Graduate Diploma
Deakin's Graduate Diploma of Midwifery course provides the knowledge, skills and ethical understanding you need to become a registered midwife - launching you into a career where you can make a real difference for women and their families. This course prepares you to provide high quality woman-centred care. Midwives play an invaluable role in supporting women across the continuum of pregnancy, labour, birth and the first weeks following birth.
Deakin's Graduate Diploma of Midwifery is developed in consultation with our healthcare partners, ensuring you're always connected to those at the forefront of industry. The course is accredited by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) and approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), enabling clear career outcomes upon graduation.
Aspiring to enter the maternity health care sector with the confidence to succeed as a midwife?
Throughout this 18 month course you will engage in experiential learning in our purpose-built Clinical Simulation Centres. Our Clinical Simulation Centres provide a safe, supportive and realistic environment for you to develop and hone the essential midwifery skills to prepare you for clinical practice.
Midwifery practice experiences are undertaken at partner organisations who offer employment (paid) and/or clinical only (non-paid) practice models, supported by qualified and experienced clinicians. Midwifery practice experiences are secured by the applicant through our healthcare partners. These positions are advertised through the health service. Acceptance into a health service postgraduate midwifery program is a pre-requisite requirement for acceptance into Deakin's Graduate Diploma of Midwifery.
Clinical practice begins in trimester 1 and continues throughout the 18 months of your course. Clinical practice provides an opportunity to care for women and families from diverse cultural backgrounds in a range of maternity settings, enabling application of knowledge and further development of technical and non-technical midwifery skills.
The course covers a broad range of study areas that reflect the breadth of maternity care. An intensive program at the start of the course builds your foundational knowledge of what it takes to begin working as a registered nurse in the postnatal environment. You will then go on to explore specialised areas of midwifery including:
Gain a valuable mix of hands-on clinical practice and theory with a nursing and midwifery school that's ranked #16 in the world by two prestigious international ranking bodies.* As one of the most research active schools in Australia, our School of Nursing and Midwifery boasts some of the best facilities and resources available.
When you graduate from the course, you will have completed at least 856 hours of clinical practice. Additionally, our employment-based program offers you significant clinical experiences in a paid maternity services role. This can provide an important financial boost, and students who take advantage of this program often secure continued employment with their host organisation.
* 2023 ShanghaiRankings Ranking of Academic Subjects
The midwife is recognised as a responsible and accountable professional who works in partnership with women to give the necessary support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period to conduct births and provide care for the newborn and the infant. The midwife has an important task in health counselling and education, not only for the woman, but also within the family and the community. This work involves antenatal education and preparation for parenthood and may extend to women's health, sexual or reproductive health and childcare. A midwife may practise in any setting, including the home, community, hospitals, clinics or health units.
Employment opportunities for registered midwives have never been greater due to the current shortage of qualified midwives both locally and overseas. Throughout your course you will develop the knowledge and skills that make you highly employable within the specialist field of midwifery.
To complete the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery students must attain 8 credit points comprising of 8 core (compulsory) units.
Both the theoretical and clinical components of the assessment for each unit must be passed to successfully gain an overall pass in this course. Compulsory clinical hurdle requirements form part of the assessment of this course. Recognition of the importance of clinical assessments is calculated in the overall student workload.
Note: Failure of a compulsory practicum in a unit will normally lead to exclusion.
All commencing Faculty of Health Undergraduate and Postgraduate course work students are required to complete DAI001 Academic Integrity Module (0-credit-point compulsory unit) in their first trimester of study.
Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements.
The University aims to provide students with as much credit as possible for approved prior study or informal learning which exceeds the normal entrance requirements for the course and is within the constraints of the course regulations. Students are required to complete a minimum of one-third of the course at Deakin University, or four credit points, whichever is the greater. In the case of certificates, including graduate certificates, a minimum of two credit points within the course must be completed at Deakin.
You can also refer to the Recognition of prior learning system which outlines the credit that may be granted towards a Deakin University degree and how to apply for credit.