• The Midwifery Futures report makes 32 recommendations in five key areas
• A Charles Sturt academic said the University is already addressing some of the issues to fill the workplace shortage
• Charles Sturt has more than doubled its Graduate Diploma of Midwifery intake since 2022

A Charles Sturt University midwifery academic said the University is well placed to address the recommendations made by the Nursing and Midwifery Board to bolster the country’s midwifery workforce.

The Board, partnered with the Burnet Institute, recently published the Midwifery Futures: Building the Australian midwifery workforce report.

The report made 32 recommendations across five main categories to improve the future workforce and generate information to support policy, regulatory, industrial and educational change in midwifery service provision.

The five key areas are:

• Increased visibility, governance and leadership
• Growing the midwifery workforce
• Supporting the midwifery workforce
• Improve data to support workforce planning
• Scale-up midwifery models of care

Lecturer in Nursing and Midwifery and Head of Discipline (Midwifery) with the Charles Sturt School of Nursing, Paramedicine and Healthcare Sciences in Wagga Wagga Ms Alicia Carey said Charles Sturt is already working to address some of these issues.

Emphasis was placed on the role of universities to help to grow the midwifery workforce and Ms Carey said Charles Sturt is making changes to ensure its future.

Charles Sturt has increased its number of government supported places and intake numbers for the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery, more than doubling the previous student capacity from 100 to potentially 240 students per year since 2022.

The University has also increased its partnerships in Tasmania and Queensland where there is a need for more rural placements and areas to ‘grow your own’ midwives.

“With our increased capacity, we could see more than 600 students enter the workforce within the next four years,” Ms Carey said.

“With the workforce crisis we are currently experiencing, it is important we continue to educate midwives and grow the workforce to ensure rural maternity services continue to be able to keep birthing families in their communities for antenatal, birthing and postnatal care.”

One of the recommendations was for universities to create pathways for students of diverse backgrounds, including First Nations and refugees.

Charles Sturt has partnered with Queensland Health to create 26 scholarships, six of which are guaranteed for First Nations registered nurses to pay for course fees, travel assistance to intensive schools and relocation if a tertiary placement is needed.

“Health services need the support of government with funding to be able to encourage registered nurses to become registered midwives,” Ms Carey said.

“It is critically important to encourage First Nations students to become Midwives, therefore increasing the First Nations Peoples healthcare workforce.”

Another recommendation was for universities to ensure that midwifery clinical placements increase the opportunity for students to work in continuity of midwifery carer models.

Charles Sturt’s Graduate Diploma of Midwifery requires students to have an employment contract for 12 to 18 months as a student midwife while they get paid to study.

“Our employment-based model allows local students to complete their midwifery placements in the communities they live, which in turn allows facilities to grow their own midwives who already live in the area and are working as registered nurses prior to commencing midwifery,” Ms Carey said.

Ms Carey said the next step would be to encourage more registered nurses to become registered midwives, perhaps through additional scholarship offerings.

“We have the capacity to educate more student midwives and need the government to support hospitals to be able to grow their workforce, especially in rural areas,” she said.