Students apply midwifery and nursing knowledge and skills gained in previous units to professional practice in a healthcare setting. Aligned with quality and safety principles, students will demonstrate the provision of safe, woman-centred care/person-centred care within a beginning scope of practice. Placements occur under the supervision of a registered nurse/midwife who provides feedback to students on their professional practice. Before commencing placement, students will be asked to provide mandatory documentation for allocations as part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) requirements for nursing and midwifery students. Students will undertake 160 hours of placement following successful completion of the Fundamentals of Midwifery and Nursing theoretical unit.

Unit details

Location:
Study level:
Undergraduate
Credit points:
12
Unit code:
HMB1003

Prerequisites

HMB1001 - Foundations of Midwifery and

HNB1102 - Foundations in Nursing 1 and

HMB1002 - Fundamentals of Midwifery and Nursing

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
  1. Implement a woman-centred care approach in midwifery practice and a person-centred approach in nursing practice, demonstrating therapeutic and effective communication within intraprofessional and interprofessional teams within the student's scope of practice;  
  2. Exhibit 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. Exhibit professional behaviours and clinical skills that meet the Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife Standards for practice relevant to a first-year student's scope of practice including appropriate use of digital health technology to provide information-enabled care;  
  4. Contextualise the impact of the code of conduct, code of ethics and in the decision-making framework in Midwifery Professional Experience (MPE) and nursing Professional Experience Placement (PEP);  
  5. Exhibit safe clinical reasoning within the first year scope of practice; and  
  6. Critically reflect on and respond appropriately to feedback regarding performance and behaviour during MPE and PEP placements.  

Assessment

The assessment tasks link the learning outcomes and graduate capabilities. Each piece of assessment for the unit relates to students applying 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. Professional midwifery 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 also provides documentary evidence of completion of the mandatory minimum practice requirements as students progress through the course. The Continuity of Care report details evidence-based reflective learning of a 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. The ANSAT also details interim and summative feedback from registered nurse preceptors for the nursing placement being undertaken.
Assessment type Description Grade
Practicum Interim Professional Practice Performance Appraisal - midwifery in Practice Portfolio Pass/Fail
Practicum Final Professional Practice Performance Appraisal - midwifery in Practice Portfolio Pass/Fail
Report Continuity of Care Report detailing experience with one of the recruited women (1000 words) Pass/Fail
Practicum Formative assessment Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool (ANSAT) (40 hours) Pass/Fail
Practicum Summative assessment Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool (ANSAT) (40 hours) Pass/Fail
To gain an overall pass in this unit, students must complete 80 midwifery practice hours and 80 nursing practice hours, achieve a 'Pass' grading in the Interim and Final Professional Practice Performance Appraisal and ANSAT Formative and Summative tool. Students submit a reflective Continuity of Care Report that reflects their learning experiences of sharing the Continuity of Care experience with one woman during her childbearing journey. Supplementary assessment is not available for the Professional Practice Performance Appraisal or ANSAT tool.

Required reading

Skills for Midwifery Practice 4th ed. AU & NZ ed.
de-Vitry Smith, S., Bayes, S., Johnson, R. &Taylor, W., (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.

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