Certified midwives'experiences on mentorship and supervision during internship at University Teaching Hospital,Lusaka,Zambia

Background: Mentorship is a program aimed at preparing midwives to concretize their knowledge and skills in order to provide quality services at all levels of health care delivery system. Understanding the experiences of those that undergo mentorship is important to improve the program.
Objective: The main objective of the study was to explore the experiences of certified midwives on mentorship and supervision received during internship at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia.
Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study design was used to elicit the experiences of the certified midwives who had undergone internship during their training. Thirteen participants were purposively included in the study and In-depth interviews using unstructured interview schedule were conducted and recorded. Content analysis using Nvivo software version 10 was used to analyze data following transcription of the recorded interview.
Findings: Five major themes emerged from the interview data; clinical environment, the relationship that existed between mentors and mentees/ ward staff, availability of human and material resources, knowledge, attitude and skills of mentors on mentorship and supervision, and lessons learnt.
Conclusion: The results showed that certified midwives were not satisfied with the mentorship and supervision received during internship. Their experiences ranged from uncaring attitude from the qualified staff, inadequate equipment and staffing, inadequate clinical supervision, non-availability of mentors in the wards and labelling of certified midwives.It can therefore be concluded that there are still some gaps that need to be reviewed by the policy makers in order for the program to be beneficial.