AN innovative new midwifery course designed to meet the needs of communities across the north of Scotland has welcomed its first cohort of students at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Centre of Health Science in Inverness.
The 19 students will aim to become fully qualified midwives in 20 months on the shortened course, which has been developed by UHI, along with NHS Highland, NHS Western Isles and NHS Orkney and which will have an emphasis on providing care in a remote and rural context.
A combination of face-to-face classes at the Centre for Health Science and online study via the university’s virtual learning environment will be used to teach students. They will then go on to placements with NHS boards in urban, remote and rural island-practice areas.
The Scottish Government is providing funding to cover their tuition fees, offering bursaries and, with NHS boards, funding the salary costs of existing employees undertaking the course.
Professor Crichton Lang, UHI’s deputy principal and head of its School of Health, Social Care and Life Sciences, said: “We are delighted that all of the development work to establish this programme has now come to fruition in this first cohort of trainee midwives beginning
their studies.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said midwives are critical to the success of the NHS, and added: “We are determined to ensure we recruit and retain the next generation of NHS staff to meet the needs of the country and courses like this, which support registered nurses to retrain as midwives, are a vital part of this.”
NHS Highland’s interim head of midwifery, Mary Burnside, said: “This is an exciting venture for midwifery education and practice in NHS Highland and we would like to wish the University of the Highlands and Islands and the new students every success with the programme.”
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