Future Midwife was officially launched on 13 September 2021 by the Chief Nursing Officer, Prof. Charlotte McArdle and the Midwifery Officer, Dr. Dale Spence, click here to watch the video launch. The Midwifery curricula at Queen’s University Belfast has been developed with practice partners and key stakeholders and is aligned to the 2018 NMC standards for education and training, the Standards for pre-registration midwifery programmes and the Standards of proficiency for midwives (published in November 2019).
These standards and proficiencies raise the ambition in terms of what’s expected of a midwife at the point of registration and are intended to give midwives the knowledge and skills they need to deliver care to women, newborn infants, partners and their families across all care settings now and in the future.
The standards of proficiencies for midwives (2019) are presented under six domains:
- Being an accountable, autonomous, professional midwife
- Safe and effective midwifery care: promoting and providing continuity of care and carer
- Universal care for all women and newborn infants
- Additional care for women and newborn infants with complications
- Promoting excellence: the midwife as colleague, scholar and leader
- The midwife as skilled practitioner
Based on the NMC Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment [2018] (SSSA) a regionally agreed model for SSSA is now in use to support student learning. More information is available here. There are Midwifery Practice Supervisor/Assessor Preparation Programmes which are available via the HSC Learning Centre. Contact your local Practice Education Team (PET) for local delivery arrangements.
For the first time Queen’s University Belfast and practice partners are using an electronic Midwifery Ongoing Record of Achievement (EMORA).
One Practice Learning Environment Educational Audit (PLEEA) Tool has also been regionally agreed, and is now in use, to identify learning opportunities for both Nursing and Midwifery students in practice.
Follow the link to watch “Introducing the pre-registration midwifery standards” by Professor Mary Renfrew and Professor Gwendolen Bradshaw.