Showing posts with label Midwives. Western Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Midwives. Western Australia. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Come Join the Celebrations for IMD......Mark your Diaries WA Midwives

.............2010 International Midwives Day

Midwifery:Diverse Care For a Diverse Community
.............Rural and Migrant midwifery care
................MidPLUS workshop
.................Midwifery Practice Review

coming soon to UWA on Saturday May 1st 2010
.......Good food, Good Company, Great Day
.............details to follow soon

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION

See you there The Education Committee




Saturday, February 20, 2010

General Meeting with Barbara Vernon the CEO of the Australian College of Midwives:


The meeting was attended by approximately 25 members. It was brilliant to see the student representative’s coming to the meeting.... 3 from Curtin and 2 from ECU.
No guesses what we discussed....what everyone is talking about....the new legislation and National registration. Next week is important as three Bills will be presented to the Senate......that is
Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009
Amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 and National Health Act 1953 to: enable nurse practitioners and appropriately qualified and experienced midwives to request appropriate diagnostic imaging and pathology services for which Medicare benefits may be paid; and allow those health professionals to prescribe certain medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Also makes consequential amendments to the Health Insurance Act 1973, Medical Indemnity Act 2002, Medicare Australia Act 1973 and National Health Act 1953.

Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Bill 2009
Introduced with the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Run-off Cover Support Payment) Bill 2009, the bill establishes the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme to provide indemnity insurance to eligible privately practising midwives.
Midwife Professional Indemnity (Run-off Cover Support Payment) Bill 2009
Introduced with the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Bill 2009, the bill imposes the run-off cover support payment as a levy on insurers’ premium income for providing insurance cover to eligible midwives.



Other issues discussed were...Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS)....Prescription Benefits Scheme (PBS) and the run off insurance cover.

The most interesting part of the evening for me was discussing the many options midwives will have from this enormous change to the way we work in Australia.... and not before time.... but I have to ask.... Are Midwives Ready for this Change????

How is MBS going to affect midwives?
....women can be private patients of the midwife...therefore claiming a funding rebate... however not for intrapartum care.
....midwives could be contracted to hospitals for intrapartum care
...midwives could setup their own consulting service for antenatal and postnatal care....we just have to be clever how we do it...

What are the implications for midwives with these changes.....well you can be
........self employed, set up your own practice providing antenatal & postnatal care
........be contracted to a hospital for intrapartum care
........participate in midwifery care
........relinquish the nurse component of your registration
........work in the community

Where too from here?

These are very exciting times.... however.......we need to work everyday on these issues.... determining eligibility, designing MBS rebates.... CPD packages on MBS & small business management, searching for indemnity insurance....



What do you think? are you ready for this?


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Meet the executive members of the WA Branch 2010




Tracy Martin has many roles of which one is President of the WA Branch. She is a midwife with over 15 yrs experience in maternity care having recently worked in antenatal care. She is also a member of the Professional Practice Committee at the NMBWA.





Abbey works with women and their families planning to birth at home.
Encouraging, facilitating and supporting women to make choices for themselves and their babies that inspire their culture, their mind and their heart is what moves me to the core. Strong competent human beings rise from such a basic evolutionary process if guarded and treated with the respect birth deserves. Most of the time all we as midwives need to do is be there and believe in her.
Abbey is the Vice President of the College.



Jill Banks became a midwife in Portsmouth UK, since coming to Australia Jill has worked mainly in country areas and is well versed with the issues country midwives encounter. Jill now works in a small metro hospital as a midwifery manager. Jill is the Fundraising and Publicity Officer.





Karen Kruit is the Aboriginal Liaison: a midwife with a passion for holistic maternity care for all women. As a midwifery consultant for Aboriginal Maternity Care, I am pleased to note the intention of the college to expand their support for midwives working in rural and remote health services. This will help to strenghten the professional identity in their local communities and inform women about the benefits of having midwifery led maternity care.


Shelley Gower is the Consumer Representative. Shelley has been involved in maternity related community organisations since 2004. She was Convener of Birthrites: Healing After Cesarean for 2 years and served on the Board of Community Midwifery WA for 18 months. She has recently worked as Project Coordinator for the Curtin University School of Nursing and Midwifery on a NHMRC funded project on women's experienced of pregnancy and childbirth.


Janice Butt has a joint appointment as Coordinator of Midwifdery Education at KEMH and Associate Director of Midwifery at Curtin University. Janice is passionate about the profession of midwifery and is dedicated to the development of midwifery as a independent profession working in collaboration with its medical partners. Janice is a fellow of the ACM and is also currently one of the midwife members on the WA Nurses and Midwives Board. Janice is the Midwifery Education Standards Advisory Committee (MESAC) Representative.


Pauline Costins is the National Director Representative for WA. Pauline is passionate about giving women informed choice about pregnancy and birth options. She is also passionate about passing on information to midwives about their legal, ethical and professional frameworks, her special interests are law and ethics. Pauline is a lecturer at Curtin University in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and also works one day a week clinically and a member of the Network Advisory Committee at the NMBWA.


Terri Barrett is the BHFI representative: Terri is also the Midwifery Director of Statewide Obstetric Support Unit; this unit provides operational support to public maternity services across WA.







Susan Cudlipp is the Community Midwifery Representative: she is a midwife working for CMP and has served on the CMWA Board for 2 years. Susan also has experience of working in Family Birth Centres. She is passionate about women's choices about where and with whom they birth with particularly Homebirth and midwifery led care.




Dr Ravani Chetty is the Education Officer, she is a senior lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Curtin University. She has taught midwifery in South Africa and United Arab Emirates. Ravani also has a joint appointment with Joondulup Health Campus as a midwife-nurse research consultant. Her research focus is adolescent maternity care.


Pauline Moore is a member of the education committee. She is passionate about midwifery and providing women informed choice. Pauline currently works in the Next Birth After Caesarean Section Clinic (NBAC) which assists women to have choice about their next birth after a caesarean section.





Sylvia Jenkin is a member of the education committee. Sylvia is a direct entry midwife from Germany, who has worked in Germany, NZ and now Perth. She is passionate about midwifery, homebirth, waterbirth and providing continuity of care for women. She currently works as a casual midwife who particularly enjoys working in the Family Birth Centre.





Trish Dempsey: Minute secretary: Trish is a midwifery educator at KEMH and holds an adjunct appointment with Curtin University. Trish has worked in all areas of practice including neonatal intensive care. She coordinates the midwifery return to practice programs and neonatal resuscitation assessors program. She is also a member of the Education and Research Advisory Committee and Network Advisory Committee at the NMBWA.


Meet our general secretary Laura Robertson- who is a rotational midwife working across nearly every aspect of midwifery practice. Laura is passionate about working with women to make the most of their childbirth experience,and about working with midwives to make their work fulfilling, ie.offering women a wider choice of place of birth would lead to midwives practicing across the full scope of midwifery practice. Laura is also passionate about midwives maintaining traditional skills through everyday use - a challenge.



'Birth is not only about making babies. It's about making
mothers -strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and believe
in their inner strength." - Barbara Katz Rothman









Monday, January 25, 2010

Meeting the Prime Minister: Australia Day Celebrations in Perth


The President (Tracy Martin) of the Australian College of Midwives WA Branch & guest (Pauline Costins) National Director representative WA Branch was invited to the Australia Day Celebrations at the Town Hall on Thursday 21st January. Over 400 hundred guests were present, the guests included members of parliament, multi denominational religious dignitaries, associations, unions, volunteers, hospital and health officials....... too many for me to mention, however a mixture of peoples. We were greeted at the door by the Hon Kevin Rudd, he held out his hand and said “hello I’m Kevin”...... not what I was expecting and on his right was the Hon Colin Barnett. It was all so surreal, the hall was very hot, the drinks were flowing freely and people mingling and talking.




There was the traditional opening, followed by the National Anthem: Advance Australia Fair and the Prime Ministers speech. The Hon Kevin Rudd praised our beaches and our natural environment.
“As a Prime Minister I am doing something a little different this year....... what I have sought to do this week is to take some time to travel to each of our State capitals.... to take Australia Day to the people”
“The nation is much bigger than Canberra. The nation extends – at least at my last report – beyond the boundaries of the Australian Capital Territory. This is a vast nation.

Tracy and I spoke to many people; including the PM, he knew the name of the midwife at his birth, that was impressive, midwives are certainly on the Federal agenda, it was a great early evening event. We met the Federal Member for Hasluck Ms Sharryn Jackson MP, I had recently sent Ms Jackson an email, as she is my local Member of Parliament, asking her what her position was on Homebirth, MBS, PBS and Midwifery models of care. It was refreshing to see she had read my email and responded by saying, "yes midwives not happy, I am not happy" so lets hope things move forward.


We were also fortunate to meet the Hon Nicola Roxon, the Minister for Health and Aging, what a delight Nicola is.... we spent quite some time discussing the issues surrounding midwives and midwifery... the take home message for midwives: was to work together, all come from the same page and support each other, which also means supporting the Australian College of Midwives who is actively fighting for the rights of the midwife in Australia.



It was a fruitful evening, networking and getting to talk to the parliamentarians, I was really impressed with Nicola Roxon.... she is dynamic and intelligent, a woman before her time.... I really hope it all pays off... I believe as midwives if we could get MBS & PBS off the ground and into mainline practice.... Homebirth will follow... we have a two year grace to work out a framework suitable for independent or private practice midwifery.... lets take one step at a time, ensure the first steps and the rest will follow.... don't throw the baby out with the bath water....it will happen in due course.....

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

WA ACM Branch presents: "The Magic of Midwifery"


The WA Branch of the ACM presents "The Magic of Midwifery" come and enjoy this study day, network with like minded midwives.

Have your say about your college at the Annual General Meeting. There is also the opportunity to become active within the WA Branch by joining the education committee, a general committee representative or be part of the research team. Join us for a sundowner at the end of the day to network and socialise.

When: Friday 13th November 2009
Where: 45 Plaistowe Mews, City West Function Centre, City West, East Perth
Time: 0800 - 1630
Lots of parking available, all refreshments included.

Come and spend a day finding out
what’s new in the world of midwifery,
be motivated and inspired by Barb
Vernon ACM Executive Officer, hear
updates from the college at our branch
AGM and then finish off the day with
a sundowner catching up with old
friends and colleagues.


• Are you prepared for National Registration?
Barb Vernon & Abby Clemence ACM National

• Midwifery Group Practice - Donna Brooking

• Antenatal Education - “A menu approach” Jill Banks

• Midwifery Language - Annis Middleton - Mather

• Continuity of Care Experience
- Gemma Davies BSc/Mid Student

• The role of the Doula - Australian Doulas

• WA Water Birth Policy - Janice Butt

• Intermittent Auscultation - Lesley Kuliukas

• Annual General Meeting

Click here for link to application form and payment details.

See you all there Pauline


Monday, June 22, 2009

It is important to have your say about National Registration for Health Professionals:


The aim of this blog is to disseminate this information to as many people as possible and for you to read it and make comment. This is legislation that is going to affect your clinical practice, choices for women and the way in which registration and complaints will be dealt with. So please if you have never been proactive now is the time to start. It is time for public consultation and the submissions close 17 July 2009.

This is how we have a voice, by making submissions. We need to find a way to save Private Practice or independent midwifery, there are some very good practitioners out there that want to work in collaboration with our medical colleagues.

The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professionals:
The Health Practitioner Regulation (Administrative Arrangements) National Law Bill 2008 received Royal Assent on 25 November 2008, giving effect to the new national law.


The council of Australian Governments (COAG) in March 2008 signed an agreement to start the ball rolling creating a single national registration and accreditation system for health professionals. To start with, there are 10 health professions; chiropractors, dentists (including dental hygienists, dental prosthetists and dental therapists); medical practitioners, nurses and midwives, optometrists, osteopaths, pharmacists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, and psychologists.

Now it is time for you to review the next phase of this process The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law 2009 (Bill B)
Exposure draft of Bill B released for consultation - submissions close 17 July 2009

The bodies in the new scheme: Ministerial Council, Advisory Council, National boards, State/Territory boards (committees of national boards), Accreditation authorities, and Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

What does this mean to you as a Midwife – in a nutshell this is what is important:

Independent accreditation will be independent of governments – the final decision on whether the accreditation standards, courses and training programs are approved for the purposes of registration is the responsibility of the national board.

National accreditation standard which exist prior to the commencement of the new scheme are to continue until they are replaced by new standards.

Existing external accrediting bodies such as the Australian Medical Council are expected to continue.

CHANGES TO THE REGISTER;
- There will be both general and specialist registers available for the professions including medical and dentistry

- Separate register for nurses and midwives

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS TO QUALITY AND SAFETY OF HEALTHS SERVICES;
- Mandatory reporting of registrants – who is placing the public at risk of harm
- Reportable conduct

- Criminal history and identity checks

- Simplified complaints system

- Students registrations – students will now have to register from 2011

- PRACTITIONERS WILL BE REQUIRED TO HAVE SUITABLE PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE during the period of their registration. (see clauses 69, 73, 75, 80, 83, 101 and 125)

73 Professional indemnity insurance arrangements
(1) Professional indemnity insurance arrangements in force
in relation to
individual are appropriate for the purposes of registering the individual
in a health profession only if:
(a) the arrangements will not expire before the end of the
individual’s period of registration, and
(b) the National Board established for the health profession
considers the type and level of cover provided by the
arrangements are sufficient in the circumstances.
(2) A National Board may accept as evidence that there is, or will be, in
force in relation to an individual professional indemnity insurance
arrangements:
(a) written advice from an insurer or insurance broker that an insurer
has agreed to issue a professional indemnity insurance policy or
that the premium has been received and accepted by the insurer
for the issue of a professional indemnity insurance policy, or


These are some of the major changes, but for Private Practice or independent midwives the death nail is, the requirement to have indemnity insurance with registration. See the above clauses within the Bill. The second most important issue is that of complaints. From my limited understanding at this early stage is the there will still be an office in each state – I will update you all on this section when I have finished reading it.

Please visit the http://www.nhwt.gov.au/natreg.asp site and make a submission:

go one just hit the hyperlink and have a read.
Pauline




Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Seeing red in 2010

Hi all

The registrations for the 2010 Breathing New Life conference co-badged by Australian College of Midwives, RANZCOG and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) have just been released. It is to be held in ALICE APRINGS!!!!!

What a fabulous opportunity to see the Red Centre from July 1-4 next year.

Link for registrations here.


Of course this year's 2009 conference will be in Adelaide from September 22-25 and you can link to that through the national ACM site here.