UTS Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health

The industry-leading has reached another milestone with the launch of a Bachelor of Midwifery (Honours), the first degree of its kind in in NSW.

 

Belle Watson, one of the first cohort of students to complete the UTS Bachelor of Midwifery (also a NSW first when it started in 2005), will be the inaugural student in the honours program.

Acting Dean of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Professor Denise Dignam, said that along with the new midwifery honours, the faculty had revised its Bachelor of Nursing (Honours) and was offering it in 2008 after a break of several years.

Five students who have just completed their Bachelor of Nursing at UTS will commence the revised program.

Professor Dignam said the degrees provide Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Midwifery graduates with the opportunity to undertake clinically-focused research and to produce work of value to the professions.

"They aim to develop students' skills in using research designs and methodologies, and to reinforce their understanding of the crucial role of research in the evolution of the disciplines of nursing and midwifery," Professor Dignam said.

Ms Watson's research will explore the impact of the hospital birthing environment on mothers and whether it has an influence on physiological outcomes in maternity care.

She believes that birth is currently perceived as a medical rather than social event and that the current system of maternity care, where medical interventions have become routine, is dominated by ideologies of risk and fear.

She will analyse data previously collected by the UTS Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health and conduct in-depth interviews with midwives and mothers, comparing both sets of data to the current NSW Health guidelines for the design and construction of hospital birthing facilities.

In the nursing honours program Amy Barker and Christine Bond are looking at children, pain and the use of oxygen in hospitals; Mel Warwick is studying the management of chronic lung disease; Natalie Walker infection prevention in intensive care units; and Richard Talisayon a study of intensive care unit operation.

Professor Dignam said the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health had created new honours scholarships to support young researchers, and all six 2008 honours students were successful in their applications.