The perspectives of Australian midwifery academics on barriers and enablers for simulation in midwifery education in Australia: a focus group study.

Objective: to describe Australian midwifery academics' perceptions of the current barriers and enablers for simulation in midwifery education in Australia and the potential and resources required for simulation to be increased.

Design: a series of 11 focus groups/interviews were held in all states and territories of Australia with 46 participating academics nominated by their heads of discipline from universities across the country.

Findings: three themes were identified relating to barriers to the extension of the use of simulated learning environments (SLEs) ('there are things that you can't simulate'; 'not having the appropriate resources'; and professional accreditation requirements) and three themes were identified to facilitate SLE use ('for the bits that you're not likely to see very often in clinical'; ['for students] to figure something out before [they] get to go out there and do it on the real person'; and good resources and support).