Midwifery

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Background and Rationale

Midwifery training program has been started in Ethiopia at Asmara Nursing school as a specialty training of Nurses after completing their nursing education long time ago, and then at Gondar Public Health College of Medicine and Health Sciences as advanced diploma for few number of nurses with some years of work experience. Latter, direct generic diploma midwifery trainings were established at Gondar, Harare and Hawassa Health science colleges. The first Midwifery School that had provided full-fledged midwifery training was opened at Gondar University as a post-basic training program by the Ministry of Health in 2004 GC, and later expanded to other colleges and Universities.

In a response of recognition of the value of education for socioeconomic development of the country, the Government of Ethiopia has opened several higher learning institutions over the last decade. In view of this, there is global consensus to address in a holistic approach to the issue of maternal and child health problems. The 2005 World Health Report emphasized that making every mother and child count identified midwives and others with midwifery skills as essential human resource in health systems to reach the millennium development goals number 4 and 5.

The 2006 World Health Report identified 57 countries including Ethiopia as having severe health work force crisis making high coverage with essential health interventions including those necessary to meet health related millennium development goals. In the case of Ethiopia, the shortage was more critical for midwives, medical doctors, and anesthesia professionals. Additionally, graduates from medical institutions were not community oriented, in such a way that could identify and manage community high priority problems.

This deficit significantly hinders the nation's progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) on maternal and child health. Evidence indicates that investing in midwives could prevent up to 83% of maternal and newborn deaths, yet midwives and nurses constitute over half of the country's health worker gap. Strengthening this workforce is therefore essential to averting preventable complications.

 

The Ethiopian higher education system is currently undergoing a fundamental transformation, marked by a deliberate shift from traditional, competency based to outcomes-based education (OBE) frameworks to Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). Dire Dawa University (DDU) is a public institution located in an industrial hub Dire Dawa city. It was Established in 1999 has committed to fostering academic excellence and community development in Ethiopia steadily expanded to meet the country’s growing need for skilled professionals across multiple disciplines. With its motto, "Oasis of Knowledge," DDU envisions becoming one of Africa’s top ten Applied Science Universities by 2030

College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS), one of the main colleges in Dire Dawa University (DDU) was established in 2004, laying the foundation for addressing critical healthcare challenges in Ethiopia. The college offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs designed to prepare competent graduates.

The midwifery program at Dire Dawa University was established in 2006 E.C by admitted 43 students, Currently the department has 148 active students from first to fourth year. Further the program had graduated more than 365 from 2009 to 2018 E.C. However, the national research finding showed that, there are significant gaps among graduate’s outputs related to graduate employability, quality deficits arising from rapid massification, limited responsiveness to international policy and institutional partnerships, compliance with national policy directives, and alignment with the university's "third mission" of economic development and innovation.

Curriculum model

The curriculum model is outcomes based with three cardinal features. Firstly, clear, measurable and observable learning outcomes are stated at program, module and rotation levels considering learning domains (knowledge, skill and attitude) and learning hierarchy suitable for higher order learning requiring application and problem solving.

Secondly, appropriate and experiential teaching and learning strategies that are aligned with defined learning outcomes are selected to maximize attainment of the desired competencies by all students. Thirdly, assessment methods that are authentic and require students to perform the tasks defined by the learning outcomes are suggested. To the extent possible, there is constructive alignment among learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategies and assessment methods within the framework of the SPICES Model.

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