Pathways, policies needed to prevent parenthood stymieing student nurses’ career progression

The issue of parenthood and its impact on women’s careers hasn’t gone unnoticed, particularly in STEM disciplines.

Compounded pressures of parenthood, biased grant systems, and the need to meet the demands of the profession mean that for many women, becoming a parent will, at the very least, slow the upward trajectory of their careers.

A recent study suggested 43% of women leave full-time STEM employment after their first child.

To what degree this occurs is often shaped by the level of flexibility and structural support women receive from their workplaces via formal institutional policies and procedures and informal support pathways, especially when they return to work, as the Australian Institute of Family Studies has shown.

Importantly, the gendered impacts of pregnancy and early parenthood don’t just impact women prior to the start of paid work, but during their university studies.

A dearth of guidelines, policies

In our new study published in Nurse Education Today – on the experiences of nursing students who were pregnant and/or newly mothering – we discovered that most universities have no explicit guidelines, policies or pathways to support pregnancy and new mothers to successfully complete their degrees.

Instead, pregnant nursing students’ access to support is commonly managed under a policy that categorises pregnancy as a “medical condition”.

However, in online resources related to such policy, pregnancy isn’t listed as a “medical condition”, nor is pregnancy socially understood to be a “disability”.

In turn, we found students may not view pregnancy as a “condition” needing support from the Student Equity and Disability Services (SEDS), which, for these students, adds another obstacle to accessing much-needed support.

Student equity issues need addressed

Pregnancy-associated challenges, and those arising from the transition to motherhood, raise important student equity issues that need to be understood in those terms and adequately addressed.

For example, new mothers are often sleep-deprived and may be breastfeeding or experiencing health or breastfeeding problems, which may impact their ability to manage their academic studies, shift work and or clinical placements.

Read more: When is the ‘right’ time to invest in women and STEM?

Barriers to accessing support – such as unclear policy, and lack of explicit guidelines and support pathways for students who are pregnant or in early motherhood – mean many of these students may be unable or unwilling to continue with their studies.

Our study has shown that a clearly articulated student support pathway that considers all aspects of the course in which a student who is pregnant or newly parenting is enrolled, and that is managed by a case manager who is understanding of supports required by the pregnant student, enables timely completion of university studies.

Similar models may be developed for other university programs.

Culture, beliefs must be accommodated

We show that successful implementation of the pathway requires awareness and strategies to accommodate diverse cultural values and beliefs that prevent students from feeling comfortable disclosing their pregnancies to university staff and administration due to fear of judgment, disadvantage, poor treatment, and/or losing their place in the program.

For students undertaking courses with work-integrated placements, such as clinical placements, additional support may also be required through interaction with the providers of that placement to ensure pregnant students aren’t discriminated against.

There needs to be a global plan at the university level that can be adapted by each department to reflect their academic programs and best-support students to meet course requirements.

Read more: STEM graduates: Employable, but not yet employed

Our study highlights this need for universities to have explicit policies and guidelines that clearly identify that support pathways for pregnant students are available, and that these plans are clearly articulated.

In nursing, this means negotiating clinical placement times, including shift work, to facilitate mother-child wellbeing.

Importantly, such prospective planning may facilitate the career progression of these students once they become part of the existing workforce.

This may help stem the leaky pipeline that leads to women continuously being under-represented in leadership positions in many sectors, including universities.