Karen Johnson Feltham, Assistant Professor and Director, Nurse Midwifery Program
Health & Life Sciences Building, Office 161, (540) 678-4374

The School of Nursing offers a Post Graduate Certificate in Nurse Midwifery for RNs who already hold a graduate degree (MS, MSN, DNP or PhD) in Nursing. The Post Graduate Certificate in Nurse Midwifery includes the knowledge, skills, values, meanings and experiences needed to educate new midwives in the full scope of the Midwifery Management Process that encompasses primary healthcare for women, the normal newborn for the first 28 days, and the treatment of male partners for sexually transmitted infections. It integrates independent, collaborative, consultative and referral-based midwifery management within an interprofessional healthcare environment. The Midwifery Management Process is included in the American College of Nurse-Midwives’ (ACNM) “Core Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice (2012)” that serves as curricular guidelines to assure that quality education for midwives occurs within the certificate program. The program is also based on the ACNM Standards for the Practice of Midwifery, the Philosophy of ACNM and the ACNM Code of Ethics to assure that all graduates assume responsibility for the concepts and skills associated with the Midwifery Management Process. Shenandoah University’s mission and goals provide the context for this program’s curricular delivery.

The certificate is designed to meet the needs and be sensitive to the graduate RN who is a highly motivated adult learner. Course work can be completed in 12 months of study. Although there is a minimum of 660 hours in the nurse-midwifery specialty courses, completion is based on competency attainment and is dependent on the birth of babies.Both features may require more clinical hours than are allotted for in the formal clinical clock hour ratio outlined in the program. These two unique features are explained to students upon entry into the program. Graduates of this certificate program will be eligible to take the national certification examination given by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB). Successful completion of this examination allows the practitioner to use the professional title, “Certified Nurse-Midwife.”

Post Graduate Certificate in Nurse Midwifery Program Objectives

Graduates of the Post Graduate Certificate in Nurse Midwifery will be able to:

1. Accomplish the Nurse Midwifery Master’s Program Objectives, and
2. Lead nurse-midwifery and potential interprofessional student colleagues in the following Core Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice: “incorporation of scientific evidence into clinical practice,” “development of leadership skills” and “participation in self-evaluation, peer review, lifelong learning and other activities that ensure and validate quality practice.”