Summary
Central Queensland Health is benefiting from a new Midwifery Clinical Facilitator Program, supporting graduate midwives and creating meaningful career pathways.
This is part of a Queensland Government program to fund new clinical facilitator positions across the state designed to bolster maternity services and address workforce attrition in regional Queensland.
Clinical Midwife Facilitators are experienced registered midwives who support, mentor and assess student and graduate midwives during clinical placements and first year of employment.
Chief Executive Lisa Blacker says they are essential in mentoring the next generation of midwives and building a robust pipeline for maternity services across Central Queensland.
“With a background in midwifery I know firsthand the rewards this fabulous profession brings, and I am delighted that this program gives even better opportunities for training and growing our workforce of the future,” she said.
“We are very fortunate to have 18 graduates and 15 student midwives supporting maternity services across our health service.
“Many of these are locals and intend to stay in Central Queensland which is a positive outlook for the future of recruitment of local midwives.
“Clinical facilitators support those entry-level positions and students as they navigate work in a clinical setting rather than in the classroom.
“This helps us to ensure our midwives can train locally, in the centres they live and love in a supportive and relevant workplace.
“It also means our teams are able to offer even better midwifery care and support for local mums, bubs and young families.”