A. Name of the Department:-Midwifery Department

B. Background of the department

Midwifery training program has been started in Ethiopia at Asmara Nursing school as a specialty training of Nurses after completing their nursing education long time ago, and then at Gondar Public Health College of Medicine and Health Sciences as advanced diploma for few number of nurses with some years of work experience. Latter, direct generic diploma midwifery trainings were established at Gondar, Harare and Hawassa Health science colleges.

Basically, the first Midwifery School which had provided full-fledged midwifery training was opened at Gondar University as a post-basic training program by the Ministry of Health in 2004GC, and later expanded to other colleges and Universities.

In a response of recognition of the value of education for socio economic development of the country, the Government of Ethiopia has opened several higher learning institutions over the last decade. In view of this, there is global consensus to address in a holistic approach to the issue of maternal and child health problems. The 2005 World Health Report emphasized that making every mother and child count identified midwives and others with midwifery skills as essential human resource in health systems to reach the millennium development goals number 4 and 5.

The 2006 World Health Report identified 57 countries including Ethiopia as having severe health work force crisis a king high coverage with essential health interventions including those necessary to meet health related millennium development goals. In the case of Ethiopia, the shortage was more critical for midwives, medical doctors, and anesthesia professionals. Additionally, graduates from medical institutions were not community oriented, in such a way that could identify and manage community high priority problems. In order to address the severe shortage and skill gaps of Midwifery graduates, the Government of Ethiopia has scaled up midwifery education by expanding number of medical schools and annual student enrollment. Despite the significant step made to date, the midwife to population ratio continues to lag far behind the WHO benchmark of 1in10, 000 warranting further scale-up of midwifery training. Furthermore, the quality of Midwifery graduates from training institutions lack the quality in which the country demands which makes them to deliver the necessary services quality as per the standards to the community.

In keeping with its mission to provide quality education in the country, FMOH wanted to develop a ground-breaking, competency based, community sensitive curriculum for undergraduate midwifery education that will produce midwives with community sensitive, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

  • The Midwifery program (Regular) has been established in 2013 G.C. , 2012 in Summer program
  • Since its establishment has been offering undergraduate degree programs
  • So far a total of 259 students were admitted to Midwifery programs and 212 BSc. students were graduated in 5 batches.
  • The total numbers of students currently attending their education are 144 (81 + 63 displaced/transferred from Aksum and Adigrat Univ.) under graduate and 18 Post graduate students.

C. About Department

  • Objectives of the program
  • To equip midwifery students with solid knowledge of basic, clinical, behavioral, social and public health sciences for optimal care
  • To equip midwifery students with clinical skills in order to provide effective care for women and their children
  • To cultivate humanism in midwifery students in order to provide woman-centered compassionate, respectful and caring services
  • To enable midwifery students to focus on national SRMNCH priorities
  • To equip midwifery students with public health competencies in order to promote and protect sexual, reproductive and maternal health of women and their families
  • To equip midwifery students with professional, ethical and legal principles and values for quality and acceptable care
  • To prepare midwifery students to become health leaders, communicators and educators
  • To equip midwifery students with the skills and attitude necessary for evidence-based practice and research 
  • To prepare midwifery students for inter-professional collaborative practice
  • To inculcate in midwives, the ability for lifelong learning
  • To prepare midwives for postgraduate training
  • Graduate Profile

Graduation requirement will be according to each university rule and regulation. Thus, a student enrolled in the BSc midwifery program is eligible for graduation if and only if he/she:

  • Has taken all the required courses for the program and obtained a minimum CGPA of 2.
  • Student should be able to pass comprehensive exam of the school, both in theory and practice before graduation.
  • The student should pass the compressive exam to sit for external examination administered by external examiners (MOH).
  • Has not scored ‘F’ grade in any course, and should not score ‘D’ grade in any practicum and professional course
  • Pass successfully and complete professional practice program.
  • Has carried out a student research project on a selected and agreed topic of research problem and scored a minimum of ‘C’ grade in his/her thesis report.
  • Agreed topic of research problem and scored a minimum of ‘C’ grade in his/her thesis report.
  • Program profile

The midwifery education has the following components: introduction to midwifery, life cycle based midwifery care and professional midwifery practice as below. In the introduction to midwifery phase, students acquire foundational knowledge, skills and attitudes in basic biomedical sciences, patient-midwife relationship and public health. Parallel to these, common courses are offered to strengthen students’ understanding of civics and ability to communicate in English and use information, communication technology in midwifery. Life cycle based midwifery care modules provide the basic knowledge, skills and attitude that are necessary to practice midwifery profession. During this time, students develop clinical knowledge, skills and attitude through intensive patient-based teaching and guided practice in different clinical departments with opportunities to review pertinent basic biomedical sciences. They also acquire knowledge and skills of health systems, management and midwifery research. Then, students must pass a final qualification exam including comprehensive internal and external exam to progress to professional midwifery practice. Professional midwifery practice provides students with the opportunity to work under supervision in different clinical departments including a primary health care setting preparing them for autonomous practice. Before in year one and at the end of each academic year in years 2 to 3, students have a month-long community attachment to offer opportunities for learning and application of knowledge learned in the respective years in the community setting.

  • Program duration: Four years
  • Admission Requirement
  • Admissions to all regular undergraduate programs are processed through the Ministry of Education and have customarily been students with natural science background and medically fit. Given the importance of having valid evidence-based, comprehensive and fair student selection criteria, it is recommended that Universities develop a defensible guideline. In addition to academic achievement, a literature review by Bore and his colleagues suggests using a combination of informed self-selection, general cognitive ability testing and aspects of personality and interpersonal communication skills to maximize the probability of making accurate, fair and defensible selection decisions.
  • Resources required
  • One of the enabling factors for curriculum implementation is resources.  The universities should fulfill the required resources (human, physical & financial) to interpret /implement the curriculum.
  • The required human resource for the midwifery program mainly includes academic staff, academic supporting staff (technical assistances), supportive staff (Administration, finance…) & leader’s dean, department head…
  • The composition and level of human resources should be fulfilled based on the HERQA guideline. (BSc in midwifery 20%, MSc in clinical midwifery, educational midwifery, maternity and reproductive health, MPH in Reproductive health, neonatology 50% & PhD in midwifery, PhD in women health, Reproductive health 30%)
  • Require the following qualifications of the academic staff:
  • Master’s Degree or above to teach major professional courses; in addition, the individual must also have at least 2 years’ experience in the related field
  • Master’s Degree, or Bachelor’s Degree with at least 2 years’ working experience in a related field for supportive and common courses
  • First degree and above for all instructors in the following distribution (Doctor of Philosophy [PhD] 30%, Master’s 50%, and first degree 20% or less)
  • Implement a ratio of full-time and part-time teaching faculty of 3:2 (60% and 40% respectively)
  • Assign one academic staff member to coordinate practical/clinical programs that facilitate practical learning
  • Assign a skills lab coordinator with a Bachelor’s Degree in midwifery profession
  • Ensure that each instructor has taken a course on teaching methodology
  • The required Physical resource includes (facilities & infrastructure/, Internet connection (webpage,) computer lab, skill lab/workshop, skill lab equipment’s, biomedical lab, Library, books, class room/lecture hall and SMART class.
  • The lecture halls/classrooms should be conducive for group, tutorial, and seminar activities with adequate space (1.4m2/student for group/tutorial and 1.6m2/student for seminar).  The rooms should be equipped with: Sufficient and comfortable chairs and tables, clean projection wall/screen, writing board with different colors of markers/chalk and duster/board cleaner. The rooms have adequate Ventilation (open windows and /or AC, fans). The class room should be sufficient to accommodate forty (40) students at a time. Preferably, A “SMART classroom conference (meeting) table with chairs. Teaching staff should have an access for Computers with Internet.  
  • The midwifery school must have a skills lab/laboratory to practice skills in biomedical sciences and major areas of midwifery competencies including pre-conception care, ANC (antenatal care), labor and delivery, postnatal care, family planning, newborn care, child health care practices, and midwifery foundation. In addition, the skills lab must be suitable to practice clerking, diagnosing, developing clinical decision-making skills, managing cases, and evaluating the treatment/care outcome.
  • Ensure that the skills lab/laboratory room has adequate space to accommodate 25 students per session for skill demonstration, practice, and discussion.  An adequate supply of functional midwifery equipment and simulators to learn essential competencies (with the ratio of one piece of equipment for six students in each lab session).  Adequate supplies listed in the respective lab manuals (Annex I and II).  There should a dedicated office with audiovisual aids including video sets to teach videotaped & audio taped materials.   
  • The departments/schools should ensure students access to computers with Internet connectivity including electronic educational resources.
  • Deploy financial resources to: Budget should be allotted to support
  • All aspects of the goals and strategic plan and ensure stability in the delivery of the program,
  • Allow effective faculty and support staff recruitment, retention, and development
  • Maintain and improve physical facilities, equipment, and other educational and research resources
  • Measure, record, analyze, document, and distribute assessment and evaluation
  • Ensure experiential learning and preceptor support for smooth curriculum implementation
  • Allocate and use the resources necessary for the implementation of the curriculum and distribute the educational and training resources in relation to educational and training needs
  • Ensure that the budget allocation matches with trainee’s enrollment

Degree Nomenclature:

“Bachelor of Science Degree in Midwifery” in English and “(ባችለርሳይንስዲግሪበሚድዊይፍሪ)” in Amharic.