Finding the Future Midwife: How the revised Standards of Proficiencies for Midwives support pre-registration midwifery programme admissions processes

Abstract

Pre-registration midwifery education programmes are quietly undergoing a revolution. In 2019, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) published an ambitious set of proficiencies for the future midwife, defining a framework of skills, knowledge and behaviours that midwives are required to demonstrate at the point of qualification and subsequent entry to the register.1 The revised Proficiencies for Midwives were required to reflect the demands of contemporary maternity services and were based on the framework produced by Renfrew et al. within the Lancet midwifery series.