Midwifery Partnerships: It takes two to tango!

The shortage of midwives in Australia has been a concern to maternity units, women and the midwifery workforce for many years (National Nursing Review, 2002). Charles Sturt University (CSU) embarked on a novel approach to help address the shortage of midwives by engaging the area health services in the processes leading to the registration of registered nurses to be midwives. This case study describes the partnering of the University with many maternity units across Australia to theoretically and clinically prepare student midwives for registration as midwives.The complexities of developing long term sustainable partnerships between the tertiary and clinical sectors are described here. The development of the partnership and ongoing interaction between the partners in all facets of the midwifery course is shown to have very successful outcomes. Key components for maintaining the partnering relationship including agreements and liaison between CSU staff and the maternity units are considered. The value of ongoing support mechanisms for midwifery facilitators and midwives is described as well as acknowledging and addressing strengths and challenges will be shown to result in among the most prolific output of midwives from any one organisation in Australia. Evaluations by students and maternity unit staff will be shown to play an integral role in maintaining and developing the partnership. Continuous liaison by the University and a sense of ownership by the hospitals has led to an increase in the number of student midwives graduating. This has ultimately contributed to some maternity units remaining open and others offering other midwifery related services because of an increase in their midwifery workforce.