Local MP opens midwifery skills rooms at Gippsland

School of Nursing and Midwifery students at Monash University Gippsland are set to benefit from a $250,000 redevelopment of midwifery skills rooms and teaching spaces.

The new midwifery skills rooms were officially opened by State Member for Morwell,
Russell Northe MP at a recent event attended by the School's regional health partners, as well as by Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Helen Bartlett and Heads of Schools at Monash University's Gippsland campus.

The event also celebrated the first group of students to complete the Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Midwifery, a popular double degree that qualifies students to practice as a registered nurse and midwife.

The redeveloped skills rooms replicate a clinical environment, providing nursing and midwifery students with the ability to train on the same equipment they will use once they graduate.

Designed to directly support students studying the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery and the double degree, the two skills rooms feature a range of equipment donated by local hospitals, including emergency resuscitation devices and mannequins that accurately simulate labour and the birthing process.

Acting Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Gippsland, Associate Professor Pamela Wood, said the new midwifery skills rooms would enable students to become familiar with typical birthing environments, practice complex procedures, and gain the hands-on experience demanded by employers at home and abroad.

"These new skills rooms add much greater scope to our teaching programs by allowing us to simulate real-life events and emergencies, and test the responses of students to those situations," said Associate Professor Wood.

"Alongside a focus on developing courses in collaboration with hospitals and health services, our skills rooms will mean Monash students are better prepared for their careers in nursing and midwifery, and can hit the ground running after graduating."

Pro Vice-Chancellor of Monash University Gippsland, Professor Helen Bartlett, said the new skills rooms would further strengthen the profile of the campus as a leading provider of health education, and help meet the ongoing demand for nurses and midwives.

"Currently, around 70 per cent of our nursing and midwifery graduates from Monash University Gippsland go on to work in the eight hospitals throughout the region," said Professor Bartlett.

"The opening of the midwifery skills rooms cement our commitment to delivering the best possible health education, ensuring we continue to meet the future workforce needs of communities not only in Gippsland, but across Australia and around the world."