Nurse-Midwifery Graduate Academic Program | OHSU (2023)

OHSU School of Nursing alums committed to providing nurse-midwifery care in rural communities

Two OHSU School of Nursing alums were recently featured in a story highlighting their commitment to providing their midwifery services in rural communities across America. Read about their amazing work.

Oregon is a highly appealing state in which to learn Nurse-Midwifery.Beyond the geographic benefit that Portland is 75 miles east of the Pacific Ocean and 75 miles west of the Cascade mountain range, the Nurse-Midwifery profession has a long-term, strong, foothold in maternity, gynecologic, and reproductive care here.Nurse-Midwives attend almost 20% of the births in the Portland metropolitan area.They are employed in almost every hospital in the area.The home birth community has a strong presence in Portland. Nurse-Midwives in Oregon are licensed, independent nurse-practitioners who have prescriptive authority. Many work outside of maternity care, providing excellent care at Planned Parenthood or private gynecology offices. The American College of Nurse-Midwives' local affiliate provides strong student support as well as an opportunity for students to volunteer on behalf of the profession. Our students benefit from all of these wonderful opportunities in Oregon.

American College of Nurse-Midwives(ACNM)
ACNM local affiliate

The OHSU Nurse-Midwifery Faculty Practice is a robust 30+ year old practice at OHSU Hospital and Clinics, which is an academic health center. We attend a large portion of the births at OHSU hospital.Our practice is the chief clinical site of our midwifery students.Students work one-on-one with faculty preceptors in the outpatient midwifery clinic, birthing rooms, mother-baby unit, triage unit, and lactation clinics. At some point during the 4 quarters of intrapartum (labor and birth) clinical experiences, each student is offered the opportunity to learn "off-the-hill" (OHSU is located about 2/3 of the way up an 1100 foot hill) in other sites that provide opportunities for working with diverse patient populations and practices. The integration (final) practicum is situated in a variety of possible sites in Oregon or beyond. Students receive more than 1000 hours of supervised clinical practice in the program.

Program Philosophy
Faculty Practice
OHSU Marquam HillOHSU as a healthcare academic institution

The Nurse-Midwifery program at OHSU prepares students to meet the unique health care needs of women. Nurse-Midwives provide primary and gynecologic care to women as well as specialty care and support for expecting mothers and their infants. In addition to the reproductive science, students examine the influences of culture; tradition and the social, economic and political forces that influence the health of women. All OHSU students participate in a one year interprofessional education course where they study with other health profession students, such as medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. The program strives to prepare compassionate, skilled clinician-scholars willing to address issues that affect the lives of women.

The Nurse-Midwifery program of study has been designed to offer a combination of graduate core courses, advanced practice core and midwifery specialty courses. This combination prepares our students for practice in the field and simultaneously provides a framework for clinical leadership and policy that is critical for any midwife in practice. The Nurse-Midwifery program of study provides students with a solid foundation in the scientific basis for clinical practice. Students develop the knowledge and skills to provide safe Nurse-Midwifery care using sound clinical judgment to care for women in the context of her family.

The Nurse-Midwifery program offers strong clinical experience with a focus on evidence-based practice. Graduates of the Nurse-Midwifery specialty are eligible to take the national certification examination of the American Midwifery Certification Board.

Programs of study page

Our program received a full ten-year accreditation at the last site visit by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education.

The Nurse-Midwifery Program is accredited through 2023by the
Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education,
8403 Colesville Road, Suite 1230
Silver Spring, MD 20910

240.485.1802

View the ACME letter of Accreditation

1. Demonstrate readiness to enter clinical practice via specialty competencies with the appropriate scientific knowledge, and considerations for its application to practice.
2. Apply ethical principles along with the standards of professional conduct to clinical care, research, and education.
3. Evaluate emerging healthcare systems and policy that influence delivery of cost effective patient care.
4. Generate entry level practice scholarship through the completion of a clinical practice improvement project based on the principles of improvement science.
5. Model interprofessional communication and collaboration to improve individual and/or population health outcomes.
6. Identify and address gaps in professional knowledge through ongoing reflection to support the principle of life-long learning.

1. Demonstrate the independent management of primary health screening and health promotion of women from the perimenarcheal through postmenopausal periods.
2. Demonstrate the independent management of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.
3. Demonstrate the independent management of the care of the well newborn during the first 28 days of life.
4. Evaluate, utilize, interpret and collaborate in research.
5. Demonstrate professional accountability through collaborative communication and ethical principles in the provision of midwifery care to women and their families.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of health care principles and a familiarity with the American College of Nurse-Midwives standards for the practice of midwifery and code of ethics
7. Demonstrate readiness to enter clinical practice via specialty competencies with the appropriate scientific knowledge, and considerations for its application to practice.
8. Apply ethical principles along with the standards of professional conduct to clinical care, research, and education.
9. Evaluate emerging healthcare systems and policy that influence delivery of cost effective patient care.
10. Generate entry level practice scholarship through the completion of a clinical practice improvement project based on the principles of improvement science
11. Model interprofessional communication and collaboration to improve individual and/or population health outcomes.
12. Identify and address gaps in professional knowledge through ongoing reflection to support the principles of life-long learning.