MW7053 Midwifery Practice 3 (5 ECTS)

 

Learning Outcomes

Following completion of this module the student should be able to:

• Demonstrate that they have acquired core midwifery psychomotor practice skills;
  
• Practice core midwifery skills competently and sensitively;
  
• Display the knowledge and skills necessary to assess maternal, fetal and neonatal wellbeing;
  
• Demonstrate the ability to assess the needs of individual women, their babies and their families;
  
• Demonstrate the ability to plan and implement care to meet women's identified individual needs and evaluate the effectiveness of this care;
  
• Provide core midwifery care to women and their families in all midwifery practice settings (preconception, antenatal, intranatal and postnatal);
  
• Show evidence of respect for women and detail the component parts of informed consent;
  
• Display an attitude to practice that conveys respect for the individual;
  
• Display attributes and traits that show an understanding of individualism;
  
• Demonstrate the ability to offer factual, accurate advice to women in all midwifery practice settings and displaying an understanding of the individual's circumstances;
  
• Identify areas and opportunities for education and advice;
  
• Assist partners and other birth support people to carry out their role effectively;
  
• Access information for women regarding family planning and sexual health;
  
• Display a sensitivity to each individual woman and an individualised approach to care planning and delivery;
  
• Demonstrate the ability to assess each woman's health status;
  
• Demonstrate and articulate knowledge of local emergency procedures;
  
• Access the necessary help and support required in a variety of emergency situations;
  
• Demonstrate cultural awareness and a respect for cultural diversity;
  
• Demonstrate the personal traits that assist in promoting women-centred care;
  
• Recognise the limitations of their own knowledge and skills and refer to midwife for advice and support.
  

At the end of this placement (community midwifery), the midwifery student will be able to:

• Participate in community based midwifery care;
  
• Gain direct experience of working with the midwife in the woman's home and reflect on how this may alter the midwife's approach to care;
  
• Consider the issues of partnership and consent when planning care with women in a community setting;
  
• Consider the issues of referral when planning care with women in a community setting and deviations from physiological processes occur;
  
• Reflect upon the continuity of care and carer provision that can be achieved in a community midwifery setting ;
  
• Explore the impact of the developing relationship between the midwife and the woman and her family through the antenatal period, birth and the postnatal period;
  
• Experience postnatal care beyond the three or five day period experienced in the hospital setting and subsequently gain insights into the longer term needs of postnatal women and families;
  
• Reflect on how being in her own home environment affects the woman's demeanour;
  
• Reflect on the definition of the midwife and the autonomous nature of the midwife's role.

Module Learning Aims & Rationale

For organisational purposes, this 6 week period of midwifery practice is made up of a four week
placement in either an antenatal, intranatal or postnatal area and a two week community midwifery placement.

The aim of this midwifery practice placement (antenatal, intranatal or postnatal) is to enable students to
continue acquire the knowledge, skills and approach to practice to function at a core practice level in a
supervised environment. This 2nd 6 week midwifery practice placement in the 1st half of the programme
will ensure that midwifery students have had the opportunity to practise in a 2nd core areas of maternity
care: antenatal, intranatal and postnatal. Midwifery students will continue to be introduced to the
essential components of the professional framework for midwifery practice and the underpinning
philosophies of delivering midwifery care. It is expected that the student has begun to take cognisance of
the impact of their practice on women and families.

The aim of the community placement is to enable students to experience the provision of midwifery care
in a community setting. Working under the supervision of midwives, a placement of this nature will
provide students with the opportunity to participate in giving midwifery care to women in a
non-hospital/institutional environment such as in the woman's own home environment or in an integrated
hospital-community system.

In the past few years alone, the provision of midwifery care in Ireland, in the community arena in
particular, has undergone radical alteration. It is the establishment of these new systems of care that
permit midwifery students to experience, for the first time in many years in an Irish setting, the state
provision of the totality of midwifery care to women in an area out with the institution of the hospital. It is
anticipated that experiencing the totality of community midwifery will reinforce and reaffirm pregnancy as
a physiological process for many women.

Recommended Reading List

Indicative Resources

• An Bord Altranais (2000) The Code of Conduct for each Nurse and Midwife, 2nd edn. An Bord Altranais, Dublin.
  
• An Bord Altranais (2000) Scope of Nursing and Midwifery Practice Framework. An Bord Altranais, Dublin.
  
• An Bord Altranais (2007) Guidance to Nurses and Midwives on Medication Management. An Bord Altranais, Dublin.
  
• An Bord Altranais (2010) Practice Standards for Midwives. An Bord Altranais, Dublin.
  
• Fraser D.M. and Cooper M.A. (eds.) (2009) Myles Textbook for Midwives, 15th edn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
  
• Henderson C. and MacDonald S. (eds.) (2004) Mayes' Midwifery: A Textbook for Midwives, 13th edn. Bailliere Tindall, London.
  
• Johnson R. and Taylor W. (2010) Skills for Midwifery Practice, 3nd edn. Churchill Livingstone Edinburgh.
  
• Page L. and McCandish R. (eds.) (2006) The New Midwifery: Science and Sensitivity in Practice, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
  
• Way S. (2000) Core Skills for Midwifery Practice. Books for Midwives Press, Manchester.
  

* Additional readings will be given for each unit of learning.