Communication course for midwives teaching students in clinical practice

Title:
Communication course for midwives teaching students in clinical practiceAuthors: Annegrethe Nielsen, [email protected], MA, Ph.D. & Pernille Mølholt Pedersen, [email protected], RM, MA senior lecturers at University College North Denmark, Aalborg, DenmarkBackground: The course is initiated by the midwifery department at University College North Denmark in cooperation with the leaders of the maternity units where the affiliated students have their clinical education. Purpose is to enhance quality of communication education in clinical practice and alignment of educational efforts in school and clinical settings for the benefit of the students
Method:
The course is planned for 3 days - each having a specific theme within the frame of communicative practice for midwives:1.How to gain insight in a woman’s perspective in order to meet her needs2.How to get the most out of time spent communicating – how to be effective in care3.How to inform and plan further care in collaboration with a woman and her familyTheory is presented followed by practical training led by a facilitator. Small group training utilizes role playing, video recording and simulated patients.Perspectives: It is known that students in medical education find that clinical learning experiences do not reinforce the communication skills they learn pre-clinically (Rosenbaum et al. 2013) and our own experience teaching Danish midwifery students indicates the same problem in our program. Providing an opportunity for the clinical teachers to learn, discuss and practice communication issues with each other and with theoretical teachers can represent an important educational quality development