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    MSc
    2024 start September 

    Midwifery

    School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health

    Qualify as a midwife and provide pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care to women, birthing individuals and their families. This MSc is the first in the UK to also include the Professional Midwifery Advocate post-qualification course.
    Two student midwives using a pregnancy simulation tool

    Course description

    This course will enable you to become a highly-skilled, autonomous midwife. You will learn how to support, advise, and advocate for women, birthing individuals, their partners, and their families, by providing evidence-based care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Throughout your studies, you’ll be fully supported by midwifery academics and practice educators. With the support of experienced midwife lecturers and practice supervisors our students are able to develop the competencies and essential skills mandated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to enable registration as a midwife. 

    Unique continuity of care placements

    Half of the MSc programme is spent on clinical placement. We offer placements in Barnsley, Chesterfield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.  Once allocated a placement, you’ll be expected to work a variety of shifts covering a 24/7 period to experience the diversity of maternity care services, in a variety of settings. 

    We are the first university to build the latest NHS guidance on continuity of care into our placements programme. This means, instead of seeing different women and birthing individuals at different stages throughout their pregnancy, you will build your own caseload of individuals and follow them through their pregnancy journey, fully supported by practice supervisors. 

    These real-world experiences run alongside sessions at our state-of-the-art Clinical Skills Centre at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield. Here, you will practise clinical skills in a safe and supportive simulated environment.

    Enhanced training for advocacy roles

    The programme is led by experienced midwives, healthcare professionals, and academics, who will introduce you to key topics and the latest research in midwifery - from public health to infant feeding, as well as supporting you to develop your practical skills. Theory sessions take place across the University campus and include lectures, seminars, workshops, enquiry-based learning, self-directed study, and simulation.

    The University of Sheffield programme has a strong leadership focus throughout and is currently the only university to fully integrate the Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) course into our programme. This means that you will also be qualified for PMA roles that come with additional supervision, support and staff development responsibilities upon qualification as a midwife.

    In addition, our ‘Preparing to Prescribe’ training will give you the background knowledge to pursue a non-medical prescribing qualification once you are practicing as a midwife.

    NHS Learning Support Fund

    As a MSc Midwifery student you can apply for the NHS Learning Support Fund to help support your studies. This includes a training grant of £5,000 per academic year, which you don’t need to pay back. Students can also claim travel expenses to clinical placements and extra funding for those with dependent children or those facing hardship. All students on the programme are eligible for this funding, regardless of whether you have had an undergraduate loan in the past.

    Accreditation

    This course is accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). It will give you the knowledge, skills and experience you need to join the NMC register and practise as a midwife. It also qualifies you to work as a Professional Midwifery Advocate.

    The content of this course meets the UNICEF-UK Baby Friendly Initiative Standards.

    Take a look inside Samuel Fox House and hear what our students make of life on our postgraduate Midwifery course.

    Modules

    A selection of modules are available each year - some examples are below. There may be changes before you start your course. From May of the year of entry, formal programme regulations will be available in our Programme Regulations Finder.

    Foundations of Evidence Based Midwifery Practice

    This module aims to develop your skills of research critique to enable you to critically discuss research findings and lessons from data and reports. This will enable you to develop the skills and confidence to promote and inform best midwifery practice, and to advocate and support women when making informed decisions. This module will introduce you to key principles behind evidence-based practice, including its relevance, the role that research plays within it, how to determine which methods are suitable for different problems and the outcome measures you will encounter. You will also develop your ability to examine, interpret and present real-world midwifery and health care data to explain the robustness of the approach taken

    15 credits
    Introduction to Professional Midwifery Practice

    During this module students will develop knowledge of the underlying concepts of the midwife's role in optimising normal physiological processes and providing women-centred care in the preconception and antenatal and the postnatal periods, and throughout normal labour and birth. During this module students will apply basic scientific principles of anatomy and physiology to maternal and infant health This will involve developing knowledge of the physiological processes that underpins labour, birth and the postnatal period. Students will develop knowledge and skills to support women and their families with psychosocial, cultural and spiritual needs during the intrapartum and postnatal period including links to continuity of carer.. This will provide the information required to undertake safe and effective practice and to work in partnership with women, enabling their views, preferences, and decisions to be heard, and helping to strengthen their capabilities.

    15 credits
    Introduction to concepts of Public Health in Childbearing.

    The aim of this module is to introduce you to the key concepts of public health, health promotion and health prevention within current midwifery practice. You will explore the role of public health on a local, national and global level. You will be introduced to the skills and knowledge about health and wellbeing for the individual, the family and the population. Included in this module will be an introduction to infant feeding and the role of the midwife in infant feeding.

    15 credits

    The content of our courses is reviewed annually to make sure it's up-to-date and relevant. Individual modules are occasionally updated or withdrawn. This is in response to discoveries through our world-leading research; funding changes; professional accreditation requirements; student or employer feedback; outcomes of reviews; and variations in staff or student numbers. In the event of any change we'll consult and inform students in good time and take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.

    Open days

    An open day gives you the best opportunity to hear first-hand from our current students and staff about our courses.

    Find out what makes us special at our next online open day on Wednesday 17 April 2024.

    You may also be able to pre-book a department visit as part of a campus tour.Open days and campus tours

    Duration

    3 years full-time

    Teaching

    This programme is 50 per cent theory and 50 per cent practice. You will learn through lectures, seminars, group and individual tutorials, skills workshops, clinical placements, and independent learning and reflection.

    Practical sessions include high-fidelity patient simulation training and supervised clinical skills training, which you will record as part of your portfolio.

    You may also learn from guest speakers, such as service users and carers, as well as patient stories, narratives and reports.

    Assessment

    You will be assessed through exams, essays, task-based assignments, presentations, clinical skills and a clinical practice portfolio.

    Your career

    Career prospects as a registered midwife are excellent. As a registered midwife, you will be in the unique position to provide personalised care to women, birthing individuals and their families from conception, antenatally, during labour to the postnatal period. This privilege can make a positive societal impact.

    As a skilled and competent practitioner, you will support women in making decisions about their care within a multidisciplinary team using research and evidence-based knowledge to maintain safety and respect.

    Our graduates can go on to work in the NHS, but others may choose to find positions overseas, in private practice, in social services, the pharmaceutical industry, research or in specialist areas such as drug rehabilitation.

    You will be prepared for roles including midwifery manager, consultant midwife, practice development midwife, or specialist clinical midwife. 

    Facilities

    Our Clinical Skills Centre is based at the Northern General Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the country. The centre contains mock clinical wards, resuscitation suites, simulated theatres and teaching rooms with high-fidelity patient simulation training – a perfect facility for training the midwives of tomorrow.

    Isabel Gatenby has blonde hair tied back. She is wearing a white student midwife uniform and standing in front of an anatomical skeleton.

    The placements get you used to building a caseload of women

    Isabel Gatenby MSc Midwifery

    As a self-professed lover of learning, Isabel knew she wanted to study for a higher level qualification after her undergraduate degree. After a year out working in a fast-paced hospital environment, she explains what drew her to our MSc Midwifery course, and what she’s enjoying most about her placements so far.

    Entry requirements

    Minimum 2:1 undergraduate honours degree in a related subject. A minimum grade of 4/C in GCSE English Language and Science is also required.

    We may also consider your application if you do not meet the standard academic requirements but have relevant professional experience and good academic potential.

    This course does not accept international students.

    Health clearance

    All new students must obtain occupational health clearance, which may require an individual assessment. This is to ensure that you meet the fitness to practice standards detailed on the Higher Education Occupational Practitioners (HEOPS) guidance.

    We offer support to students with additional needs, for example, through the Disability and Dyslexia Support Service or Student Support Services. You can find out more about the network of support services we provide. A very small number of conditions might, on health and safety grounds, affect your registration with the appropriate regulatory body and your ability to practise in certain clinical situations.

    If you're offered a place, you'll need to comply with the Department of Health and Social Care mandatory immunisation requirements.

    This course does not accept international students.

    IELTS grade 7 with minimum of 7.0 in speaking, reading and listening and 6.5 in writing or equivalent.

    If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the department.

    Fees and funding

    Additional costs

    You'll receive an occupational health screening, immunisations and a DBS check on our professional programmes. These will be covered by your tuition fee. We recommend that you subscribe to the DBS update service within 30 days of your disclosure being issued (which you would need to pay for). You would need to pay for any additional DBS checks that may be required if you do not subscribe to the DBS update service.

    Clinical placements are a compulsory element of the degree, which means that there will be an additional expense for travel and accommodation (where applicable).

    If you are a UK student you will be able to apply for reimbursement for excess travel expenses and dual accommodation costs for placements (i.e. in order to claim, the total cost of your daily return travel from your normal accommodation to your practice placement site must exceed the cost of your usual daily return travel to university).

    If you travel to placement in your own motor vehicle, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have adequate insurance cover for all risks associated with its use (i.e. this includes obtaining business use on your insurance policy). This cannot be reimbursed.

    Funding

    Eligible English domiciled students on pre-registration postgraduate healthcare courses can apply for funding from Student Finance England using the undergraduate funding process. You can access this support even if you have received loans to study an undergraduate or postgraduate course before. More information can be found on the government and NHS websites:

    Further information about the undergraduate funding available can be found on our government loans and support web pages.

    If you live in one of the devolved nations, you may be able to access support from your funding provider. Awards and eligibility criteria vary.

    As a postgraduate student, you cannot apply for undergraduate scholarships.

    NHS Learning Support Fund

    Eligible students may also be able to apply to the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF).

    Apply

    You can apply now using our Postgraduate Online Application Form. It's a quick and easy process.

    Apply now

    Contact

    ahpnm-enquiries@sheffield.ac.uk
    +44 114 222 2030

    Any supervisors and research areas listed are indicative and may change before the start of the course.

    Our student protection plan

    Recognition of professional qualifications: from 1 January 2021, in order to have any UK professional qualifications recognised for work in an EU country across a number of regulated and other professions you need to apply to the host country for recognition. Read information from the UK government and the EU Regulated Professions Database.