PURPOSE:
Midwifery students are regularly exposed to high levels of emotional, academic, and clinical pressure. This innovation project seeks to embed Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) Days into the undergraduate midwifery curriculum to promote student wellbeing, strengthen reflective capacity, and help students balance the complex demands of academic study and clinical practice.

DISCUSSION:
From the 2025/26 academic year, optional PMA Days will run quarterly for each student cohort, with additional monthly PMA sessions available. These sessions incorporate guided self-awareness exercises, creative workshops, and restorative clinical supervision in psychologically safe environments. Designed to foster connection, self-awareness, and emotional regulation, PMA Days also aim to embed lifelong reflective practices that can be carried into students’ future professional roles. A full-scale evaluation will be conducted in 2025/26, using student feedback via Likert-scale, closed, and open-text responses. Quantitative responses will be analysed descriptively, and qualitative responses will undergo thematic analysis. Analysis will explore outcomes related to wellbeing, emotional regulation, reflective practice, peer connection, and integration of academic learning with clinical experiences.

EVIDENCE WHERE RELEVANT:
Research has shown that structured reflective practice and restorative supervision can enhance psychological safety, emotional resilience, and professional identity among midwifery students (Carter, 2023; Leavy & Lachanudis, 2022; Power & Thomas, 2018). Preliminary feedback (n=29) representing all year groups indicated high levels of satisfaction and perceived benefit.

KEY MESSAGE:
Restorative and reflective educational spaces like PMA Days can protect, empower, and retain the future midwifery workforce by embedding resilience and reflective capacity into the heart their professional formation. Poster session 3 (Group B)