Bachelor of Midwifery: Reflections on the first 5 years from two Victorian universities

An exploration of the midwifery continuity of care program at one Australian University as a symbiotic clinical education model

“…Furthermore, the participants in this study spoke of feelings of not belonging to the health care team; of feeling as if they were an outsider with no real role to play, as one said being an "appendage of the woman". These findings concur with the published experiences of other Australian University (Seibold 2005;McKenna and Rolls 2007). The CoC may afford experiential learning opportunities, which, when appropriately supported, become significant authentic learning experiences.…”

“…In professions such as midwifery, students need a range of experiences in a variety of occupational settings to develop capacity for their professional practice (Billett 2002). Midwifery education programs have traditionally been based on models similar to nursing, whereby students undertake theoretical learning and early skill development in University, and are placed in clinical environments for practice based experiences predominantly in tertiary level teaching hospitals (McKenna and Rolls 2007).…”

Midwifery students׳ experiences of an innovative clinical placement model embedded within midwifery continuity of care in Australia

“…Students often perceived themselves to be observers and complained of not belonging to the health care team, and having no real role to play. Similar findings have been reported in other studies (e.g., Seibold, 2005;McKenna and Rolls, 2007). In the UK, many programs delay students' experience of holding their own caseload by 18 months, to enable prerequisite skill development Rawnson et al, 2008).…”

Responding to a rural health workforce shortfall: Double degree preparation of the nurse midwife

“…Waldenstrom 7 noted that traditional models of care delivery do not readily support the employment of direct entry midwives and therefore graduates of these programs have limited employment options. This finding was supported by McKenna and Rolls 5 who asserted that the majority of graduates from Victorian Bachelor of Midwifery programs secured positions in metropolitan based hospitals. These health care facilities are larger, support significant populations and therefore have the capacity to provide highly specialised clinical services that require staff to have specialist knowledge and skills.…”

“…In Victoria, the first of the direct entry midwifery programs commenced in 2002 5 . Leap, Barclay and Sheehan 6 reported that Bachelor of Midwifery programs were vulnerable due to an inflexible health care system aligned to traditional models of maternity care that limit the scope of practice of midwives.…”