gms | German Medical Science

Background: With the amendment of the Study and Examination Regulations for Midwives (HebStPrV) in Germany, midwifery training has been completely transferred to the universities of applied sciences. This includes the development of new approaches to teaching and assessment, and the establishment of skill-labs as a third site for teaching midwifery practice. Close integration between the university and the hospital, which provides the practice part of the training, is essential in order to prepare students for exams and ultimately the profession. The HebStPrV sets strict guidelines for the implementation of the state exam, resulting a variety of concepts depending on the framework and conditions of each study program. This presentation illustrates the framework, challenges and initial implementation of the practical state exam at a university with numerous cooperating hospitals in a large catchment area, and concludes with an outlook.

Aims: At the Jade University of Applied Sciences in Oldenburg, Germany, the aim was to develop an examination concept that could be implemented together with the cooperating hospitals and that also complied with the legal requirements regarding the maximum duration of the examination, the maximum duration of the interruption and the requirements regarding the location and specific part of the examination. Practical instructors at the hospitals should be involved as early and as closely as possible in the planning of the exam.

Implementation: Due to the large catchment area and the number of hospitals to be included, the entire practical examination was conducted at the university. As one part of the examination has to be carried out with suitable pregnant women, women in postpartum period and newborn babies (HebStPrV § 29), pregnant women were recruited for the “Pregnancy” part of the state exam through freelance midwives in the area who agreed to be examined in a test-scenario. The “Childbirth” and “Postpartum Care” sections of the exam were conducted with actresses and simulators.

Currently, the majority of midwives who train students at the hospital do not have a bachelor’s degree, which is required by the HebStPrV to administer and to grade the exam. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Labor, Health and Equality of Lower Saxony has responded to this problem by issuing a decree that midwives who do not have a bachelor’s degree but do have several years of professional experience may give state examinations until the end of 2027. The midwives who administered the state exam received an (unpaid) lectureship from the university, which confirmed their qualification for giving examinations. Using a digital learning platform and preparatory meetings, practical instructors were closely involved in planning of the state exam. The examination schedule was designed so that tandems of a practical instructor and a university lecturer examined together, without a student being evaluated by a practical instructor known to her. The actual scheduling proved to be challenging, especially during the summer months.

Results and conclusion: The joint administration of the practical exam opened up different professional perspectives and offered a competence expansion for the examiner teams. Furthermore, the intensive exchange via the learning platform, the meetings, and the joint examinations by the practical instructors of the cooperating hospitals and the lecturers of the university, led to a closer networking and mutual appreciation of the specific competencies.

Ethics and conflicts of interest: A vote on ethics was not necessary. The research was financed by own resources. There are no conflicts of interest.

The PDF file of the poster submitted for the meeting is available in German as Attachment 1 [Attach. 1].