About the consortium

The Consortium provides leadership and strategic direction to drive progressive, high quality, evidence-informed midwifery education, recognising education’s important role in shaping maternity services in Australia and New Zealand.

Foundation to the Consortium’s efforts is the implicit understanding that continuity of midwifery led care provides the best maternity outcomes for childbearing women and their babies and that the goal of midwifery education is to prepare midwives for this role.

The role of the Consortium is to drive the transformation of midwifery education in Australia and New Zealand by identifying and undertaking research and providing a united voice and direction for midwifery education.

 A number of studies are currently being undertaken by the Consortium, including:

Projects +

Developing a tool to measure woman-centredness

Lead: Professor Deborah Davis

Publications:

Davis DL, Creedy DK, Bradfield Z, Newnham E, Atchan M, Davie L, et al. Development of the Woman-Centred Care Scale- Midwife Self Report (WCCS-MSR). BMC pregnancy and childbirth. 2021;21(1):523.

Supporting new graduates in their transition to practice

Lead: Associate Professor Virginia Stultz

Co-Investigators:  Michelle Gray, Allison Cummins, Louise McKellar, DD, Zoe Bradfield, Carolyn Hastie, Linda Sweet, Jenny Gamble, Annabel Sheehy

Raising the profile – Review of midwifery education from 2002- 2020 – history, program cost, current status, outcomes, future

Lead: Professor Lois McKellar

Co-Investigators: Linda Sweet, Kirsten Graham, Mary Sidebotham, Julie Fleet, Annabel Sheehy

Association of midwifery continuity of care on woman’s stress, anxiety and depression during the COVID 19 pandemic

Lead: Associate Professor Allison Cummins

Co-Investigators: Deborah Davis, Jan Taylor, Annabel Sheehy, Helen Nightingale, Sally De-Vitry Smith

Completed studies

Study 1 Identifying the priorities for midwifery education across Australia and New Zealand: A Delphi study Lead Mary Sidebotham

This 2 round Delphi study identified the following five key themes

  1. Enabling success of First Peoples/Māori midwifery students;
  2. Increasing the visibility and influence of midwifery within regulation, accreditation and university governance;
  3. Determining how best to deliver the clinical practicum component of programs;
  4. Reviewing midwifery programs to enhance design, content and delivery;
  5. Ongoing education and support for the midwifery workforce. Members of the consortium are now working together to design projects to address these priority areas.

Lead: Associate Professor Mary Sidebotham
Contact

Publications:

Sidebotham M, McKellar L, Walters C, Gilkison A, Davis D, Gamble J. Identifying the priorities for midwifery education across Australia and New Zealand: A Delphi study. Women and Birth. 2021;34(2):136-44.

Study 2 Acknowledging the primacy of continuity of care experiences in midwifery education.

This collaborative study aimed to examine the current evidence to :

  1. Identify the educational value and pedagogical intent of the continuity of care experience:
  2. Identify issues with the implementation, completion and
    assessment of learning associated with continuity of care experience;
  3. Provide educational design and program delivery models that facilitate achievement of learning outcomes associated with continuity of care experience.

The study concluded that education standards that preference continuity of care experience as the optimal clinical education model with measurable learning outcomes, and alignment to a whole of program philosophy and program learning outcomes are required.

Lead: Professor Jenny Gamble

Publications:

Gamble,J., Sidebotham,M., Gilkison,A., Davis,D., Sweet,L. (2019) Acknowledging the primacy of continuity of care experiences in midwifery education. Women and Birth, 33(2), 111-118.

Conference presentations:

Sweet L., Gamble J, Davis D., M. S. The importance of continuity of care experiences in midwifery education.  International Confederation of Midwives 32nd Virtual Triennial Congress June 2021.

The Consortium is also participating in research to measure midwifery students experience of clinical education using the tool we developed: Midwifery Student Evaluation of Practice (MidSTEP). More information about the study and MidSTEP can be found here.

Trans-Tasman Midwifery Education Consortium Partners