In this unit, students consolidate their midwifery knowledge, gained in previous units and within professional practice healthcare settings. The focus of placement is students demonstrating the provision of safe, woman-centred care at a beginning level scope of practice. The 240 hours of practice experience is supervised by a Registered Midwife and students receive feedback on their performance within the framework of practice assessment. The practice informs final preparation of the capstone task comprising the preparation and submission of their final Practice Portfolio. Successful unit completion also entails presenting evidence of completion of care of women facilitating 30 normal births and all other minimum practice standards as prescribed by ANMAC (2020).
Unit details
Location:
VU Sunshine Clinical School
Study level:
Undergraduate
Credit points:
24
Unit code:
HMB4003
Prerequisites
Completion of at least 336 credit points.
Get help
- Visit a student service centre
- 1300 VIC UNI (1300 842 864)
- Visit the glossary
Find a different unit
Learning Outcomes
| 1. | Initiate and adapt a woman-centred approach to demonstrate safe and individualised care to women and their families across the childbearing journey within the midwives' scope of practice as defined by national legislative and professional frameworks; | ||
| 2. | Demonstrate respect for all women and their families inclusive of their individual culture, beliefs, values and socio-economic status during pregnancy, labour and birth and the early parenting period; | ||
| 3. | Exemplify a broad range of therapeutic, intraprofessional and interprofessional communication skills to facilitate engagement with women in their care and to ensure timely collaboration with the health team where complexity of care arises; | ||
| 4. | Initiate safe clinical reasoning and decision-making within the final year student scope of practice; | ||
| 5. | Critically reflect on strategies of resilience in caring for self and as an emerging midwife professional; and | ||
| 6. | Successfully complete all midwifery minimum practice standards required to register as a graduate midwife with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. |
Assessment
The assessment tasks link the learning outcomes and graduate capabilities. Each piece of assessment for the unit relates to students' demonstrating the application of theoretical knowledge and skills to the woman and her baby's care across pregnancy, labour and birth and post-birth care and is documented in the Practice Portfolio as the capstone task. Professional appraisals scaffold experiential learning by midwife facilitators providing formative and summative feedback and supported learning to achieve interim and final learning objectives as stated at the commencement of practice placement by each individual student. The Practice Portfolio details the completed suite of fundamental midwifery skills that have been successfully completed under supervision with students deemed as safe practitioners for each skill and signed off. The Practice Portfolio also provides documentary evidence of completion of the mandatory minimum practice requirements of courses to register as midwives in Australia and also details reflections on each of the seven (7) Professional Standards of the Midwife (NMBA, 2018) at course completion. The Continuity of Care report details evidence-based reflective learning of student's individual learning of childbearing from a woman's experience which is critical to locating beginning practice in a philosophy of woman-centred care. All assessments are undertaken within the scheduled timing of the placement and as the very final unit that the HBMA students undertake.
To gain an overall pass in this unit, students must complete 240 midwifery practice hours and achieve a 'Pass' grading in all assessments.
| Assessment type | Description | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Practicum | Interim Professional Practice Performance Appraisal - midwifery | Pass/Fail |
| Practicum | Final Professional Practice Performance Appraisal - midwifery | Pass/Fail |
| Report | Continuity of Care Report detailing experience with one of the recruited women (1000 words) | Pass/Fail |
| Portfolio | A portfolio of artefacts demonstrating achievement of professional standards and ANMAC practice requirements. | Pass/Fail |
| Other | Professional Standards of the Midwife Final Assessment and reflections of standards | Pass/Fail |
Required reading
Skills for Midwifery Practice 4th ed. AU & NZ ed.
Johnson, R., Taylor, W., de-Vitry Smith, S. & Bayes, S. (Eds.). (2019)
Elsevier: Chatswood, New South Wales.
Where to next?
As part of a course
This unit is studied as part of the following courses. Refer to the course page for information on how to apply for the course.
VU takes care to ensure the accuracy of this unit information, but reserves the right to change or withdraw courses offered at any time. Please check that unit information is current with the Student Contact Centre.
