News
A new generation of midwives
Five years in the making, the UWS Bachelor of Midwifery commenced this autumn session, aiming to educate professional midwives to serve the Greater Western Sydney community.
The course has proven popular, with 400 applicants striving to fill the 40 places available.
“Midwifery is a separate profession to nursing, with its own philosophical framework and professional standards,” explains Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery and one of the creators of the course. “Most of the world is now moving towards midwifery being a direct-entry qualification.”
As students commence the course, they will begin by studying Primary Healthcare, which Hannah says underpins the entire course, and covers bioscience, midwifery skills and practice, knowledge around the profession of midwifery and facilitating normal birth. “Students will have the exciting opportunity to follow 20 women who they get to know and form a professional relationship with during pregnancy, labour and birth, and for up to six weeks following birth,” says Hannah. “Students will watch the wonder of families being made and growing.”
Margaret Duff, Senior Lecturer and the Director of the Academic Program of Midwifery, says that because a whole pregnancy, labour and birth won’t fit into an academic term, midwifery students practice throughout the year. “UWS and the School of Nursing and Midwifery have assisted students by providing lectures online and flexible study arrangements. “The National Standard requires midwifery courses to consist of equal amounts of practice and theory,” explains Margie. “UWS’s iPad initiative has also assisted midwifery students with flexibility in their course.”
Aaliya Furmie has just commenced the course and is already feeling motivated and inspired by the tutors and clinical educators she will be working with. “As the numbers of students enrolled in the course is small, you get to know the tutors, clinical educators and facilitators really well,” she says. “I’m excited that 50 per cent of the course is made up of clinical practice, so I will gain a lot of valuable practical experience, and I feel that this is very important when completing a health-related course. Under the guidance of some of the best midwives in the field who have amazing midwifery experience, I hope to become a confident midwife.”
Hannah says that the introduction of the course in the region is a great boon for the community as a whole. “The Greater Western Sydney area has the highest number of births in Australia, and we now offer the population the opportunity to undertake midwifery education at UWS and work at hospitals and in community settings in the local area,” she says. “This course will also attract students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds to become midwives and work in their community.”
While the course has been limited to just 40 students due to clinical placement limitations, Hannah and Margaret are hopeful that more available places will become available in the future so more students have the opportunity to undertake the Bachelor of Midwifery.
“Our students will be exposed to exciting and emerging practice opportunities like never before in Australia,” says Hannah.
April 2013
Professor Hannah Dahlen, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Western Sydney
Hannah is the Professor of Midwifery in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at UWS, and has been a practising midwife for 24 years.
She has significantly contributed to the development of maternity services both within Australia and internationally, and is one of the first midwives in Australia to gain eligibility and access to a Medicare provider number following government reforms in 2010.
An active researcher, Professor Dahlen has strong national and international research partnerships, and has received 12 grants since 2000. She has had over 60 publications in the past seven years and has spoken at over 100 national and international conferences.
The national spokesperson for the Australian College of Midwives, Hannah has been interviewed by media over 300 times and featured in two documentaries. She is also a past President of the Australian College of Midwives, receiving Life Membership in 2008 for outstanding contributions to the profession of Midwifery.
In November this year she was featured in the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of 100 ‘people who change our city for the better’. Hannah was described by a member of the selection panel as probably the leading force promoting natural birth and midwife-led care in Australia.
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January 2013
Study seeks male perspective on traumatic childbirth
Mums’ traumatic childbirth experiences have been well studied in the past, now a new study is looking at the impact on male partners.
The research by the University of Western Sydney’s School of Nursing and Midwifery(opens in new window)
will explore men’s experiences of labour and birth where their partners have experienced complications, required emergency intervention or the birth was traumatic in other ways.
Of all life events, the childbirth experience is consistently described as a significant life event of powerful psychological importance in a couples lives, says principal researcher Dr Rakime Elmir(opens in new window).
“Although birth is a normal physiological process, it can be associated with certain risks to health and in a rare event may pose a threat to survival of the woman and her infant,” says Dr Elmir.
“This has the potential to impact significantly on the physical and emotional health and well-being of the woman, her partner and the family unit.”
Dr Elmir says traumatic birth experiences and the effects on women have been researched by several scholars; however, little is known about the effects traumatic birth experiences can have on men where their partner has experienced complications or emergency interventions during the labour and birth.
“Distress following a traumatic childbirth has the potential to impact on a large number of Australian men.”
The participants will also be invited to take part in a focus group, involving other men who have had similar experiences.
“The research results will add knowledge and provide additional insights to the current body of literature on men’s experiences of birth trauma,” says Dr Elmir.
“It’s hoped the findings of this study will help create greater awareness among health professionals - particularly midwives and child and family health nurses - of the support needed for men following traumatic birth.”
The study findings also aim to direct and inform future research on men’s health.
For information on the study or to participate please contact principal researcher Dr Rakime Elmir on (02) 4620 3372 or r.elmir@uws.edu.au
This study has been approved by the University of Western Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee. The approval number is H9966.
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3 January 2013
The Inherent Requirements in Nursing Education project being led from the School as receives another award
The Inherent Requirements in Nursing Education project being led from the School as receives another award – a UWS Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. The citation reads:
For leadership in the development and implementation of inherent requirements to facilitate the access and participation and support of undergraduate nursing students with a disability.
The School congratulates the IRONE team - Dr. Amanda Johnson, Assoc Prof Cec Hengstberger-Sims, Toni Azzopadi, Mary Goldsmith, Cathy Dixon, Kirralee Phillips (project Officer) and Trevor Allen. This is first time inherent requirements have been developed for any discipline, so the team worked from scratch to develop the framework and the requirements. As would be expected, there is considerable national interest in the inherent requirements from nursing and other disciplines.
Congratulations to the team.
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December 2012
UWS midwifery researcher named one of Sydney’s ‘leading thinkers’
Congratulations to Associate Professor Hannah Dahlen (opens in new window), a leading midwifery researcher in the University of Western Sydney’s School of Nursing and Midwifery (opens in new window), who has been named in the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of 100 “people who change our city for the better”.
described Associate Professor Dahlen as “probably the leading force promoting natural birth and midwife-led care in Australia.”
Associate Professor Dahlen’s research has made a significant contribution to maternity services development in Australia and internationally.
Her research interests fall under two major themes:
Associate Professor Dahlen has strong national and international research partnerships, has received 12 grants since 2000, including being CI on two NHMRC grants in 2011 and has had over 60 publications in the past seven years. She has spoken at over 100 national and international conference and given keynote addresses at half of these.
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30 November 2012
UWS awarded OLT citations and grants
UWS was again very successful in the national Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Awards and Grants scheme, receiving five citations in the School of Education, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, and School of Nursing and Midwifery.
UWS was also successful in the OLT Round One Grants Scheme, which involves working with partner institutions in a national context.
Dr Lucie Ramjan, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, was awarded a citation for contextualising nursing concepts within the classroom – Lucie recreates a realistic clinical practice for her students.
“My teaching philosophy is focused on narrowing the theory-practice gap and contextualising students’ learning so that it’s relevant, realistic and inspiring,” Lucie explains. “I influence, motivate and inspire students to learn by establishing a rapport with them and showing them the clinical relevance of their learning (now and for their future career as nurses).”
Lucie says this way of teaching makes the lessons more memorable and she recognises that catering for different learning styles is important and implements a variety of teaching styles, including hands-on approaches and multimedia formats.
Lucie explains that winning this citation means further developing these learning strategies “to assist our diverse student needs within the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and to further strengthen quality teaching and learning within the School”.
Congratulations to all the recipients of the OLT citations and grants. To view a full list of the fellowship and grant recipients, visit the OLT Grants and Projects website (opens in new window). More information about these and other learning and teaching awards can be found on the Awards and Grants for Learning and Teaching webpage (opens in new window).
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7 September 2012
Private hospitals drive surge in caesareans, inductions
A new study led by the University of Western Sydney has found low risk women giving birth in private hospitals in New South Wales are much more likely to have obstetric interventions such as inductions and caesareans compared to low risk women giving birth in public hospitals.
The study, published online today in the British Medical Journal Open, found women having their first baby in a private hospital had a 20 percent lower normal vaginal birth rate, and 15 percent lower rate if it was a subsequent baby.
Associate Professor Hannah Dahlen, from the UWS School of Nursing and Midwifery’s Family and Community Health Research Group, studied over 650,000 births in New South Wales over eight years (2000-2008).
The study allowed researchers to determine if taking a matched low risk population would result in different levels of obstetric intervention for women giving birth in private and public hospitals.
It also repeated a study undertaken a decade ago, providing a clear indication of current trends in childbirth.
Associate Professor Dahlen’s findings show low-risk women giving birth to their first baby in a private hospital compared to a public hospital had:
- Higher rates of induction (31 percent vs 23 percent)
- Higher rates of instrumental birth (29 percent vs 18 percent)
- Higher rates of caesarean section (27 precent vs 18 percent)
- Higher rates of epidural (53 percent vs 32 precent)
- Higher rates of episiotomy (28 percent vs 12 percent)
- Lower rates of vaginal births (44 percent vs 64 percent)
“The results stunned us,” says Professor Dahlen. “Ten yeas ago we were concerned at what came out, but today there is no conceivable explanation for such high rates of intervention in the private sector. When only 15 out of 100 low risk, healthy young women have a normal vaginal birth without intervention for their first baby in a private hospital, then questions need to be asked.”
Over the past decade the rate of caesarean amongst low risk women has risen by 5 percent in the public sector and double that in the private sector (10 precent).
“If we were saving more babies then we would accept this as necessary for safety, but we are not,” says Associate Professor Dahlen.
“The argument that is often used by private obstetricians is women are older and sicker now and therefore the rates of intervention are higher, but we have controlled for that and included the same low risk criteria used a decade ago (20-34 years of age, no medical or obstetric complications, term babies and babies with good birth weights), and the intervention rate is only going one way, and that is up and up.
“The cost to the public purse of such high levels of intervention is not insignificant, not to mention the impact on women’s health and the short and long-term health of children. With emerging evidence of links between caesarean section and diabetes, asthma, obesity and other immunological disorders in children, it is time to take a serious look at this issue,” says Professor Dahlen.
The paper, titled: Rates of intervention among low risk women giving birth in private and public hospitals in NSW: A population-based descriptive study, can be obtained free online from BMJ Open.
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7 September 2012
Read the story on ABC Online, Australian Doctor, and Canberra Times online
UWS Bachelor of Midwifery Curriculum fully endorsed by the Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia
Midwives at the University of Western Sydney have been working over the past year, along with midwives from the surrounding area, to develop the UWS Bachelor of Midwifery (BMid) curriculum for 2013. We have received the exciting news that the curriculum has been fully endorsed by the Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia and is approved for 5 years.
This direct entry UWS Bachelor of Midwifery course will commence in March 2013 and consist of 24 subjects spread across three full-time years. Eight of the 24 BMid subjects will be shared with our nursing colleagues and 16 of the subjects will be midwifery specific. Shared subjects include Primary Health Care, Bioscience 1, Health in a Culturally Diverse Community and Research Principles. Midwifery specific subjects will focus on normal pregnancy, birth and postnatal care in the first half of the course then complex health needs and legal and ethical issues in the second half of the course.
The UWS Bachelor of Midwifery course is underpinned by a ‘partnership orientated’ primary health care philosophy with a strong focus on woman centred care. The course will prepare students to provide culturally safe care to women and their families from any cultural group. Students will also develop skills in working collaboratively with all members of the health care team, in order to optimise the health and well being of women and their families. Students will have the opportunity to learn from midwives in a variety of settings including hospital and community based midwives, caseload midwives and privately practicing midwives working in a Group Practice.
From left to right: Fiona Arundell, Associate Professor Hannah Dahlen, Dr Elaine Burns, Leanne Luck, Professor Virginia Schmied and Dr Margaret Duff.
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14th August 2012
Midwifery Educators Workshop
On the 27th of July the UWS School of Nursing and Midwifery held a workshop to discuss the placement of BMid students in the local health facilities.
We were fortunate to have more than 20 midwifery educators and managers from the local hospitals attend the workshop.
The highlight of the day was the excellent presentation from our very generous colleagues at John Hunter Hospital who travelled to Parramatta Campus for the day. We are very grateful to Susan Forbes and Mandy Hunter for their inspiring presentation on the John Hunter Hospital experience of accommodating
30 first year BMid students in 2011 and 60 students in 2012 (as the second year of the course is now underway).
You can read more about the John Hunter Hospital experience in the article by Val Fullerton in this edition of Midwifery Matters.
Thank you also to Athena Sheehan and Allison Cummins who shared the UTS experience and demonstrated that we are all working towards the same goal: to provide the very best educational experiences for future midwives.
So here we are at UWS very eagerly awaiting the start of the academic year in 2013,and, along with our midwifery colleagues in the local health districts, we can’t wait to meet and support the 50 smart students who choose Midwifery as their future!
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July 2012
UWS School of Nursing and Midwifery Staff Graduate - FULT Program
All full time Associate Lecturers and Senior Lecturers who are new to teaching at UWS complete The Foundations of University Learning and Teaching (FULT) program which is offered twice a year by the Teaching Development Unit (TDU). The key concepts taught in this program are student-focused teaching, constructive alignment and reflective practice.
Congratulations to Stacy Blythe, Kate Dito and Lauren-Leigh Metcalf for graduating from the program in July 2012.
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July 2012
