BSc (Hons) Midwifery

Course details You can choose your study base to be in Bournemouth or Portsmouth for this course, the Bournemouth course starts in September and Portsmouth in February each year. If you're considering studying in Portsmouth, watch our video to find out what it's like to study there. You can view information on our facilities and take a 360 tour of our simulation suites here. On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators and technicians. Year 1 Core units Introduction to Professional Practice: You’ll be introduced to the framework that will guide your practice as a midwife, including the professional, legal and ethical codes of practice. You’ll also start to learn key communication skills. Antenatal & Postnatal Care of Mother & Baby 1: This unit explores how the body’s systems change during the pregnancy and postnatal periods; focusing on an uncomplicated antenatal and postnatal experience. You’ll also learn how to support infant feeding. Antenatal & Postnatal Care of Mother & Baby 2: Building on the unit above, you’ll explore more complicated procedures if the mother or baby deviates from the normal antenatal spectrum. This unit also teaches you about postnatal screening for women and their babies. Labour & Birth: This practical unit explores the role of the midwife in providing holistic care for mothers and their newborn during a normal birth. You’ll also learn the professional and legal dimensions of care during labour and birth. Health & Wellbeing 1: You’ll be introduced to aspects of wellbeing and health for the mother, infant and/or family. You’ll reflect on services provided to enhance the wellbeing of mothers and babies using experiences from professional practice. You will also begin to learn the evidence based knowledge and skills essential to provide infant feeding support underpinned by the Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI). Clinical Practice 1: This unit will prepare you for clinical practice, introducing fundamental midwifery skills and underpinning theory and highlighting the role and responsibilities of student midwives. Year 2 Core units Pathophysiology: You’ll learn genetics and the pathological and pregnancy-related conditions of mothers and neonatal conditions and the impact they might have on the woman and her family. Caseloading Practice: This unit will prepare you for caseloading, multidisciplinary working and autonomous woman-centered practice. Medicines Management: You will develop an understanding of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics underpinning medicine management. You will be required to demonstrate your ability to meet the standards of numeracy required to safely administer medicines medicines. Health & Wellbeing 2: This unit will enable you to develop awareness of global issues related to the health and wellbeing of mothers and their families, exploring epidemiological trends and psychosocial determinants of health. Exploring Evidence to Guide Professional Practice: You’ll reflect on how professional practice can be enhanced in accordance with value bases for professional practice across disciplinary boundaries. Clinical Practice 2: In this unit you will develop your skills and competencies in professional practice through inter-disciplinary working. Year 3 Core units Complex Care: This unit will teach you how to assess risk in order to plan and prioritise the care of women and their babies who have complications that may occur in the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods. Health Leadership & Innovation: During this unit you’ll illustrate analytical understanding regarding personal and professional leadership and its transformatory potential in the provision of midwifery care/ services. Evidencing Practice: You’ll undertake an in-depth analysis and synthesis of the evidence surrounding a chosen topic of professional practice. Service Improvement Project: This group project will explore a service area of health care where you can enhance the experiences of people using the service. Clinical Practice 3: In this unit you will enhance your skills enabling you to become a safe, autonomous and competent practitioner eligible for entry on to the professional register. Scheduled learning and teaching activities Contact hours You will undertake scheduled learning and teaching, as well as placements which means you’ll gain the practical skills necessary to work as a Midwife. Your study time at BU will be split between scheduled learning and teaching activities and guided independent learning, such as preparing for and writing up coursework assignments. Year 1 – 19% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 209 hours Independent learning: 391 hours Non-assessed learning and teaching: 19 hours Placement hours: 600 Year 2 – 26% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 235 hours Independent learning: 365 hours Non-assessed learning and teaching: 12 hours Placement hours: 600 Year 3 - 20% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 248 hours Independent learning: 352 hours Non-assessed learning and teaching: 2 hours Placement hours:600 43% of the course is assessed by coursework Year 1: 38% Year 2: 42% Year 3: 50% Midwifery is a very practical profession and you will largely be assessed on your skills in practice environments, however you will also undertake written coursework allowing you to reflect on your learning and also group work. Programme specification Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used. Download the programme specification for BSc (Hons) Midwifery. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance. 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