midwife APHRA registration with supervision attach

[thebigmove2017]

I have been extensively researching this, i am an Irish qualified midwife completed 4years (inc 9month supervised internship), i am concerned my registration will come with conditions as it seems alot of direct entry midwives have come up against this with APHRA. has anybody been through this, and is it difficult to obtain employment or an employer willing to complete the supervision period.

 

[shaunfreo]

The problem is usually the continuity of care component 

you are required to have a specified number of women who you have followed through (ante natal , intra partum, and post natal) you don’t have to have delivered them though 

there is a certain number I think it is 20 women but do check as AHPRA change the requirements frequently, and it has to be on your transcript of training as a specific component 

most uk and I would think Irish training incorporates this element as standard and it’s not necessarily considered as an extra and is just part of your training program 

As to whether hospitals will support you in obtaining the requirements, most it seems will not why would they , there are hundreds of Aussie trained midwives who already meet the criteria and can only get temporary contracts

some big hospitals in capital cities might but it’s doubtful 

Its not just direct entry midwives who have this problem, but any midwife who can not show the required continuity of care component 

Anyway good luck 

Edited December 29, 2018 by shaunfreo

[Wonderingaloud]

Hi there. Yes your registration with APHRA will come with conditions, and will require a period of supervised practice and a number of hoops to jump through to meet APHRAs requirements. Even then, you will have a notation on your registration to state that you can’t care for women in a continuity of care model I.e. a midwifery group practice. 

To be honest, you will most likely find it difficult to find an employer willing to take this on. The paperwork is quite massive and APHRAs instructions are not clear on what you and the employer have to do.

My workplace took it on for 2 UK trained RMs about 2 years ago, after they had completed it all they said ‘never again’. My workplace has been recruiting quite strongly for midwives with the right skills and experience but if they were UK trained and needed the supervised practice they were not interviewed. It’s a shame because we actually have a large amount of British midwives who work here with vast experience and skill sets who would never have been employed if these requirements were in place back then.

[thebigmove2017]

Thanks for your replies. Sinnce 2018 It has now changed APHRA say there is no longer limitations to your registration because of the continuity of care and all midwives with this restriction aould be notified the restrictions are being removed from their registration

[Wonderingaloud]

Yes, it only means the notation on your registration  “not educationally prepared for continuity of care experiences” is no longer required. From the NMBA:  

Qualification experience requirements 

Midwives in Australia are required to complete specific minimum supervised professional experience requirements as part of their program of study. Internationally qualified midwives who hold a qualification that is assessed as meeting all the qualification criteria other than criterion 5, the professional experience requirements, may be registered by the NMBA with a condition requiring a period of supervised practice1. 

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1Prior to June 2018, Midwives who had not completed continuity of care experiences were registered with a notation that stated that they were not educationally prepared for midwifery continuity of care experiences. The NMBA has now determined that this notation is no longer required.

 

 

In a nutshell you will still need a period of supervised practice if you fail to meet criteria 5 i.e. the 10 continuity of care cases. 

Regards 

[Wonderingaloud]

It wouldn’t let me edit the above post, here’s what I wanted to write when I re-read the thread.

 

 

Yes, my mistake, the notation has been removed, but it only means the notation on your registration. The conditions of your registration haven’t changed in that  if you fail to meet criterion 5 i.e. the 10 continuity of care cases, you will need a period of supervised practice. 

To answer your original query, based on my experience, yes, it will be difficult to find an employer willing to take staff on with a supervision period required and all the associated paperwork it creates.

That said, perhaps in the last few years the process has been simplified for employers to make it easier for internationally qualified midwives to gain employment. But it wasn’t half difficult when we did it.

Good luck!

[Mamma Midwife]

Do you think they would take post registration experience into account when assessing you for registration? Working in a community setting, you get this experience threefold! 

[Wonderingaloud]

They have a set criterion and I think it’s whats on your transcript, ie what you did educationally and not your professional experience that counts. Could be wrong, but both the midwives we had were highly experienced but couldn’t avoid the supervision because they hadn’t done the continuity of care in their training.