WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

Weston (2009) refers to a questionnaire sent by the New Zealand Nurses Organization to
midwifery members for their response to a proposal by the Midwifery Council of New
Zealand to investigate the introduction of a ‘scope of practice’ for a midwifery care
assistant to address the current serious midwifery staffing shortage in New Zealand. She
notes several responses identified concerns regarding “the preparedness of midwifery
graduates and the length of the midwifery programme” (p.20).
There are current national midwifery initiatives in place which specifically address these
concerns. The Midwifery First Year of Practice Pilot Programme (Ministry of Health,
2008) was launched in 2006 with a vision “that graduate midwives enthusiastically
commence their careers in New Zealand well supported, safe, skilled and confident in
their practice” (p.1). Graduate midwives are assigned a mentor for their first year of
practice with the executive summary programme evaluation reporting almost all
graduates who participated in the programme experienced increased confidence in their
practice and all graduates reporting significant gains in their knowledge and skill which
they attributed to the mentorship and professional development opportunities available to
them through the programme.
In 2009, the Midwifery Council of New Zealand are changing the face of the Bachelor of
Midwifery registration education requirements with an increase in minimum learning
hours, programmed weeks, midwifery practice hours and theory hours. Professor Gillian
White (2005) writes “one rationale for these changes in programme hours is that they will
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