What is it about?
In this review we mapped pre-service training curricula for midwifery care providers providing antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care in the Action Leveraging Evidence to Reduce perinatal morTality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa (ALERT) project conducted in Benin, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda against the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Essential Competencies framework to inform the development of the ALERT project interventions. It also aimed to inform the relevant stakeholders responsible for midwifery care providers’ pre-service education in the ALERT study countries about potential gaps in pre-service training curricula.
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Why is it important?
Ten pre-service curricula were obtained and the assessment revealed that none of the curricula included all the ICM competencies. The review identified gaps in terms of knowledge and skills being taught, which may result in poor competence, thereby affecting the evidence-based quality care midwifery care providers are able to provide once qualified and entering the health workforce. Our findings indicated that gaps in pre-service training curricula were consistent across the project countries; with a lack of focus on woman centered care, information sharing and shared decision making, care related to women who experience physical and sexual violence and abuse, provision of care to women with unintended or mistimed pregnancy as well as aspects concerning fundamental human rights when providing midwifery care.
Perspectives
We hope this article can provide important policy and programme planning measures that could be the first step to a more comprehensive assessment of factors that impact how prepared midwifery care providers are once qualified and starting their first job. Improved pre-service education in many training institutions is needed to ensure that midwifery care providers are competent to provide quality evidence-based maternal and newborn care. When developing, designing or updating curricula training institutions and stakeholders could use the ICM Essential Competencies as the guiding framework as basic knowledge, skills and behaviours which are critical in all settings are integrated into curricula .
Ann-Beth Moller
University of Gothenburg
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Are midwives ready to provide quality evidence-based care after pre-service training? Curricula assessment in four countries—Benin, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, PLOS Global Public Health, September 2022, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000605.
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