Midwifery is the art and science which provides holistic care to child bearing women, babies and their families from preconception until the end of child bearing period and even throughout the life stage of women’s life”, (Palestinian Council of Health, 1998).This program is designed to meet the need of the Palestinian community through preparing independent qualified professional midwives. It is made of 131 credit hours and is designed to enable the midwife to fulfill the wide, and varied scope of practice, and to graduate students who can achieve the competency level which facilitates them to be skillful, and autonomous professionals.
Program Learning Outcomes
At the end of the program, students will be able to achieve the essential competencies for basic midwifery practice. The following are the national unified intended learning outcomes for Baccalaureate of Science in Midwifery Programs
- Act within an ethical, legal and regulatory framework governing reproductive health for women of all ages, including laws, policies, protocols and professional guidelines
- Behave in a courteous, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, and culturally appropriate manner with all clients
- Commit to human rights and recognize their effects on health of individuals (including women and child rights)
- Work in partnership with the women, men and their families and support them in making informed health choices.
- Understand principles of epidemiology emphasizing women and neonatal issues.
- Assess the needs of communities and promote changes in health care delivery that are responsive to the needs of specific populations, including the underserved and marginalized.
- Recognize social determinants of health.
- Develop an expertise in reflection, in order to promote higher levels of self-awareness in assessing personal and professional growth and development.
- Be responsible and accountable to clinical decisions and actions
- Use appropriate communication and listening skills across all domains of competency
- Explain principles of research, evidenced-based practice, critical interpretation of professional literature, and the interpretation of vital statistics and research findings
- Be familiar with national and local health services and infrastructures supporting the continuum of care (organization and referral systems).
- Assume leadership, administrative, and management tasks and activities, including quality and human resource management, appropriate for level of health facility and midwifery scope of practice.
- Work collaboratively (teamwork) with other health workers and other disciplines to improve the delivery of services to women, newborns and families
- Provide emergency care for women and newborns as appropriate
- Provide individualized pre conception care to obtain a healthy pregnancy .
- Perform complete health assessment for individuals including women and newborns.
- Provide counseling, care, support, and referral for individuals with STI and/or HIV.
- Provide primary health care, locally and culturally acceptable methods of family planning,
- Provide primary health care, gynecologic care, to essentially healthy women from adolescence until post-menopause.
- Manage normal pregnancy to maximize women’s health.
- Detect and refer any woman with complications related to pregnancy that can affect her health or fetus health.
- Manage the care of essentially healthy women and newborns during labor and birth, to maintain safe delivery and manage emergencies as appropriate.
- Monitor and manage the physical and psychological care of women during the postpartum period.
- Facilitate the newborns integration into the family, and provide anticipatory guidance related to infant care.
- Provide basic care for newborn infant and young child including surveillance and preventive care.
- Perform and provide individualized assessment and care of women having abortion.
