About the Nurse-Midwifery Program

Mission of the Nurse-Midwifery Concentration

The mission of the Nurse-Midwifery education program at East Carolina University is to transform the health of all women and gender diverse people, their newborns and their families in rural, underserved communities and beyond; prepare nurses with the knowledge, skills, and values to be leaders in caring for our clients in a global, multicultural society; and to pledge to reduce disparities within our profession and the communities we serve.

Philosophy of the Nurse-Midwifery Concentration

The Nurse-Midwifery faculty accepts and endorses the philosophies of both East Carolina University College of Nursing and the American College of Nurse-Midwives. We believe nurse-midwives care for women and the gender diverse population throughout the lifespan within a family- and community- centered context to assist them in the development of optimal health practices. We respect the dignity, individuality, and diversity of all clients and encourage self-determination and active participation in health care decision making among our clients.

We honor the normalcy of life events and support physiologic care and transitions within a health care system that provides for interprofessional consultation, collaboration, and referral.

We believe in graduate-level midwifery education as the foundation for professional midwifery practice. We value lifelong individual learning and the use of high-quality research evidence to promote best practices in midwifery care at the community, state, national, and international level.

As adult learners and professional nurses, nurse-midwifery students possess varied knowledge foundations and experiential backgrounds. We believe that student learning is enhanced through face-to-face learning experiences, distance learning technology, and individualized clinical experiences. These pedagogical methods promote professional growth through the development of critical thinking, self-directedness, self-evaluation, and self-corrective behaviors.

As educators we believe that education is a transformative process and both educators and learners are stakeholders in the learning process. We believe that education should not be unidimensional in context or approach; a balanced approach using different learning paradigms such as science, spirituality, culture, technology, and the arts should be employed.

Objectives for Nurse-Midwifery Student Outcomes

Upon completion of the ECU College of Nursing Nurse-Midwifery program graduates will be able to:

1. Integrate theories from nursing, midwifery, and other disciplines to guide clinical practice and influence health policy.
2. Demonstrate proficiency in critical thinking and the translation of research evidence into safe, high quality, and evidence-based midwifery practice.
3. Manage the care of women throughout the life span and their neonates by utilizing the midwifery management process.
4. Function independently within an interprofessional framework to provide high quality midwifery care that is equitable, ethical, accessible, and respectful of human dignity, individuality, and diversity.
5. Participate in a health care leadership role in collaboration with professional colleagues to maintain, reformulate, or refine systems of health care that are effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of individuals and families with emphasis on women and newborn infants.
6. Demonstrate strong professional identity as a nurse-midwife characterized by formal education, self and peer evaluation, lifelong individual learning, the appropriate use of technology, and the development and application of research to guide ethical and competent midwifery practice.

Accreditation

The East Carolina University nurse-midwifery program is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME), 2000 Duke St. Suite 300 Alexandria, VA 22314; Tel: 240-485-1803, support@theacme.org.

The East Carolina University College of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), 655 K Street, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202-887-6791.

The College of Nursing is approved by the North Carolina Board of Nursing, P.O. Box 2129, Raleigh, NC 27602-2129, 919-782-3211.