Course description

Available to registered adult nurses, this course will allow you to change your career from nursing to midwifery. The course will enable you to practice safely and effectively, to provide care for women and babies and upon successful graduation register as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Midwives are autonomous practitioners and offer specialist support to mothers from the antenatal to the postnatal period, working with a range of healthcare professionals to promote the best interests of a mother and their baby. This course has been designed to encourage you to think critically and apply evidence to underpin your clinical practice. It will provide you with a wide base of knowledge aligned to national policy and has been developed to meet the NMC's education requirements for the future midwife. It will enable you to be confident in using an evidence-based approach to support decision-making in complex mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural situations.

Inter-professional learning opportunities are embedded throughout the programme, enabling you to learn with different professions to expand your knowledge and develop your ability to work across various teams - an essential skill to learn to operate as a safe and compassionate midwife.

Two-year study

This programme gives registered adult nurses - with at least 6 months experience - the opportunity to train as a midwife. You'll delve deep into the specialist skills needed to become a highly-skilled midwife, building on your existing skills and experience as a qualified nurse.

We are one of a small number of institutions working with Health Education England (HEE) to offer this programme. HEE could provide funding for this course

Placements are an essential part of your learning and we will allocate you to a local Trust, where you will follow a rotation between areas in both maternity and other health care settings. You are also allocated a practice supervisor and assessor in placement with whom you will complete your proficiencies. If you are already working in an NHS Trust, and are being funded for your course by HEE, you will undertake your placements in your current Trust working under supervision.

The course also benefits from:

• A team committed to working to the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly standards for Midwifery programmes
• A focus on current public health priorities, the care of vulnerable groups and the increasingly complex health needs of childbearing women; including maternal mental health
• Focus on supporting continuity of care and case loading
• Service user involvement to ensure that the experiences of women and their families are integrated into the programme

 The programme aims to develop registered midwives who:

• Meet the NMC Standards of proficiency for midwives and become eligible to register on the midwifery section of the NMC register
• Practice within legal and ethical frameworks, acknowledging the impact and responsibility of legal and ethical issues on the role of the midwife in the delivery of maternity care

How you will learn

The programme aims to encourage you to think critically and apply evidence to underpin your clinical practice. The programme is mapped to NMC requirements for the education of student midwives and is aligned to national policy. The programme is 50% theory and 50% practice-based. You will gain 1,800 hours of practical experience in the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods, as well as in the care of the newborn baby. You'll get the opportunity to examine a wide variety of physical, social, and psychological needs, and knowledge of the transition to parenting.

Students will be exposed to a variety of learning opportunities, face to face teaching, independent study, blended learning days and online resources. Learning in practice is supported by the midwifery ongoing record of achievement document which encompasses all requirements in practice.

Placements

Midwifery placements can encompass community, antenatal and postnatal wards, day assessment units, labour wards, and birth centres. There are also opportunities to gain experience in other settings to expand learning experiences. You will be placed at local trust providers within the region, mainly large hospitals.

The aim of placements is to ensure you achieve all the required proficiencies to prepare you for clinical practice and registration as a midwife. Midwifery students are supported in practice by supervisors and assessors, and there is an emphasis on the application of theory to practice within these settings. To support this, midwifery students will have the opportunity to use specialist equipment available in the clinical skills department at the University.

Assessment

You'll be assessed in various forms to complete this programme, including written assignments, oral examinations (VIVA), objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), written examinations, dissertation and case studies. The programme is designed to help test your theoretical knowledge as well as your practical skills, so we have a range of assessments enabling you to demonstrate both competencies to us.