Developing confidence in competence: My experience of the Midwifery First Year of Practice programme

INTRODUCTION Competence comes in various forms and is identified as a core component of professional clinicians (Hodges & Lingard, 2012), with maintaining competence identified as a vital characteristic of the professional midwife (Calvert, Smythe, & McKenzieGreen, 2017). The Midwifery Council of New Zealand (2005) defines competence as, “the ongoing capacity to integrate knowledge, skills, understanding, attitudes, and values within the professional framework of the Midwifery Scope of Practice” (p.6). Within midwifery there is an expectation that midwives can work competently in all areas at all times (Edwards et al., 2016); however, the need and motivation to maintain overall competence depends on the midwife (Calvert et al., 2017).