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Unit Synopsis
This is the second of three clinical placement units designed to provide you with supervised, real-world experience in midwifery practice. This unit focuses on the care of women, newborns, and families experiencing complex factors across the antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods. You will have the opportunity to assess, plan, provide, and evaluate midwifery care in response to a range of physiological and psychosocial complexities. You will provide care in collaboration with women, their families, and the wider healthcare team. Emphasis is placed on effective communication, clinical judgement, and the appropriate use of consultation and referral processes, guided by the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral. In this unit, students are required to complete a minimum of 264 hours of clinical placement and to undertake Continuity of Care Experiences (COCEs). Attendance at a five-day residential school is mandatory. To successfully complete this unit, you must also pass the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), conducted during the residential school.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 12 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.25 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: Midwifery Professional Experience 1 Co-requisite: Midwifery Practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 50% |
| 2. Reflective Practice Assignment | 50% |
| 3. Portfolio | 0% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Formulate comprehensive physiological and psychosocial care plans and critically appraise their effectiveness for women experiencing complex factors across the childbearing continuum, demonstrating advanced clinical judgement and culturally safe, evidence-based practice
- Synthesise and apply the Australian College of Midwives National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral to guide consultation and referral processes, facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration, and ensure care is delivered by appropriately qualified health professionals within complex midwifery practice
- Critically evaluate and reflect on clinical learning and midwifery practice related to the care of the woman and her baby experiencing complex factors during the childbearing continuum
- Demonstrate progressive development of midwifery competence in alignment with the Nursing and Midwifery Board Australia (NMBA) Midwife Standards for Practice (2018), integrating advanced clinical reasoning, reflective practice, and evidence-based skills to deliver safe, ethical, and woman-centred care.
Content in this unit addresses the following professional requirements:
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) Midwife Accreditation Standards (2021)
Standard 1: Safety of the public
Standard 3: Program of study
Standard 5: Student assessment
The National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (2021)
Clinical governance
Partnering with consumers
Preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infection
Medication safety
Comprehensive care
Communicating for safety
Recognising and responding to acute deterioration
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Midwife Standards for Practice (2018)
Standard 1: Promotes evidence-based maternal health and wellbeing
Standard 2: Engages in respectful partnerships and professional relationships
Standard 3: Demonstrates the capability and accountability for midwifery practice
Standard 4: Undertakes comprehensive assessments
Standard 5: Develops plans for midwifery practice
Standard 6: Provides safe and quality midwifery practice
NMBA Code of Conduct for Midwives (2018)
Principle 1: Legal Compliance
Principle 2: Woman-centred practice
Principle 3: Cultural practice and respectful relationships
Principle 4: Professional behaviour
Principle 7: Health and wellbeing
International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) International Code of Ethics for Midwives (2014)
Midwifery relationships
Practice of midwifery
Professional responsibilities of midwives
Advancement of midwifery knowledge and practice
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Reflective Practice Assignment | • | • | ||
| 3 - Portfolio | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | |||
| 5 - Self-management | • | • | • | • |
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Leadership | • | • | ||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |