A Bachelor of Midwifery will be offered for the first time in 2007 at The University of Queensland (UQ) Ipswich Campus.
This pioneering degree in Queensland, means that Midwifery will be taught as an undergraduate program leading to practise as a midwife, rather than postgraduate study following a nursing qualification.
Program Director Dr Fiona Bogossian said the Bachelor of Midwifery at UQ had been developed to meet the needs of the next generation of midwifery professionals using international best practice standards in midwifery education.
She said Bachelor of Midwifery students would undertake their education in clinical settings learning from practising professionals.
“Using an integrated problem-based learning model, similar to the successful UQ Bachelor of Nursing, students will learn how to apply theoretical and clinical knowledge using case-based examples,” Dr Bogossian said.
“This will be done in a multi-professional setting allowing students to learn to work with other health professionals by learning along side them.”
Students will attend lectures one day per week at the Ipswich Campus and complete the majority of their clinical practice at their selected teaching hospital, either Ipswich Hospital or the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
“Students will experience approximately 1300 hours of clinical placement over the three-year program which means they will be job-ready when they graduate,” Dr Bogossian said.
The degree may be completed in 2.5 years using the accelerated option and students will graduate with general midwifery knowledge and a specialist area elective.
Applications for the Bachelor of Midwifery at UQ can be made through QTAC. Current minimum entry requirements are passes at Year 12 level, or equivalent, in Senior English and one strand of science, being either Biological Sciences, Chemistry or Physics.
A career in midwifery will enable graduates to work in a variety of public and private maternity and neonatal settings, academia/teaching, research, rural and remote health and aid organisations. Outstanding employment opportunities exist for Australian midwives due to a chronic shortage of midwives here in Australia and overseas.
To learn more about the innovative Bachelor of Midwifery at UQ visit www.nursing.uq.edu.au or telephone 3381 1165.
Media: Further information, Loretta Porche on 3381 1068 or 0421 587 278.
