Joy Johnston (a member of NBV) has asked this to be forwarded to any midwives who may be interested.
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I would encourage other midwives registered in Vic to think seriously about applying for appointment to one of the positions on the Nurses Board, as advertised in last Saturday�s Age. The call for applications, and relevant
forms are at: HYPERLINK "http://www.health.vic.gov.au/pracreg/boards.htm"
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/pracreg/boards.htm
The advertisement states one position will go to a midwife. This is interesting as the Act does not require it. I think a large number of serious applicants from the midwifery profession would send a message to the
Health Minister that midwives do want to have a say in the statutory regulation of our profession.
The Review of Health Practitioner legislation discussion paper is soon to be released, and one of the questions in that is on t! he regulation of midwives. It is going to be crucial that the Act changes to better manage the
registration of midwives who graduate from the B Mid courses. At present they are registered in Div 1 with endorsement as a midwife, and �restrictions� to midwifery. This is very awkward, and restrictions carry
negative connotations. The midwives graduating from these courses, or coming from other countries, should be registered as midwives � not as some sort of second class nurse.
NSW has just brought in its Nurses Amendment Act which makes major reforms to the way midwifery is viewed in legislation. NSW has also created a new
title, the �Midwife Practitioner� to mirror advances in Nurse Practitioner legislation. There are midwives in Vic who are currently working towards endorsement under the NP legislation, to give them access to ordering tests,
prescribing&c, and hospital admitting and referral to specialists. We ne! ed to lobby for similar reforms here.
We need midwives on the Board who have a vision for the profession to be there advocating for reforms and improvements that are based on evidence. There are other relevant issues likely to come up for the Board�s comment and advice to the Minister in the near future, including unregulated workers in maternity services.
Please forward this message to others who may be interested � I can think of others but don�t have email addresses on file.
Joy Johnston
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