CQUniversity's midwifery education team has consulted with stakeholders to devise a Rotational Clinical Placement Model and has created a Midwife Link Academic position.

This position will not only link the academic program and clinical sites more effectively but will also enhance the diversity of the clinical learning experiences for students.

Dawn Hay - looking forward to the new system

That is according to Dawn Hay who is Director of Postgraduate Programs for Nursing and Health Studies at the University.

Ms Hay said a Midwifery Student Exchange Model for regional Australia is a solution to provide student midwives with diverse learning experiences.

"Since 2008, the CQUniversity midwifery team, in consultation with key public and private maternity service stakeholders, has devised a Rotational Clinical Placement Model," she said.

"This model aims to provide student midwives in a health region with a diverse and comprehensive range of clinical learning opportunities across public, private and community sectors of the maternity services.

"The model not only has the capacity to increase the clinical learning opportunities for midwifery students but also to increase the capacity within each maternity service to take more students.

"The ability for students to rotate between regional maternity services can reduce the pressure on the larger tertiary areas whilst still providing students with a quality learning experience."

Ms Hay said that one of the challenges for education and industry was to ensure a quality and diverse learning experience for midwifery students.

"Another is to reduce the stress on the clinical midwife who undertakes the preceptor role within the maternity unit," she said.

"It is recognised that a full range of clinical experiences should be made available where possible and the clinical experience should, as it does with this model, be tailored to meet the student's clinical requirements and/or the requirements of their educational institution.

"In recognition of the fact that it is critical to have cooperation and collaboration between the educational institution and maternity services, this initiative is an innovative way to address some of the challenges of access to clinical learning environments."