinical placements change, and what worked?
Clinical placements were cancelled or modified to meet infection control requirements, constraining direct patient contact and limiting opportunities to hone practical skills. Virtual simulations and case studies provided continuity, but they could not fully substitute for real‑life experience. Where programmes stabilised the placement journey—early allocations, a single source of truth for changes, and short, in‑situ feedback loops—students reported greater confidence that they were progressing towards competence.
What happened to mental health and wellbeing?
Stress, anxiety and risk of burnout rose as students navigated uncertainty about placements, assessments and future employment. Universities expanded online counselling and peer support, and many students benefited from personal tutor outreach. The most effective approaches used regular check‑ins, predictable communications and targeted signposting, with text analysis of student feedback surfacing specific pain points to triage swiftly.
Did safety protocols hinder midwifery care?
Students valued the protection afforded by PPE and stringent infection control, recognising their centrality to safe practice. Some, however, felt these measures inhibited rapport and the empathic presence that characterise midwifery. Teaching now emphasises communication strategies that preserve person‑centred care within safety constraints, alongside supervised practice that builds confidence using PPE in sensitive clinical moments.
Which innovations should stay?
Virtual simulation, e‑learning and, in some cases, augmented reality enrich preparation and decision‑making, particularly for complex scenarios. Their best use complements, rather than replaces, supervised practice. Programmes strengthen assessment literacy with annotated exemplars, checklist‑style rubrics and predictable feedback turnarounds, so students understand expectations and can act on feedback between placement blocks.
What should future preparedness look like?
Programmes are formalising disruption‑ready delivery: a concise playbook for shifting teaching, assessment and access to resources; a single live location for updates; and regular micro‑briefings that reduce uncertainty. Teams also capture practices from allied clinical disciplines that sustained continuity and apply them to midwifery, while working with placement partners to preserve structured work‑integrated rhythms during disruption.
What should educators take forward?
Protect the placement journey, tighten the operational rhythm of timetabling and communications, and make assessment expectations unmistakable. Sustain the student‑staff relationship that underpins confidence and wellbeing, and use student voice data to prioritise fixes that matter most for progression and professional readiness.
How Student Voice Analytics helps you
- Track COVID‑19 topic volume and sentiment over time and compare like‑for‑like across midwifery and related disciplines, cohorts and sites.
- Pinpoint operational friction in placements, scheduling, organisation, communications and assessment, then brief programme and quality teams with concise, anonymised summaries.
- Evidence progress with sector comparisons and drill‑downs by cohort, campus and provider, exporting insights to dashboards and reports for governance and TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) narratives.
- Surface representative comments that explain the “why” behind sentiment, helping placement partners and academic teams act on what students say matters most.
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More posts on COVID-19:
- What did political science students say about the pandemic and their university response?
- What did COVID-19 change in biomedical sciences education?
- Did the pandemic reshape psychology students’ learning and wellbeing?
- How did COVID-19 affect computer science students’ learning and assessment?