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Building strong foundations in leadership and management for midwifery students

02 January 2024
Professional
02 January 2024
Volume 32 · Issue 1

Abstract

This article explores the importance of leadership and management for midwifery students in their preparation to become midwives. The article combines a review of the existing literature, reflection on the authors' experiences and feedback from midwifery students on leadership and management modules at a university in Brunei Darussalam. Leadership and management skills are essential, and a requisite for every midwife to ensure coordination of structured, safe and high-quality midwifery care. Some important leadership and management competencies include decision making, managing resources, teamwork, collaborating effectively with other healthcare professionals, delegating tasks appropriately and efficient time management. Stakeholders in midwifery education, including educational institutions, public and private healthcare systems and women using midwifery services, expect newly graduated midwives to possess these foundational leadership and management proficiencies so that they can immediately perform their duties when they begin their new role as qualified midwives.

Leadership and management are crucial, mandatory elements of midwives' daily work. The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM, 2023) highlights the importance of leadership roles in the development of midwifery education and clinical scope of practices. This is also emphasised by the Nursing Board of Brunei, in their core competency standards for registered nurses and midwives; these require all midwives to act with professionalism and competence and demonstrate leadership and management skills (Ministry of Health Brunei, 2013).

Midwifery leadership is midwives' ability to guide, inspire and influence their colleagues, including both other midwives and the wider multidisciplinary team (Bannon et al, 2017; Adcock et al, 2022). Midwifery management is the process of planning care, including organising, directing and controlling resources for care delivery (Hewitt et al, 2021). Collectively, leadership and management are aimed at achieving common goals related to midwifery care delivery, to improve the quality of care and outcomes for women and their families. Leadership and management are complementary elements, with leadership being important for promoting innovation, teamwork and quality improvement in midwifery practice, while management is vital for ensuring that resources are used effectively and efficiently (Hewitt et al, 2021). Midwives are expected to both take a role in leading care and to have strong management skills, to ensure high-quality care delivery.

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Foundational
Leadership
Management
Midwives
Preparation
Student