SOMSA - Midwifery Education: A new dawn- seeking new approaches towards 2015 and beyond

1. SOMSA - Midwifery Education: A new dawn- seeking new approaches towards 2015 and beyond Elgonda Bekker, SOMSA &ICM Education Standing Committee

2. Midwifery education new developments • International standards for midwifery education • International standards for midwifery regulation • Essential competencies for basic midwifery education • Education standing committee • Skills/equipment lists Nov 2012

3. Triple Gap identified by SOWMR • Competencies: Not enough fully qualified midwives • Coverage EMOC services- poorly staffed and equipped • Access Access issues from women’s perspectives are often not addressed

4. Importance of triad of ERA • Education, regulation and professional association • Education: produce midwives proficient to practice all the essential competencies • Optimal standards are unmet • Need to improve: Curricula, faculty, educational resources and supervised clinical practice

5. Recommendations from report Regulatory bodies: • Protect the title “midwife” and establish scope of practice • Establish criteria for entry, educational standards and practice competencies • Accredit schools and education criteria • License and re-license midwives, maintain codes of ethics, codes of conduct and manages sanctioning

6. Recommendations from report cont. Midwifery training institutions: • Curricula that produce graduates proficient in all essential competencies • Use ICM standards to ensure theory- practice balance • Recruit faculty, maintain their competencies in midwifery and transformative education • Promote research and development of leadership

7. SOMSA • Continuing work with SANC, Laws committee- scope of specialist midwife practice • Linking with DENOSA- SOMSA not functioning as trade union • Resource and advisory capacity

8. Questions • 1) Nurse or midwife?

9. 2) Does our education address the needs and context?

10. 3) Competence: Knowledge, skills, professional behaviour and clinical judgement translated in care

11. Philosophy and model of care

12. Madness?