Assessment 1– Online Discussion

Type: Online blogs/posts in a discussion thread via the unit discussion forum.

Due date: Time (18:00) 14/05/2021 (Week 9)

Weighting: 20%

Length: 400-500 words per post

Unit Coordinator: Bridget Ferguson

Learning Outcomes Assessed

• 1. Examine the historical roots and social and political influences on contemporary midwifery.

• 2. Explain the role of the midwife

• 4. Critique the theories and philosophy underpinning contemporary midwifery practice in national and international settings.

The aim of this assessment is:

To participate in an online group discussion via the Moodle unit discussion forum, which will be directed by the Unit Coordinator. You will be required to participate in a group discussion on 3 set weeks over the term based on topics in your study guide. For each group discussion posting (submission) you are required to give your professional opinion and write a discussion, using professional and academic dialogue that is supported by current evidence. Marks will be awarded as per the marking rubric. Each week’s online submission is due by the Friday of that week at 11:45pm AEST.

The Online Discussion will occur on Weeks 4, 6, & 8.

Instructions

Please follow the steps below to complete your assessment task:

Each week you will post a primary response to the corresponding week’s discussion topic. You will also respond to at least one other students post within this discussion thread. Each week’s discussion thread will be initiated by the Unit Coordinator and will be posted one week in advance to provide students with adequate time to respond to the topic and each other. The weekly topics are as follows:

Week 4 Topic: The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia provides Australian midwives with the National Standards of Practice. This document is titled ‘Midwife Standards for Practice’. This topic relates to Standard 1- which is: Promotes health and wellbeing through evidence based midwifery practice. Reflect on this standard and discuss: how does evidence/research support the health of women and infants? Have you observed this being implemented in maternity services? Does this provide improved maternity healthcare choices for women? Provide clinical examples from your placement.

Week 6 Topic: Please read Chapter 6 “Birthplace and birth space” in Preparation for Midwifery Practice 4th ed. Discuss the options for choice of birthplace for women at your hospital. List these options and the models of care associated with these options. What are the factors that contribute to intrapartum interventions and how can birthplace and space promote normal progress of labour? What can midwives do to mitigate intrapartum interventions? HINT: read up on the fear cascade.

Week 8 Topic: Collaboration in maternity services is required to safeguard appropriate woman centred care. This requires respectful communication between members of the multidisciplinary team. Drawing from your experience as a registered nurse and from your midwifery, clinical placements discuss examples of when this worked well and when it did not. What caused either the failure or the success in the collaboration and what were the outcomes for the woman, infant or patient?

Length of Post/Discussion: 400-500 words per weekly discussion: total word count 800 to 1200 words.

Your contribution to the online group discussion is to add to the designated topics and questions being posed in the study guide and to contribute to the discussion generated by your colleagues. Simply stating 'yes I agree with previous statements' is not considered to be contributing to the discussion. If you are citing from other work in your post, you will be required to reference this using APA 7th edition style.

Literature and references

In this assessment you may use contemporary references (<5 years) to support your discussion. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the five elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature sourced from the internet must be from reputable websites such as from government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Midwives.

Requirements

• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman or Arial

• You may write in the first-person perspective.

• Use professional and academic language.

• Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide.

• The word count is considered from the first word of each blog/post to the last word of the blog/post. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Resources

• You can use unit provided materials and other credible sources (e.g. journal articles, books) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important.

• We recommend that you access your discipline specific library guide: Midwifery Resource Guide.

• We recommend you use EndNote to manage your citations and reference list. More information on how to use EndNote is available at the CQUniversity Library website.

• For information on academic communication please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources including information for students with English as a second language.

• Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here.

Submission

• Submit your blogs/posts via the unit Moodle discussion forum in the corresponding weeks thread.

• Assessment Due Date: Each post will be due on the Friday of that week by 2345hrs AEST and final submission is due Week 9 on Friday the 14th of May 2021 by 18:00 PM AEST.

• Final Submission of the assessment one (all the posts/blogs) will be due: 14th of May 2021 (Week 9).

• The Unit co-ordinator will collate your responses and complete the final submission.

Marking Criteria

Refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned.

Assessment 2 – Written Essay.

Due date: 18:00 hrs AEST 28/4/21 (Wk 7).

Weighting: 40%

Length: 2000 words

Unit Coordinator: Bridget Ferguson

Learning Outcomes Assessed:

1. Examine the historical roots and social and political influences on contemporary midwifery.

2. Explain the role of the midwife

Aim:

The aim of this assessment is to help you articulate your understanding of the historical, political and social roots of the profession of midwifery and the role of the midwife. This assessment will help you create a foundational context for contemporary midwifery practice as you begin your midwifery career.

Instructions:

You are required to write an essay that demonstrates your understanding of the concepts learnt throughout this course. You are expected to use an academic approach to answer all components of this assessment. Using this approach, you will need to demonstrate that you have researched the appropriate subject content. You are required to read widely and analyse the information that you gather, ensuring that it is applicable, evidence-based and up-to-date.

Consider and contrast historical and contemporary approaches to care of the pregnant, birthing and postnatal woman. Critically analyse the three components of maternity care that were lost at the turn of the 19th century marking the beginning of the move of childbirth from the home into institutions. The three components according to Tracy and Grigg (2019) include:

· A move away from a familiar environment.

· The loss of a close personal and trusting relationship with a midwife who provided continuous care throughout labour and childbirth.

· A strong belief in the normal physiology of childbirth.

Please follow the steps below to complete your assessment task:

You are required to succinctly wite on the following:

• Explore historical and contemporary approaches to maternity care and the three components of women's care (as above) that were lost in the move from birthing in the home to birthing in the hospital system.

• Discuss the impact of this loss upon women, their birthing experience and the midwifery profession.

• Analyse how contemporary midwifery, via continuity models of care, seeks to reinstate these components. Discuss and link contemporary midwifery models of care to the International Confederation of Midwives’ Bill of Rights for Women and Midwives.

Reference:

Tracy, S. K., & Grigg, C. (2019). Birthplace and birth space. In S, Pairman, Tracy, S., Dahlen, H., & Dixon, L. (Eds.) Midwifery, Preparation for Practice (4th ed., pages 89-112). Elsevier.

Literature and references

In this assessment, you are to use contemporary references (<5 years) to support your reflective writing. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the five elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature sourced from the internet must be from reputable websites such as from government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Midwives.

Requirements

• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, with 1.5 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).

• Include page numbers on each page in a footer.

• You may write in the first-person perspective.

• Use formal academic language.

• Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide.

• The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Resources

• You may use unit materials provided and other credible sources of information (e.g. journal articles, books) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important.

• We recommend that you access your discipline specific library guide: Midwifery Resource Guide

• We recommend you use EndNote to manage your citations and reference list. More information on how to use EndNote is available at the CQUniversity Library website.

• For information on academic communication please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources including information for students with English as a second language.

• Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here.

Submission

Submit your assessment via the MDWF12001 Moodle site in Microsoft Word format only. 

Marking Criteria

Refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned.

Use the best HTML tools: read the blog, use the online editor, find the tags.

Assessment 3 – Written Essay.

Due date: 18:00 hrs AEST 27/5/21 (Wk 11).

Weighting: 40%

Length: 2000 words

Unit Coordinator: Bridget Ferguson

Learning Outcomes Assessed:

2. Explain the role of the midwife

3. Critique the theories and philosophical underpinning contemporary midwifery practice in national and international settings.

Aim:

The aim of this assessment is to enhance your recognition of professional boundaries in midwifery practice and to embed your knowledge of The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia professional codes of conduct and ethics. The assessment aims to assist you in applying of these boundaries, and codes of conduct and ethics for the establishment of effective, woman centred partnerships.

Instructions:

You are required to write an essay that demonstrates your understanding of the concepts learnt throughout this uint. You are expected to use an academic approach to answer all components of this assessment. Using this approach, you will need to demonstrate that you have researched the appropriate subject content. You are required to read widely and analyse the information that you gather, ensuring that it is applicable, evidence-based and up-to-date.

You are to write an essay on: Building Midwifery Partnerships - Therapeutic Relationship versus Professional Friendship.

According to Miller and Bear (2019), women and midwives benefit from professional and therapeutic relationships where mutually negotiated goals, care practices and support strategies are evident. For midwives to establish effective partnerships with women they need to be aware of the professional frameworks, ethical considerations, and boundaries inherent to midwifery partnerships.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia provides professional codes such as the Code of Conduct and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Code of Ethics. These documents form an overarching framework for legal and professionally accountable midwifery practice. A companion document to these codes is “A Midwife’s Guide to Professional Boundaries”. These documents give detailed guidance regarding management of professional boundaries; that is, identifying and differentiating the boundaries between professional relationships and personal relationships with women and their families. When working with women, especially in a continuity of care midwifery model, a relationship has a potential for becoming a friendship crossing professional boundaries.

Please follow the steps below to complete your assessment task:

• Discuss and explore: the key principles of the midwifery partnership model between women and midwives. What is a midwifery partnership model of practice and how does this align with midwifery philosophy and the NMBA Midwife Standards of Practice (2018)?

• Critically analyse the differences between friendships and professional therapeutic relationships in relation to midwifery. How do midwives establish, maintain, and end this professional relationship either successfully or unsuccessfully: Consider the continuum of professional midwifery behaviour, the NMBA Code of Conduct and Ethics and the ICM definition of the midwife.

• Analyse and discuss the concepts of empowerment, negotiation, reciprocity, and trust in relation to midwifery partnership.

Reference:

Miller, S., & Bear, R. (2019). Midwifery partnership. In S, Pairman, Tracy, S., Dahlen, H., & Dixon, L. (Eds.) Midwifery, Preparation for Practice (4th ed., pages 299-326). Elsevier.

Literature and references

In this assessment you are to use contemporary references (<5 years) to support your academic writing. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the five elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature sourced from the internet must be from reputable websites such as from government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Midwives.

Requirements

• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, with 1.5 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).

• Include page numbers on each page in a footer.

• You may write in the first-person perspective.

• Use formal academic language.

• Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide.

• The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Resources

• You may use unit materials provided and other credible sources of information (e.g. journal articles, books) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important.

• We recommend that you access your discipline specific library guide: Midwifery Resource Guide

• We recommend you use EndNote to manage your citations and reference list. More information on how to use EndNote is available at the CQUniversity Library website.

• For information on academic communication please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources including information for students with English as a second language.

• Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here.

Submission

Submit your assessment via the MDWF12001 Moodle site in Microsoft Word format only.

Marking Criteria

Refer to the marking rubric on the Moodle site for more detail on how marks will be assigned.