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Graduate certificates and postgraduate diploma courses

Postgraduate Diploma of Midwifery Science – Melbourne (Bundoora) (HPMS)

This course will be conducted only if sufficient enrolments are achieved.

The Postgraduate Diploma of Midwifery Science is a one-year full-time, 120 credit point award, with teaching conducted at both the Bendigo and Melbourne (Bundoora) campuses. It is designed to enable appropriately qualified and experienced nurses to undertake studies in midwifery leading to endorsement to practise as midwives under the Division 1 Register of the Nurses Board of Victoria.

The course is designed to prepare graduates to:

• practise midwifery within a framework of wellness and thus perceive the birthing process as a normal event;
• assess, plan, implement and evaluate family-centred midwifery care;
• recognise any deviation from normal during pregnancy, labour and the post-birth period and to initiate appropriate action;
• demonstrate an attitude which is conducive to personal and professional development and which will be beneficial to midwifery care and the profession;
• be aware of the midwife’s responsibility to assist women and their families to participate in decisions about their care;
• effectively collaborate and consult with women, other health professionals and the community to ensure services to child-bearing families remain relevant and appropriate;
• evaluate contemporary research and incorporate appropriate research findings into midwifery practice.

Admission requirements

This course is open to registered nurses who hold a degree or a diploma and have at least one year’s recent acute nursing experience. Applicants must be registered as Division 1 nurses with the Nurses Board of Victoria before the start of the course. A place in this program is dependent upon the applicant having a clinical place at an approved clinical midwifery agency in either the metropolitan or regional areas.

International students, whose first language is not English, will require a proficiency level of at least 6.5 on the English Language Testing system (IELTS) or 575 in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

Course structure

The course is undertaken in one year full-time study only. All subjects are worth 20 credit points. The program timetable offers a combination of block and online modes. Clinical requirements of the course must be achieved prior to completion of the program.