The development of a global Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme

Abstract

Background: Many countries are responding to the global shortage of midwives by increasing the student intake to their midwifery schools. At the same time, attention must be paid to the quality of education being provided, so that quality of midwifery care can be assured. Methods of assuring quality of education include accreditation schemes, but capacity to implement such schemes is weak in many countries. Objective: This paper describes the process of developing and pilot testing the International Confederation of Midwives’ Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme (ICM MEAP), based on global standards for midwifery education, and discusses the potential contribution it can make to building capacity and improving quality of care for mothers and their newborns. Methods: A review of relevant global, regional and national standards and tools informed the development of a set of assessment criteria (which was validated during an international consultation exercise) and a process for applying these criteria to midwifery schools. The process was pilot tested in two countries: Comoros and Trinidad and Tobago. Results: The assessment criteria and accreditation process were found to be appropriate in both country contexts, but both were refined after the pilot to make them more user-friendly. Conclusion: The ICM MEAP has the potential to contribute to improving health outcomes for women and newborns by building institutional capacity for the provision of high-quality midwifery education and thus improved quality of midwifery care, via improved accountability for the quality of midwifery education.

Implementation of a context-specific accreditation assessment tool for affirming quality midwifery education in Bangladesh: a qualitative research study

“…Similarities can be drawn with Afghanistan, where a nationally owned accreditation system for ensuring and regulating the quality of midwifery education was successfully established and implemented during a period of intensive expansion of midwifery education in 2007 [31]. The fact that the ICM developed a global Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme (MEAP) in 2018 [10] provides countries with an opportunity to harmonise midwifery education standards globally. According to the CFIR [22], adaptability is described as being the extent to which a process can be adapted to meet local needs without jeopardising its core elements.…”

“…Involved in its development were the Bangladesh Government, national and international academia, the midwifery association, and donor and technical agencies. The aim was to uphold quality midwifery education in Bangladesh and to prepare for the upcoming global Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme [10]. Through the use of the ICM Global Standards for Midwifery Education [25] and the WHO's Midwifery Educator Core Competencies [26], global level documents were adapted for the Bangladeshi setting.…”

“…One way to assure quality and accountability in midwifery education is through the implementation of a credible, comprehensive and effective accreditation system [8]. This is in line with the WHO's global directives for strengthening nursing and midwifery [9], the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 [8], and the Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme that was recently developed by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) [10]. The aim of accreditation is to ensure that students graduate at an acceptable level so that they can meet the healthcare needs of patients and the wider population.…”

Development of accreditation standards for midwifery clinical education in Iran

“…Given the fact that less than half of the countries in the world have accreditation systems for midwifery education, the use of ICM standards is recommended to develop national standards for every country [ 34 ]. The recent unprecedented surge in the number of migrations of health professionals in Iran [ 35 ] has led to calls for international oversight of key elements of health workers’ training, including accreditation of education [ 36 ], so that destination countries can ensure that migrant health professionals have the necessary qualifications.…”

The Turkish adaptation of the midwifery academics in clinical environment (midACE) tool: Validity and reliability study

“…3 Bu, disiplinlerarası ekiplerde kanıta dayalı yaklaşım ve elverişli bir ortamda ebelere bir ebe ile çalışma fırsatı verildiğinde geçerli olabilmektedir. 3,4 Ebelik öğrencilerinin kendi sorumlulukları dahilinde uygulama yapabilen yetkin ebeler olmaları için eğitilmesi, öğrencilerin ihtiyaç duydukları becerileri kazanabilecekleri kaliteli ebelik uygulamalarına dayanmaktadır. 5 Bu nedenle ebelik öğrencileri eğitimlerinin çoğunu uygulama alanlarında tamamlamaktadırlar.…”