Program Overview

Graduate Diploma of Midwifery

Program Overview

The Graduate Diploma of Midwifery is an 18-month full-time postgraduate qualification that enables registered nurses to become midwives. The program focuses on woman-centred care and includes a significant proportion of practical hands-on experience and contemporary best practices in a variety of midwifery settings.

Program Requirements

• A bachelor degree in nursing or the equivalent and registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia
• Registered nurses who do not have a level 7 AQF qualification in nursing may be admitted with an alternative mode of entry assessment and recent clinical nursing experience

Program Structure

• Semester One:
  • MIDW5000 Midwifery Foundations (25 CP)
  • MIDW5022 Beginning Midwifery Practice (50 CP)
  • MIDW5023 Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders Women & Communities (25 CP)
• Semester Two:
  • MIDW5024 Midwifery Partnerships (25 CP)
  • MIDW5025 Complex Midwifery Practice (50 CP)
• Semester Three:
  • MIDW5026 Midwifery Clinical Reasoning (25 CP)
  • MIDW5027 Advancing Midwifery Practice (50 CP)

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery, graduates will be able to:

1. Meet the National Competency Standards for the Midwife and gain registration as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia
2. Critically review emerging local, national, and global maternity care priorities, and apply midwifery evidence-based knowledge to provide holistic and woman-centred care across the childbirth continuum
3. Reflect on knowledge and belief to share practice and foster self-regulated behaviours to implement the concept of life-long learning
4. Practice as competent professionals and industry-ready graduates who can critically appraise and problem-solve in practical and creative ways
5. Integrate knowledge, humanistic values, clinical skills, and reflective thinking to an advanced level of critical analysis to provide safe, culturally congruent, equitable, high-quality midwifery care
6. Demonstrate ethical responsibility by actively and continually participating in the development of the midwifery profession at the individual, national, and global level
7. Provide safe, culturally congruent, equitable, and just midwifery care by practicing and promoting a culture of reflective and reflexive midwifery care

Practical Component

• 26 weeks of full-time midwifery practice experience over 18 months
• Placements in public and private settings, from large teaching hospitals to small healthcare centres
• Students are expected to undertake one rural placement (if located in the metropolitan area) or one metropolitan placement if located in a rural area
• A minimum of ten continuity-of-care experiences

Career Opportunities

The Graduate Diploma of Midwifery will enable graduates to register as midwives with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Fees and Costs

• Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP)
• International Full-Fee Paying
• Tuition costs depend on an international student's study load and discipline
• Fees are payable each semester at least four weeks prior to the commencement of the program

Accreditation

The Graduate Diploma of Midwifery is accredited by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council, and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.