title: Negotiating competing discourses in narratives of midwifery leadership in the English NHS.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to explore midwifery leaders' narratives of identity, within the context of one region of England.
  
  
  METHODS
  a qualitative study using narrative identity theory. Data were collected using in-depth, loosely structured narrative interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  the study was undertaken in the Midlands region of England, in the context of a midwifery-specific leadership development programme. Participants were located in local NHS organisations and higher education institutions.
  
  
  METHODS
  the interviewees were midwives currently in one of a variety of formal leadership roles, who had recently completed a midwifery leadership development programme. Nine leaders were interviewed for the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  two central themes emerged: 'I am still a midwife' showed interviewees' continued self-identification according to their professional identity, despite the majority no longer holding a clinical role; 'Between a rock and a hard place' showed the challenges of maintaining a professionally-based identity narrative in the face of group and organisational discourses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  among the midwifery leaders interviewed, narratives centred on a continued midwife self-identification. However, participants faced a number of challenges in maintaining this narrative, within the context of wider professional group and organisational discourses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  midwifery leaders require the support of their professional group and organisational structures if they are to maintain a positive self- and social-identity.
authors: Warwick Business School, Scarman Road, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: bernadette.divall@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors: Bernie
authors: B
authors: Divall
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007857:Leadership; D008880:Midwifery / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D024382:Professional Role / Q000523:psychology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012938:Social Perception; D013222:State Medicine
keywords: Clinical leadership; Midwifery; Narratives; Professional identity