School of Nursing offers unique graduate program
The University of Indianapolis offers a midwifery program for graduate students and is part of the nursing master’s program. The midwifery program is offered in few places in the United States.
In September 2003, UIndy started its own midwifery program, and the first class graduated in December 2005.
A midwife is one who provides and cares for a woman during her life, but specifically during pregnancy and labor. Midwives educate expectant mothers during pregnancy and assist with labor and delivery.
Midwifery graduate student Melissa Cotter simulates checking a newborn baby’s breathing and pulse. Photo by Kenny Norman.
The nurse midwifery track is one of seven different tracks in the
nursing master’s program at UIndy. Barb Winningham, coordinator for the nurse-midwifery track, was formerly the service director of HealthNet, which helps coordinate and provide Medicare plans, and educated classes of midwifery students. She and her colleagues at HealthNet noted that a lot of midwifery programs are out-of-state. There were no midwifery programs in Indiana, and midwifery programs usually involved distance learning online. Winningham coordinates the program and also teaches courses, and there are two nurse midwives on the faculty.
“So myself and some colleagues said we should really think about doing a program here to keep midwives in Indiana,” Winningham said. “We would educate a lot of midwifery students from other programs across the state.”
The program has a birthing mannequin, as well as a plastic fetus and newborn, in the birthing lab for students to use for practice during clinicals.
“There’s a lot of evidence-based literature and information that shows that [midwives] do provide care as well as, or better than, physicians,” Winningham said.
Graduate students in the midwifery program have to take the same core courses as any gradute student would. For the midwifery track, students have to take courses that focus more on nursing, such as adult health and women’s health. The last year-and-a-half in the program focuses exclusively on midwifery. Students are required to complete a large number of clinical hours the last semester in the program. Graduate student Kelly Clark-Mattox is required to do 360 clinical hours this semester before she can graduate.
“It’s been quite a journey in three-and-a-half years and well worth the time I’ve spent on it,” she said.
Graduate student Melissa Cotter has a very high opinion of the program and notes that the staff is very flexible about her schedule.
“It’s an exceptional program, and I would recommend to anybody who’s interested to at least look at it,” Cotter said.
Clark-Mattox noted that the professors at UIndy teach very informally and are very student-oriented.
According to Winningham, there are about 7,000 nurse midwives in the United States and only about 5,000 actively working.
Graduate student Blythe Kinsey finds the use of face-to-face interactions in the midwifery program beneficial.
“This program in particular has programs on campus as well as online classes. Many of the other midwifery programs are distance learning, so it’s all online, and we would go for a few intensive weekends,” Kinsey said.
Kinsey mentioned that the project has a reasonable finish time, meaning students can get everything done on time. Kinsey has been in the midwifery program since 2008 and noted that the instructors’ passion for teaching is a great strength.
“I think the instructors are as passionate about midwifery as anybody out there,” she said.
