gms | German Medical Science

Background: With the amendment of the German Midwifery Act (HebG) in 2019, the new Midwifery Studies and Examination Ordinance (HebStPrV) also came into force. In the process, the state examination for obtaining professional certification as a midwife at the bachelor degree level has been adapted to the new requirements of academic training and has under-gone fundamental structural changes. The oral (as well as the first written) state examination in the 6^th semester of the bachelor’s degree program in midwifery at the University of Tübingen is also a module examination in the module “Acting, communicating and ethically evaluating interprofessional practice in the German health care system.“

Goal: Within the framework of the oral state examination according to HebStPrV, the competence areas IV (communication), V (design of intra- and interprofessional care, further development of midwifery-specific care and development of quality management concepts) and VI (reflection on one’s own actions) are to be tested.

Methodology: The exam consists of two parts. In the first part of the examination, the students analyze a complex case from midwifery practice in small groups and develop a care plan based on the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) in poster form. The PDCA cycle originates from quality management and is an extended form of the midwifery care process. In the second part of the examination, the developed poster is first presented in the context of an individual examination. Subsequently, questions are asked on the module contents, especially on the topics of ethics, health care system, quality management and communication. The method of case work examined here is built up thematically with increasing complexity throughout the course of the study. Starting with the supervision process for simple cases, the students are gradually introduced to the process of case analysis according to the PDCA cycle in complex to highly complex cases.

Results: This examination concept allows an in-depth assessment of whether or not complex care planning has been fully comprehended. In addition, it enables a resource-saving implementation of the legal examination requirements.

Relevance: The examination concept of case analysis using the PDCA cycle brings structural and organizational challenges for the study program. Framework conditions such as the acquisition of appropriate knowledge for the design and application of the PDCA cycle, the development of suitable case vignettes, the transparency of the examination criteria as well as the equal treatment of all students within the examination are considered and critically discussed.

Conclusion: The examination concept presented here at the University of Tübingen is already being successfully implemented and can serve other study programs as a basis for discussion and template for future examination development.

Ethics and conflicts of interest: No approval was needed from the ethics committee at the University of Tübingen for this work. 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].