Midwifery (Pre-registration)

Available to registered adult nurses, this course will allow you to change your career from nursing to midwifery. The course will enable you to practice safely and effectively, to provide care for women and babies and upon successful graduation register as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Midwives are autonomous practitioners and offer specialist support to mothers from the antenatal to the postnatal period, working with a range of healthcare professionals to promote the best interests of a mother and their baby. This course has been designed to encourage you to think critically and apply evidence to underpin your clinical practice. It will provide you with a wide base of knowledge aligned to national policy and has been developed to meet the NMC's education requirements for the future midwife. It will enable you to be confident in using an evidence-based approach to support decision-making in complex mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural situations.

Inter-professional learning opportunities are embedded throughout the programme, enabling you to learn with different professions to expand your knowledge and develop your ability to work across various teams - an essential skill to learn to operate as a safe and compassionate midwife. 

Two-year study

This programme gives registered adult nurses - with at least 6 months experience - the opportunity to train as a midwife. You'll delve deep into the specialist skills needed to become a highly-skilled midwife, building on your existing skills and experience as a qualified nurse. 

We are one of a small number of institutions working with Health Education England (HEE) to offer this programme. HEE could provide funding for this course.  

Placements are an essential part of your learning and we will allocate you to a local Trust, where you will follow a rotation between areas in both maternity and other health care settings. You are also allocated a practice supervisor and assessor in placement with whom you will complete your proficiencies. If you are already working in an NHS Trust, and are being funded for your course by HEE, you will undertake your placements in your current Trust working under supervision. 

The course also benefits from:

• A team committed to working to the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly standards for Midwifery programmes
• A focus on current public health priorities, the care of vulnerable groups and the increasingly complex health needs of childbearing women; including maternal mental health
• Focus on supporting continuity of care and case loading
• Service user involvement to ensure that the experiences of women and their families are integrated into the programme

 The programme aims to develop registered midwives who:

• Meet the NMC Standards of proficiency for midwives and become eligible to register on the midwifery section of the NMC register
• Practice within legal and ethical frameworks, acknowledging the impact and responsibility of legal and ethical issues on the role of the midwife in the delivery of maternity care

Please note that our modules are subject to change - we review the content of our courses regularly, making changes where necessary to improve your experience and graduate prospects.

The programme aims to encourage you to think critically and apply evidence to underpin your clinical practice. The programme is mapped to NMC requirements for the education of student midwives and is aligned to national policy. The programme is 50% theory and 50% practice-based. You will gain 1,800 hours of practical experience in the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods, as well as in the care of the newborn baby. You'll get the opportunity to examine a wide variety of physical, social, and psychological needs, and knowledge of the transition to parenting.

Students will be exposed to a variety of learning opportunities, face to face teaching, independent study, blended learning days and online resources. Learning in practice is supported by the midwifery ongoing record of achievement document which encompasses all requirements in practice.

Placements

Midwifery placements can encompass community, antenatal and postnatal wards, day assessment units, labour wards, and birth centres. There are also opportunities to gain experience in other settings to expand learning experiences. You will be placed at local trust providers within the region, mainly large hospitals.

The aim of placements is to ensure you achieve all the required proficiencies to prepare you for clinical practice and registration as a midwife. Midwifery students are supported in practice by supervisors and assessors, and there is an emphasis on the application of theory to practice within these settings. To support this, midwifery students will have the opportunity to use specialist equipment available in the clinical skills department at the University.

Assessment

You'll be assessed in various forms to complete this programme, including written assignments, oral examinations (VIVA), objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), written examinations, dissertation and case studies. The programme is designed to help test your theoretical knowledge as well as your practical skills, so we have a range of assessments enabling you to demonstrate both competencies to us. 

• You must be a Registered Adult Nurse on Part 1 of the NMC Register for a minimum of six months and be currently employed by a local trust.
• Have an undergraduate degree classification of 2:1 or above in nursing or any other health and social care related programme. Evidence of Level 6 study will also be considered.
• Applicants must complete an Occupational Health Assessment and Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as part of the selection process and any offer made will be subject to these
• Applicants whose first language is not English must demonstrate via IELTS (or equivalent) an overall score of Level 7

About postgraduate awards 

Please note at postgraduate level, you’ll need to gain the following number of credits in total to obtain the respective awards. If you have any questions please contact us.

On completion of the programme, you may register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Lead Midwives for Education (LME) will provide a good health and character declaration. You may then enter employment as a Registered Midwife where a variety of rewarding and varied careers and pathways are available. You may choose to work in:

• hospitals
• community
• midwife-led units
• specialist roles such as diabetes-specialist midwife
• bereavement
• counselling and safeguarding

Further study

You may wish to return to academic study, further developing your skills and knowledge to be able to undertake a range of specialist or advanced roles. The University of Derby has a postgraduate framework in health and social care and a range of programmes for further study are available.

It is expected that once registered, midwives may return to the University to do Prescribing Qualifications such as PG Cert in Non-Medical Prescribing.

The MSc Midwifery programme will equip registrants with skills such as drug calculations and medicines management, but you will not be able to Prescribe until you have completed additional prescribing qualifications (such as our PG Cert in Non-Medical Prescribing). 

Find out more about our PG Cert in Non-Medical Prescribing

Contact us

If you need any more information from us, eg on courses, accommodation, applying, car parking, fees or funding, please contact us and we will do everything we can to help you.

Additional information about your studies

Teaching hours

Like most universities, we operate extended teaching hours at the University of Derby, so contact time with your lecturers and tutors could be anytime between 9am and 9pm. Your timetable will usually be available on the website 24 hours after enrolment on to your course.

Minimum numbers

Please note that this course is subject to minimum numbers in order to run.