Autonomous Midwifery: Leadership & Practice - HEA00157H
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2026-27 |
Module aims
Note: This document uses the word 'women’ throughout. This should be
taken to include people who do not
identify as women but are
pregnant or who have given birth.
Consolidate, extend and
critically review the professional responsibilities of a registered
midwife as lead
professional:
providing universal and
additional care to women and families
carrying a midwifery
caseload
providing continuity of care and carer.
Extend and
critically evaluate decision making skills in complex and challenging
situations.
Critically evaluate concepts, approaches and styles
of leadership and management within contemporary
midwifery,
maternity and health care.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will be able to:
1.
Critically evaluate the professional responsibilities of a registered
midwife as lead professional
a. providing universal and
additional care to women and families
b. carrying a midwifery
caseload
c. providing continuity of care and carer.
2.
Exercise judgement and critically evaluate decision making in a range
of complex and challenging
situations.
3. Critically evaluate and apply concepts, approaches and styles of
leadership within contemporary
midwifery, maternity and health care.
Module content
Content includes: caseload holding; continuity of care and carer;
decision making in routine, complex and
challenging situations;
understanding of influences on own judgements, recognising &
addressing personal and
external factors that influence decision
making; principles of courage, integrity, transparency, and the
professional duty of candour, recognising and reporting situations,
behaviours, or errors that could result in
sub-standard care,
dysfunctional attitudes and behaviour, ineffective team working, or
adverse outcomes; safe
& effective leadership &
management of midwifery care - including prioritisation, delegation
and assignment of
care responsibilities to others; medicines
optimisation; positive leadership and role modelling guiding,
supporting, motivating, and interacting with interdisciplinary team;
cultural and media influences on public and
professional
understanding; perinatal loss, maternal death and bereavement -
working in partnership with
women, partner, family and
interdiscip;linary/multi agency teams to provide compassionate,
empathetic,
respectful and dignified care; themes within UNICEF
UK Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) University Standards
mapped to
this module.
Please also see detailed mapping of this module
content to NMC (2019) Standards of proficiency for midwives
for
the programme.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
Non-compensatable
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
Written feedback for the summative assessment is provided on the
standard proforma, within the timescale
specified in the
programme handbook
Indicative reading
Ashton, D. et al. (Eds). (2017) How to be a nurse or midwife leader. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Barr, J. and Dowding, L. (2022) Leadership in healthcare. 5th edn. London: SAGE.
Begley, K., Daley, D., Panda, S. and Begley, C. (2019) 'Shared decision making in maternity care: Acknowledging and overcoming epistemic defeaters', Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 25(6), pp. 1113-1120. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jep.13243 (Accessed: 11 March 2022).
Byrom, S. and Downe, S. (Eds). (2021) Squaring the circle: ahead of the curve in maternity care. London: Pinter & Martin. [Online]. Available at: https://www.pinterandmartin.com (Accessed: 17 June 2026).
Gopee, N. (2022) Leading and managing healthcare. London: SAGE.
Gopee, N. and Galloway, J. (2017) Leadership and management in healthcare. London: SAGE.
Homer, C., Leap, N., Brodie, P. and Sandall, J. (2019) Midwifery continuity of care. 2nd edn. Australia: Elsevier.
Jefford, E. and Jomeen, J. (Eds). (2019) Empowering decision-making in midwifery: a global perspective. London: Routledge.
Luce, A., Hundley, V. and van Teijlingen, E. (2017) Midwifery, childbirth and the media. London: Springer.
Martyn, J-A., Carey, M.C., Gatford, J.D. and Phillips, N. (2022) Gatford and Phillips’ drug calculations. 10th edn. Edinburgh: Elsevier.
McInnes, R. et al. (2020) 'Implementing continuity of midwifery carer - just a friendly face? A realist evaluation', BMC Health Services Research, 20, p. 304. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05159-9 (Accessed: 17 August 2026).
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). (2022) Shared decision making. [Online]. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/our-programmes/nice-guidance/nice-guidelines/shared-decision-making (Accessed: 17 August 2026).
Northouse, P.G. (2021) Leadership: theory and practice. 9th edn. London: SAGE.
Page, L. and Kitzinger, C. (2019) From medicalisation to humanisation of birth and death. [Online]. Available at: https://commissiononthevalueofdeath.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/from-medicalisation-to-humanisation-of-birth-and-death/ (Accessed: 17 August 2026).
Raynor, M.D. and England, C. (2022) Psychology for midwifery practice. 2nd edn. London: Routledge. [Online]. Available at: https://www.routledge.com (Accessed: 17 June 2026).
Renfrew, M.J. et al. (2019) 'Midwifery is a vital solution—What is holding back global progress?', Birth, 46(3), pp. 396-399. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/birt.12442 (Accessed: 18 August 2026).
Royal College of Midwives (RCM). (2018) Preceptorship for newly qualified midwives: position statement. [Online]. Available at: https://www.rcm.org.uk/media/5528/rcm-position-statement-preceptorship-for-newly-qualified-midwives.pdf (Accessed: 17 August 2026).
Royal College of Midwives (RCM). (2019) Strengthening midwifery leadership: a manifesto for better maternity care. [Online]. Available at: https://www.rcm.org.uk/media/3527/strengthening-midwifery-leadership-a4-12pp_7-online-3.pdf (Accessed: 10 August 2026).
Royal College of Midwives (RCM). (2021) Making maternity services safer: the role of leadership. The solution series: 2. [Online]. Available at: https://www.rcm.org.uk/media/5415/the-solution-series-2-making-maternity-services-safer-the-role-of-leadership-v1-interactive.pdf (Accessed: 10 August 2026).
Stanley, D. (2019) Values-based leadership in healthcare. London: SAGE.
The King's Fund. (2022) What is compassionate leadership? [Online]. Available at: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/what-is-compassionate-leadership (Accessed: 10 August 2026).
West, M. (2021) Compassionate leadership: sustaining wisdom, humanity and resilience in health and social care. London: Swirling Leaf Press. [Online]. Available at: https://www.swirlingleafpress.com (Accessed: 17 June 2026).