IntroductionEvidence has shown that throughout their undergraduate years, many nursing and
midwifery students obtain paid employment in a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical
positions. Across Australia, inconsistencies exist in the models of clinical employment
available to these student groups. Previous Australian studies have described the
employment of undergraduate nursing and midwifery students in regulated and unregulated
clinical roles. No studies have reported on the various regulated roles available to
both student nurses and midwives in Australia. The purpose of this scoping review is to
identify and synthesize evidence related to nursing and/or midwifery students employed
in regulated and unregulated clinical roles in Australia.MethodsThis scoping review utilized published recommendations for data screening, abstraction,
and synthesis. One of the authors, a librarian, undertook systematic searches in CINAHL
Complete (1937–present), Emcare on Ovid (1995–present), Scopus (1969–present), and Ovid
MEDLINE(R) (including Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process, and In-Data-Review & Other
Non-Indexed Citations, 1946–present). The initial searches were completed in April 2019
and repeated in March 2021 and May 2022 to identify any new literature. Manual searching
of reference lists in the included papers was also undertaken, together with selected
organizational websites. The extracted data included the lead author, date, title, study
design, study sample and location, and key findings.ResultsFrom the 53 items retrieved, 23 peer-reviewed studies met the inclusion criteria and
were included in the review. All items were published between 2011 and 2022. Only four
of the studies focused upon student midwives. Undergraduate nursing and midwifery
students in Australia obtain paid employment in a variety of regulated and unregulated
clinical roles.ConclusionThe literature reported here demonstrates that there are differing models,
nomenclature, educational requirements, and pay scales in place for student employment
in clinical roles across Australian states and territories.