For embargoed release, 00:01 Sunday January 1st 2012
A freedom of information (FOI) request by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) to 76 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the UK has revealed a worrying trend: the number of midwife teachers continues to fall, while staff turnover remains static, leading to an increasingly ageing population of teachers.
It was found that the number of HEIs meeting the Nursing Midwifery Council’s (NMC) and RCM’s 2003 minimum recommendation of ten students to one teacher ratio has decreased significantly from 2009-10, potentially compromising the quality of teaching and support for students. The FOI also found that the number of students per teacher had increased further from 2009 to 2010 with one teacher to 13.5 students in 2010, while it was one teacher to 13 students in 2009. A higher teacher to student ratio enables student midwives to be supported in their development of clinical knowledge and skills. The higher teacher-student ratio also allows students to be supported during clinical practice, as well as in the classroom, and ensures a critical linkage between midwifery theory and recent clinical practice.
In 09/10, the South East region had the highest average student teacher ratio of one teacher to 18 students, while Wales had the lowest ratio with one teacher to 10 students. The only HEIs meeting the RCM recommended minimum one teacher to 10 students ratio, with 100%, was the South West region.
A further issue for concern that the FOI found was that the profile of the midwifery teaching workforce is “ageing” and that more than half of the 45 midwife teachers surveyed are now aged 50 or older, while only 6 % of midwife teachers are under 40 years old. Thus, recruiting the next generation of teachers with recent clinical experience is a growing cause for concern. Overall, HEIs are considerably struggling to recruit midwifery educators and are carrying an average 0.5 full-time equivalent vacant midwifery teaching posts and the average vacancy rate at a HEI for an educator currently stands at 5%.
RCM General Secretary Cathy Warwick said: “The future of midwifery will be shaped and determined by leadership in education and research today. Knowledge development and dissemination are critical components of any professional organisation, the recruitment and retention of midwifery educators is a growing challenge, especially as we face an ageing midwifery workforce and a rising birth rate, which is already stretching the workforce and impacting morale. Meanwhile, midwifery educators need to be assured of an academic, as well as a clinical career pathway to enable them to make career choices. There needs to be an increased investment in midwifery educators to recruit and retain them into the profession. The more midwifery educators there are, the more support there will be for midwives and students in clinical practice. Protecting and nurturing midwifery educators is a major challenge for the whole profession and one that we must all embrace. There needs to be a seachange in the investment and support needed to recruit and retain the next generation of midwifery teachers.”
She added: “There is a paucity of information concerning hard and fast details and calculations about the state of midwifery education programmes. We need to explore and analyse the key factors determining the need for the accurate assessment of human resources within midwifery education are explored. Further research needs to be done in this area.”
Of the 76 HEIs that the RCM requested information from, 45 responded and the FOIs response rate was 59%.
For more information contact the RCM Press Office on 020 7312 3456, pressofficer@rcm.org.uk.
Notes to editors
The Royal College of Midwives is the voice of midwifery. We are the UK’s only trade union and professional organisation led by midwives for midwives. The vast majority of the midwifery profession are our members. The RCM promotes midwifery, quality maternity services and professional standards. We support and represent our members individually and collectively in all four UK countries. We influence on behalf of our members and for the interests of the women and families for which they care. For more information visit the RCM website at www.rcm.org.uk.
