ASSESSMENT ONE – PORTFOLIO/ONGOING REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

40% Weighting

Word Count: N/A

Due Date: Friday 9th October 2020 (Week 12)

Objectives: This assessment item relates to learning outcomes 1, 2 and 3.

1. Assess, plan and provide physiological care to the foetus, woman and/or neonate experiencing complex factors.

2. Evaluate, plan and provide psychosocial care for the woman experiencing complex factors during the childbearing continuum.

3. Reflect on clinical learning and midwifery practice related to the care of women, foetus and neonate experiencing complex factors during the childbearing continuum.

Reflective practice is listed as one of the key domains that make up the NMBA Midwife Standards for Practice. It is through reflective processes that both students and registered midwives can identify and explore diverse values, beliefs, learning needs and sociocultural structures.

To facilitate your reflective skill development, you are required to complete a reflective piece of writing for each of the three (3) recruited 'continuity of care experience' women you recruited in term 1, and the three (3) newly recruited women in term 2 who will be due to birth in term 3.

Overview of Reflective Journal Writing

A reflective journal is a way of thinking in a critical and analytical way about your clinical experience. It involves looking at a situation, assessing what you have learnt from it, what you could have done differently, realising new approaches to your care and ultimately, how you felt about the whole experience. As a student midwife, it shows how different aspects of your work interconnect and can be very useful for identifying gaps in knowledge and ethical dilemmas or situations that need further thought.

Understanding your feelings is a vital skill for reflective writing, and studying midwifery involves being exposed to a lot of new situations - doing your first antenatal booking; helping a woman with breastfeeding support; witnessing a birth - which can bring new reactions to the surface. It's important to comprehend what you feel, why you feel that way and to then learn from it, as failing to reflect can lead to poor insight and therefore poor performance in practice (Hays & Gay, 2011).

*Reflective writing is more personal than other kinds of academic writing and is an exploration of events not just a description of them.

Reflective Journal Requirements

Refer to the provided Reflective Journal Template and the Two Reflective Journal examples

Journal entries are the students written reflections of face to face episodes of care with the recruited CoC woman.

*Due to COVID-19 restrictions episodes of care that are facilitated via Telehealth modalities will be accepted with prior notification to and permission from the unit coordinator. Please email the unit coordinator to discuss social isolation measures and mitigation strategies during the term and prior to the due date.

How to structure reflective writing

It can be useful to use a reflective model, or series of questions, which will help you look at the whole event from many different angles (Macdonald, 2011; Driscoll, 1994; Benner, 1984). The Driscoll model has a very simple 'what', 'so what' and 'now what' model, which is easy to remember and write up. There are three common reflective writing models that you may choose to follow when writing reflectively: Van Manen, Gibbs and Durgahee (Giminez, 2011). The models all involve thinking systematically about the phases of an activity, using headings including: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. These theoretical frameworks provide a starting point for the critical skills that all student midwives should develop by the end of their educational program.

Example:

1. Description: (don't make this too long - refer to the provided template)

What is it? What happened? Why am I talking about it?

2. Interpretation: What is important and relevant? Look through your description and try to find words or phrases that require further exploration. Include the rationale for what was done or why it was done. Where there is controversy about what was done or found, provide the rationale and sources of evidence for both sides of the argument. How can it be explored and explained using contemporary theories?

3. Outcome: What have I learned from this? How will it influence my future work?

Above all, enjoy writing the journal - it is about you and your reflection and your development as a clinical midwife.

Weighting 60%

Word Count 3000 words (+/- 10%)

Due Date Friday 11th September 2020 (Week 8)

Objectives This assessment relates to learning outcomes 1, and 2.

1. Assess, plan and provide physiological care to the foetus, woman and/or neonate experiencing complex factors.

2. Evaluate, plan and provide psychosocial care for the woman experiencing complex factors during the childbearing continuum.

Task: Essay on the topic of “Complex Midwifery Care.”

Choose one of the following complex midwifery practice topics:

• Pre-eclampsia, Eclampsia and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

• Gestational Diabetes in Pregnancy

• Maternal Rheumatic Heart Disease

• Syphilis infection in Pregnancy

Using a midwifery philosophy of care, you are required to:

Discuss the pathophysiology of the chosen condition and explore why a woman and her fetus experiencing the chosen condition would be considered ‘high risk’. In order to assess the risk score please refer to the Australian College of Midwives National Referral and Consultation Guidelines.

Critically explore the current, evidence-based care for the chosen condition and identify and discuss a suitable multidisciplinary team care plan, demonstrating an understanding of multidisciplinary collaboration and appropriate referral pathways.

Outline how the midwife would work with the woman to promote her wellbeing and optimise her experience of pregnancy, labour/birth and the postnatal period.

Within your discussion of the above you should make appropriate links to:

· Relevant clinical guidelines

· A woman-centred midwifery philosophy of care ACM Philosophy of Midwifery

· ACM National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation & Referral 3rd Edition

· NMBA Professional codes and guides for midwives (standards for practice/competency standards, code of conduct, code of ethics, guides to professional boundaries)

Additional Information

Review the marking criteria rubric. Consider that your paper's grade will be derived from criteria outlined in that sheet and thus clear explanations of the expectations for varying grades are provided for both your direction and the assessment of your paper.

Presentation Requirements

• Your essay is to follow academic conventions of structure with an introduction, body and conclusion

• A title page, contents page and numbered pages are required

• Double Line spacing throughout 2.0 (including reference list)

• Font size 12, easily readable style (e.g. Arial, Times Roman, Calibri)

• Word count must be within 10% plus or minus of the given word count. For this essay words in excess of 3300 cannot contribute to your mark.

• Use quotations sparingly and only to illustrate a point that cannot be made with equal impact in your own words – if used, give page numbers for direct quotes.

• Provide a cover sheet which includes your name, student number, the unit code, the assessment item number and word count.

• The word count is from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count includes in-text citations/references. The word count does not include the cover page or reference list.

Referencing

• APA 6th Style

• Use a separate page for the reference list and ensure it is APA 6th style also.

• Use references that are from contemporary and valid sources such as peer-reviewed journals; or evidence-based websites (e.g. government bodies, professional organizations). Avoid websites that end in ".com” and parenting blogs as academic sources.

CLINICAL PLACEMENT

Due date: Friday 16th October 2020 (Week 13)

Weighting: 0% - Pass/Fail

Objectives:

This assessment item relates to learning outcomes one (1), two (2) three (3), and (4) four.

Unit learning outcomes:

1. Assess, plan and provide physiological care to the foetus, woman and/or neonate experiencing complex factors.

2. Evaluate, plan and provide psychosocial care for the woman experiencing complex factors during the childbearing continuum.

3. Reflect on clinical learning and midwifery practice related to the care of women, foetus and neonate experiencing complex factors during the childbearing continuum.

4. Demonstrate midwifery competence based upon the Nursing and Midwifery Board Australia (NMBA) requirements

Minimal clinical practice experience of 224 hours is required by completion of this course. This clinical experience will allow you to consolidate knowledge and skills acquired throughout the term and enable you to draw distinction in your scope of practice between normal and complex midwifery care. You are required to meet the clinical requirements listed below and these requirements need to be documented within your Student Clinical Experience Record Book.

You are expected to work towards minimal clinical requirements, and they include:

1. Recruit three (3) 'Continuity of Care' (CoC) experience women, who will be due to birth in Term 3 and add this to your reflective journals, that can be found on the Bachelor of Midwifery Meta page.

2. Complete three (3) CoC experiences from Term 1 2020.

3. Competency Performance Assessment

4. Complete 224 hours of clinical practice experience plus continuity of care hours (a minimum of 10hrs per CoC woman)

The required clinical experience will be reviewed by the midwifery educator/manager in conjunction with the course coordinator.

Not applicable.