Current education standards are essential for midwives to be capable of functioning to their full scope of practice

摘要

My purpose in writing this editorial is to defend the notion that midwives should control their own educational standards to protect the role and scope of midwifery practice for women and families. Many of the matters that I raise in this editorial have not been published in the academic literature; thus all 1 can offer as evidence is my own opinion. My opinion, however, is well informed, being based on my expert knowledge of nursing and midwifery education of which I have over 40 years of experience. In the past 30 years I have had multiple experiences designing and teaching nursing and midwifery degrees: 15 of those years have been focussed primarily on midwifery. I have been the chief author of a number of midwifery (and nursing) curricula; including two Bachelor of Midwifery (B Mid) courses; one of which was accredited this year under the current Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council's (ANMAC) standards1. I have participated in many state based accreditation committees in Queensland and New South Wales and, more recently an ANMAC accreditation committee. I have contributed to the ANMAC surveys and participated in an ANMAC consultation forum concerning possible changes to the educational standards for midwives. The ANMAC education standards were written by a group of senior midwifery academics and clinicians; they involved broad consultation with a range of stakeholder groups.