92678 Midwifery as Primary Healthcare: a Public Health Strategy
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
This subject contributes to students' understanding of midwifery as a public health strategy situated in a woman-centred and primary healthcare framework. Students explore midwifery within a broad social context influenced by particular social, cultural, political and economic environments. Students are supported to appreciate the impact that social disadvantage and other vulnerabilities have on women and their families. The subject encourages critical examination of systems and practices designed to support and promote optimal health outcomes within the context of maternal and newborn health.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| A. | Appraise midwifery as a public health strategy and identify aspects of practice that relate to public health. |
|---|---|
| B. | Illustrate the impact that social disadvantage and other vulnerabilities have on women’s ability to access safe and appropriate maternity care. |
| C. | In a simulated environment, demonstrate skills in specific aspects of midwifery as public health practice including smoking cessation, limiting weight gain, promotion of breastfeeding and health promotion. |
| D. | Explain how the Australian health care system facilitates a framework of primary health care in relation to the provision of and access to midwifery care. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the following graduate attributes:
- Practice woman centred care (1.0)
- Are professionally competent midwives who provide safe and effective midwifery care using intelligent kindness (2.0)
- Work collaboratively in order to provide excellence in maternity care (3.0)
- Are resilient, emotionally competent midwives who foster human flourishing (4.0)
- Are socially responsible citizens who value the diversity of people (5.0)
- Are professionally engaged critical thinkers who take a lively and questioning approach and embrace lifelong learning (6.0)
- Demonstrate professional cultural competency which contributes to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, inclusive of physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellness (7.0)
Teaching and learning strategies
In this subject, students will participate in a range of teaching and learning strategies that are designed to encourage students to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to practice midwifery in a primary health care framework as part of a public health strategy
ONLINE LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Students access online learning resources including pre-class activities, podcasts, videos, professional and grey literature prior to attending face-to-face sessions. Online activities are then reviewed and discussed in class to share learning, experiences and reflections.
STORIES AND SCENARIOS
Stories and scenarios are used to help students explore health and wellbeing-related scenarios. Cases depict women and their families in a primary health care setting. Students use these scenarios to learn concepts, interpret information, form judgments and develop creative solutions. Students develop critical thinking through analysis, interpretation of and reflection on issues or situations.
SIMULATED ROLE PLAYS
Role play enables students to practise new skills learnt through theory and knowledge development. Scenarios from relevant situations are used to depict real life experiences in midwifery. Students interact, observe and provide feedback within the facilitated debriefing, and reflect on their own skills, values and experiences.
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES
The majority of the face-to-face time in this subject involves collaborative group activities and workshops. Staff support students to engage in content prior to attending class, and class time focuses on group learning and mentored activities to support learning. Small group activities develop students’ understanding of public health campaigns.
PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL AND EXPERT NARRATIVES
Guest speakers provide students with personal and professional stories in relation to the subject content. Hearing stories from both a professional and personal perspective supports students to relate learning to real world situations.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Creative piece abstract aligned with the QMNC Framework
| Intent: | This abstract gives students the opportunity to plan and summarise ideas for their creative piece. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): A and D This assessment task contributes to the development of graduate attribute(s): 1.0, 5.0 and 6.0 |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 10% |
| Length: | 200-300 words |
Assessment task 2: Creative Piece and discussion aligned with the QMNC Framework
| Intent: | Midwifery is considered an art and we acknowledge students learn and express themselves in a variety of ways. This assessment piece is designed to allow for creative ideas that represent an aspect of midwifery as primary health care: public health strategy by reflecting attributes of woman-centred care, professional competence and diversity. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): A and D This assessment task contributes to the development of graduate attribute(s): 1.0, 5.0 and 6.0 |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 40% |
| Length: | Part A: 1000 words |
Assessment task 3: Motivational Interviewing VOD/PODCAST
| Intent: | This assessment piece is designed to give students the opportunity to practice motivational interviewing in a simulated manner. This enables the development of midwifery skills for clinical practice. Such skills contribute to the concept of midwifery as primary health care: a public health strategy. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): B and C This assessment task contributes to the development of graduate attribute(s): 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 7.0 |
| Groupwork: | Group, group and individually assessed |
| Weight: | 50% |
| Length: | Part A: VOD/PODCAST: Part B: Written piece |
Required texts
Eddy, A. (2019). Midwifery as Primary Health Care. In S. Pairman, et al. (Eds.), Midwifery preparation for practice (4th ed., pp.79-88). Elsevier, Australia.
All additional readings, other than textbooks, will be available via links from within Canvas.
References
Baum, F. (2016). The new public health (4th edition). Oxford University Press.
Best, O., & Fredericks, B. (2018). Yatdjuligin?: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery care (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Conry, J.A. (2023). Women's health across the life course and opportunities for improvement: Every woman, every time, everywhere. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 160(S1), 7.https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.14534
Edwards, G. & Byrom, S. (2007). Essential midwifery practice: public health. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Guzys, D., Brown, R., Halcomb, E., & Whitehead, D. (2017). An introduction to community and primary health care (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Homer, C., Brodie, P. Sandall, J. & Leap, N. (2019). Midwifery continuity of care: a practical guide. (2nd ed). Chatswood, Australia: Churchill Livingstone.
Horton, R., & Astudillo, O. (2014). The power of midwifery. The Lancet (British Edition), 384(9948), 1075–1076. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60855-2
Mcneill, J., Lynn, F., & Alderdice, F. (2012). Public health interventions in midwifery: A systematic review of systematic reviews. BMC Public Health, 12(1), 955–955. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-955
Sandall, J., Soltani, H., Gates, S., Shennan, A., & Devane, D. (2015). Midwife-led continuity models versus other models of care for childbearing women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 9(9), CD004667–CD004667. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004667.pub4
Other resources
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