O52 - Review of accreditation standards: A snapshot of the Midwife Accreditation Standards 2021

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to highlight key aspects of the newly published Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council’s Midwife Accreditation Standards 2021. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) uses the Midwife Accreditation Standards to accredit and assess entry to practice midwifery programs and the education providers who offer them. In developing the Midwife Accreditation Standards 2021, wide-ranging consultation was undertaken with key stakeholders in midwifery education. ANMAC received more than 250 submissions across three separate consultation periods. Stakeholders contributed feedback by way of online surveys, written submissions, and face-to-face consultation. Synthesis of stakeholder feedback is available on the ANMAC website. The consultation process identified several key areas for consideration including, governance arrangements, intraprofessional learning, digital literacy and midwife prescribing and diagnostics. These will be the focus of this presentation. Significant changes to the Midwifery Accreditation Standards 2021 include clarifying the requirements of the head of discipline role, as well as content related to intraprofessional learning and digital literacy. When developing these standards ANMAC consulted widely on the inclusion of prescribing in entry to practice midwifery programs though this was not ultimately included in the standards. Hence the inclusion of prescribing and diagnostic skills in future accreditation standards for undergraduate midwifery programs will also be explored. Additionally, some practical changes have been implemented by replacing the previous nine standards with five, and the inclusion of an Essential Evidence document to support the development of accreditation submissions