The Profession and Role of Nurse Midwives

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the role, development, educational requirements, accountability, and scope of practice for the indispensable profession of nurse midwife. The paper begins by discussing the history of the role of a midwife and how its acceptability as a profession has increased over time. The paper also explains the writer's particular interest in the role of nurse midwife.

From the Paper:

"The educational requirements to become a nurse-midwife are not unlike those of other types of advanced practice nurses. Most of the time a bacclaureate degree in nursing is a requirement, but some schools accept RNs without 4 year degrees into their nurse-midwife programs. Mickey Gillmor (1996), a nurse midwife, explains that some universities even offer master's programs for nurse midwifery with combinations of other degrees. Distance-learning programs are widely available, and there remain other universities that grant non-nurses with other degrees entry into a RN/CNM program (Gillmor, 1996)."
"However, if an RN student wishes to become a nurse midwife, they can generally expect to practice nursing in a maternity or labor and delivery ward of a hospital for at least one year after graduation, followed by entry into a certified nurse midwife program. Nurse midwife programs are at least 9 months in length, and master's degree programs average one and one half years in length (Chitty, Black, 2005). Nurse midwife training involves both classroom and extensive clinical experience."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Nebraska's CNM's. (2007). Certified nurse-midwifery: A new incarnation of an old tradition. Nebraska Nurse, 40(2), 10-11. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from CINAHL database.
• Gillmor, M. (1996). The road to nurse-midwifery in the USA. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 11(3), 33. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from CINAHL database.
• American College of Nurse Midwives. (1993). Standards for the practice of nurse-midwifery. Washington, DC: American College of Nurse-Midwives. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from CINAHL database.
• Dawley, Katy. (2003). Origins of nurse-midwifery in the United States and its expansion in the 1940's. Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health, 48(2), 86-95. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from ScienceDirect database.
• American Nurses Association, Inc. (2009). More about RNs and advanced practice RNs. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from http://nursingworld.org/EspeciallyForYou/StudentNurses/RNsAPNs.aspx

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