Hi All,
I may be able to clarify a little the issue of midwives who choose to pursue
credentialling as a nurse practitioner. I agree that a midwife is a midwife
is a midwife! However, there are already many degrees of experience and
areas of specialty (clinical specialist, clinical consultant, lactation
consultant, associate charge midwife, level 1, level 2, grade 3, grade 4,
hospital-based midwife, homebirth midwife, independent midwife etc...)
within midwifery so the fear of another level is a problem is a bit
irrelevant.
Australia is currently behind the internationally accepted standard for
midwifery ie Australian midwives are unable to prescribe, order diagnostic
pathology and ultrasound or refer as we do not have Medicare Provider
numbers and prescribing is not part of our authorisation as registered
midwives. This needs to change and there are poitical moves afoot (however
slow...) to change Medicare accordingly. In the mean time the only avenue
available to midwives who wish to be more autonomous and be able to
implement these extensions to practice is to become credentailled as a nurse
practitioner.
In NSW the title 'midwife practitioner' is legislated but in Victoria the
titles 'midwife' and 'nurse practitioner' cannot legally be combined so a
midwife becomes labelled as a nurse practitioner in midwifery. Personally I
dont like that title and I will choose to continue calling myself a midwife.
Hope that helps a little.
Leanne.
Leanne Wynne
Midwife in charge of "Women's Business"
Mildura Aboriginal Health Service Mob 0418 371862
From: "B & G" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au
To: <ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au>
Subject: RE: [ozmidwifery] The Advertiser today...
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 11:20:33 +1000
Sorry Tania,
I must have this reply to my email. I have concerns with the thinning or
another layer of midwifery with Midwife Practitioner. To me a midwife is
a midwife and a midwife. OK we can all develop other competencies but
basically we should be able to care for birth women and their families
as per ACMI definition of a midwife.
This practitioner notion concerns me as it is a spin off from nursing. A
shortage of medical staff results in nurses plugging up the gap such as
ordering tests, medications and pathology etc. Surely we could have
these added to our core education as modules.
Here in Qld there is this push that only those that have Masters can be
practitioners. I know graduate midwives coming out of Uni's are
beginning midwives. Contrast that with midwives with experience who now
will never be be to be called a Practitioner. Cairns has been accepted
by Qld Health for a trial of Midwife Practitioner primarily for remote
areas such as Palm Island. It is felt being a remote location they would
be better serviced by a midwife ... (I don't know the rest as I say a
midwife is a midwife ).
Best to contact them direct for more information.
I was at the ANF Conference in Darwin last week. Victorian midwives I
can understand your frustration of ANF Victoria. Cows, cows and cows
behave better. Their views on midwives are so entrenched.
Basically there is an enhanced acknowledgement and understanding of
midwifery and midwives that I did not see last time in Hobart. The first
and only midwives problem was encountered with the second motion-
A2. Inclusion of midwife and midwifery in the policies of the ANF | ANF
New South Wales Branch That the 2005 ANF Biennial National Delegates
Conference requests the inclusion of the word 'midwife' or 'midwifery'
in the body of all appropriate ANF policies, guidelines, and position
statements, instead of it being just a footnote.
Moved:
Seconded:
Background Information Currently, all ANF policies carry the
following stem statement which appears directly below the title of the
policy: Where the term 'nurse' is used it includes all licensed
classifications including, but not limited to: registered nurse,
midwife, enrolled nurse, nurse practitioner.
It is evident that the needs to conciliation work to be done between the
ANF branches in Victoria and ACT with the ACMI branches.
Their reasoning for voting against this resolution was unreasonable and
obviously there is great discomfort with midwives in general in those
two states. NSW Branch state secretary Brett Holmes gave a powerful
address about the need for midwives and nurses to be working together
and supporting each other as there is a lot to be learnt from the
midwives and they (midwives) do not have the industrial strength to do
it alone. He quoted what had happened in NZ with the NZNO having to get
an agreement from the NZ Midwives organisation before the government
would sign off the new agreement. He said in NZ they found it unwieldy
and difficult to be negotiating from two fronts. He did not want the
midwives to go out and form their own union. ANF is to be considered
inclusive and if we do not include midwives it would be to our (ANF)
detriment - or words to that effect.
I will cut and paste this onto a new thread for ozmidwifery people.
Cheers Barb
Tania Smallwood wrote:
> Not just a question for Barb, but anyone who knows about it, I'm
> curious to know about the Midwife/nurse practitioner that you refer to
> in Qld. What exactly do they do? How is this different to working
> within the scope of a registered midwife? I'm aware that the college
> is not supportive of the notion of midwives becoming NP's, but I'm
> actually interested in what role they play in maternity care over and
> above the general run of the mill midwife?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tania
>
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