Drake Medox Midwifery Flexible Learning Package

Dear Drake Midwife,

An essential part of midwifery practice and professional development is ongoing education. It is a requirement for registration with AHPRA (http://www.ahpra.gov.au/) and keeps midwifery practice contemporary and evidence based. At Drake Medox we appreciate that our valuable midwifery workforce often do shift work, making attending traditional forms of ongoing education challenging.

In order to respond to the challenges of midwifery education and the maintenance of Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Drake Medox has developed a Flexible Education Package. It's one way we can support you to be at the forefront of midwifery practice and keep your CPD portfolio current.

This Flexible Education Package has been designed so that you can choose education modules that meet your ongoing needs and that can be done from home or in the workplace and provides you with midwifery specific topics and resources.

Midwives are required to have 20 hours per year of continuing education in order to maintain their registration. According to the Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia, the evidence of ongoing education consists of:

“Documentation of self-directed CPD must include dates, a brief description of the outcomes, and the number of hours spent in each activity. All evidence should be verified. It must demonstrate that the nurse or midwife has:

• Identified and prioritised their learning needs, based on an evaluation of their practice against the relevant competency or professional practice standards
• Developed a learning plan based on identified learning needs
• Participated in effective learning activities relevant to their learning needs
• Reflected on the value of the learning activities or the effect that participation will have on their practice.” (Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia, 4 May 2010)

These 20 hours of education each year can come from a variety of different activities.

“Without wishing to limit the examples, active learning may include:

• Reflecting on feedback, keeping a practice journal
• Acting as a preceptor/mentor/tutor
• Participating on accreditation, audit or quality improvement committees
• Undertaking supervised practice for skills development
• Participating in clinical audits, critical incident monitoring, case reviews and clinical meetings
• Participating in a professional reading and discussion group
• Developing skills in IT, numeracy, communications, improving own performance, problem solving and working with others
• Writing or reviewing educational materials, journal articles and books
• Active membership of professional groups and committees
• Reading professional journals or books
• Writing for publication
• Developing policy, protocols or guidelines
• Working with a mentor to improve practice
• Presenting at or attending workplace education, in- service sessions or skills workshops
• Undertaking undergraduate or postgraduate studies which are of relevance to the context of practice
• Presenting at or attending conferences, lectures, seminars or professional meetings
• Conducting or contributing to research
• Undertaking relevant online or distance education (Australian Nurses and Midwives Council, 2009)

This education package responds to some of the above activities. Attached you will find a document suitable for Reflection of a Book or Journal Article. Reflective writing will contribute half an hour of CPD along with the time spent reading. You will find a journal article attached on Directed Pushing in the Second Stage of Labour by Alison Cooke. Further articles can easily be found online. An excellent resource for articles is the Royal College of Midwives in Britain, they provide a library of free articles relevant to contemporary practice. Examples of these can be found with the following links:

http://www.rcm.org.uk/midwives/in-depth-papers/a-review-of-baby-skin-care/

http://www.rcm.org.uk/midwives/in-depth-papers/assisted-reproduction-what-do-midwives-need-to-know/

http://www.rcm.org.uk/midwives/in-depth-papers/female-genital-mutilation/

I would encourage you to find other journal articles that meet your ongoing learning needs and professional development. These provided are a starting place aimed to support your education.

Attending traditional education in the form of study days, workshops and conferences can be augmented with a reflective process. Attached you will find a Professional Event Documentation resource. This has been designed to provide evidence for any education attended that doesn't provide you with a Certificate of Attendance and the process of reflection adds further hours for your CPD. I hope you find this to be a useful tool for your portfolio.

Fetal Surveillance Education

RANZCOG is now recognised by most hospitals in Australia and New Zealand as the preferred educator for Fetal Surveillance Education. The aims of this training are to improve professional levels of understanding and confidence in the area of fetal surveillance, thereby reducing the risks of adverse perinatal outcomes.

This is a multidisciplinary training program and is essential for midwives working in Birth Suite or Antenatal wards/clinic.

Following registration for a RANZCOG course you will be provided with a user name and password that accesses online education prior to the training day.

Information on the latest course in your area is available through the following link:

http://www.ranzcog.edu.au/fsep/calendar.shtml

This is a tax deducible expense so keep your receipt.

Online Resources

Resources specific to Midwifery have also been provided with links and a brief description:

• Infection Control

  The Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care have developed several online interactive learning modules on infection prevention. Available modules include:

  
  Basic epidemiology and statistics
  
  Basic microbiology and multi-resistant organisms (MRO)
  
  Cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation
  
  Infectious agent screening and immunisation of healthcare workers
  
  Management of occupational exposures
  
  Outbreak management
  
  Renovation, repairs and redevelopment risk management
  
  Risk management of infectious agents and infectious diseases
  
  Surveillance and quality improvement
  

When you complete all of the components you can click on the certificate awarded statement at the top of the page and this will then create an individualised certificate of completion which you can add to your professional development portfolio.

http://infectionprevention.e3learning.com.au/