Postgraduate Coursework

Graduate Diploma and Master

These programs prepare students to practise competently in a variety of maternity settings, in accordance with the international defined role and scope of practice of the midwife.

The Master component will provide graduates with a basis for advanced studies in areas such as midwifery, family and child health and women's health. It will encourage graduates to base their practice on current research.

Graduate Diploma of Midwifery

This program prepares students to practise competently in a variety of maternity settings, in accordance with the international defined role and scope of practice of the midwife.

The Graduate Diploma of Midwifery is currently undergoing university approval. Details of the new midwifery course will be made available as soon as possible.

Applications open in August for the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery. The application process involves academic selection by the university and clinical selection by practice venues.  As part of the application process, students are required to submit a CV, two professional referees and a copy of their current practicing certificate, and address the Registered Nurse undertaking Graduate Diploma of Midwifery Selection Criteria required by practice venues. When applying please indicate your 1st and 2nd preference for practice in your covering letter. Please send the above information to the Admissions office by mail or email (The Admission Office Private Bag 45, Hobart, 7001 or Admissions@utas.edu.au).  Applications meeting academic selection are then forwarded to practice venues for clinical selection .If selected by a healthcare facility; students are then offered a place in the course. Venues offering placement for UTAS students in 2nd year are listed below.

Each hospital has a different selection process; students may be required to be interviewed. Applications for first round offers will be processed on 31 October. Applications received after this date may be considered if second round offers are made. If applicants are unsuccessful in obtaining their first preference, the University will contact them in regard to their second preference.

As a condition of offer you will be required to comply with the UTAS Faculty of Health Science Safety in Practice Kit which includes police check, infectious diseases and student practice policies.
Postgraduate courses are scholarship funded (when studying a 25% load /semester) – successful applicants automatically receive the scholarship when they accept their offer so there are no course fees.

The Codes and Competency Standards for midwifery practice in Tasmania can be found at the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia website.  

Student Registration Requirements

All students enrolling in the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery are required, under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009, to be registered (as students) with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia via the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Students who do not meet registration criteria and are refused registration by the Board, or who have their registration rescinded during the program, will be unable to continue in the program.
Applicants please note that the University Student Centre will commence the registration process following initial enrolment.

Students meet the registration criteria by:

• establishing and maintaining their medical, physical and psychological capacity to safely undertake practice; and by
• undertaking a National Police History Record Check to establish that they have not been charged with an offence, or have not been convicted or found guilty of an offence which is punishable by 12 months imprisonment.
  

Professional Experience Placement Requirements

All School of Nursing and Midwifery students have to meet the professional experience placement requirements of the Faculty of Health Science Safety in Practice Kit by completing and submitting documentation to the School of Nursing and Midwifery. The documentation requirements can be accessed via the School of Nursing and Midwifery Professional Experience Placement Postgraduate Placement website, and include: 

• Safety in Practice Agreement Form;
• National Police History Record Check;
• Declaration Form stating that the student has read and understood the Faculty of Health Science Infectious Diseases Procedure and Guidelines and recognises their associated rights and responsibilities, and Health Care Provider and Tuberculosis Screening Forms to ensure Immunisation compliance;  and
• Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct.
  

Compliance with the School of Nursing and Midwifery Postgraduate Safety in Practice Agreement is a condition of offer for Graduate Diploma of Midwifery students.

 Post Graduation Registration requirements

 
The School of Nursing and Midwifery will advise the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) of entry to practice students who have successfully met the required course of studies for the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery. Students will need to download, complete and submit the Application - general registration - AGEN-04 form which is located under General Registration on the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia website. This application form can be submitted prior to the release of results, which will assist in a timely registration process.

Registration standards which need to be met in order to register as a midwife have been developed by the Nursing and Midwifery Board and can be located on the Nursing and Midwifery Website Registration Standards

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Students

Scholarships are available to assist students to undertake university study. Please visit the Riawunna Centre  Scholarships page. The Ida West Aboriginal Health Scholarship is also available to support students living in Tasmania with university study.

Riawunna Centre offers a wide range of services to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students and their communities in Tasmania. There are centres located on both the Hobart and Launceston campuses and student support officers are situated on the Cradle Coast Campus. Riawunna assists all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students who are studying at the University of Tasmania.

Midwifery Prizes

The Mildred Hansen Prize in Midwifery

Mildred Isabel Hansen was a double certified nurse and midwife who trained in the Ballarat Base Hospital in Victoria in the early years of the Second World War. While she gave up her midwifery career to marry her husband, Keith, and have a family, she maintained a life-long interest in women’s health issues and in the compassionate care for those afflicted with ill-health. Mildred died unexpectedly in 2008 in her 91st year and to encourage future students of midwifery to be successful in their course, her family has agreed to endow a prize at the University of Tasmania to recognise excellence in the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery.

The prize will be awarded to the student who has successfully completed the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery course with the highest overall results, including both curriculum based units and practicums. The annual value of the prize will be $500 or any greater amount determined by the selection committee, having regard to the income from the endowment.

The Australian College of Midwives Tasmania Branch (ACMTAS) Student Prizes

Each year ACMTAS awards two student prizes:

First Year Student Award and the Second Year Student Award.

The Awards were established to support the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery program, as well promote awareness of ACM as the peak professional body for midwifery and midwives.

The First Year Student Award is presented to the recipient based on academic excellence in the 1st year of the course.

• The prize includes membership to ACMTAS for one year and a book voucher.

The Second Year Student Award is presented upon completion of the 2nd year clinical practicum. The criterion for assessment includes demonstrated knowledge, clinical skills acquisition, communication, attitude and safety when providing woman-centred care.

• The prize includes Full Membership of ACMTAS for the next year while practising as a beginning Registered Midwife practitioner, and a book voucher.
  

The Australian College of Midwives

The Australian College of Midwives (ACM) is the peak professional body for midwifes in Australia and strives to maximise the quality of midwifery and maternity care for Australian women and their families. ACM has a philosophy of midwifery that is founded on respect for women and considers women in pregnancy, during childbirth and early parenting to be undertaking healthy processes that are profound and precious events in each woman's life.

Student membership with the ACM is available. Student members are entitled to full member services, have voting rights and are eligible to be a member of College advisory committees, such as the Student Advisory Committee.

ACM supports Australian midwives/students midwives to maximise their potential to provide best practice through evidence based care; and provides financial assistance through scholarships

Upgrading Midwives

The following two units are undertaken by upgrading midwives, in conjunction with a research unit and one elective unit:

• CNA707 Professional Issues in Midwifery Practice
• CNA788 Context in Which Women Live

The Graduate Diploma of Midwifery articulates to the Master of Clinical Midwifery.