Midwifery in Abu Dhabi – continuing to grow

In this next article in the series sharing the development of a new Midwifery programme in Abu Dhabi, Dr Maeve O’Connell reveals the next progress in the programme. She highlights the new practice based developments and welcomes a new member to the team.  

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We are at the end of Semester One in Fatima College of Health Sciences in Abu Dhabi. It has been so exciting to watch our programme grow and our little team that started out two years ago, with just two people – myself and Dr Gina, has now multiplied! We have a lot to celebrate in this blog! 

There are three main news items: 

1. We achieved full Commission for Academic Accreditation here in the United Arab Emirates at the end of September 2023. This is an amazing achievement for all the team at Fatima College. Dr Georgina and I have worked with the Institutional Effectiveness Department and Senior Management team to ensure the program is of high quality. Accreditation is important for the midwifery students so that upon graduation they will meet the requirements for licensure in the UAE.
2. A new batch of midwives started. 
3. We have got a new staff member- Ms Karradene Aird- Senior Instructor. Karradene is a UK registered midwife who has been in the UAE already for more than one year. She has a wide range of midwifery experience from Fetal Surveillance specialty to Senior Midwifery Management and was Chief Midwifery Officer at Burjeel Holdings prior to commencing this new role.  

This semester, the third years moved onto their clinical placements in the Corniche and Danat al Emarat hospitals. Dr Gina accompanied them in their placement areas, where they were made feel so welcome by all staff there. This placement was all about the normal, building those basic midwifery competencies and skills such as abdominal palpation and auscultation as well as supporting women in labour. The students had many opportunities and received brilliant feedback from the women as well as staff. They are using the AMORA document to record their placement achievements. This document – Adapted Mandatory Ongoing Record of Achievement was developed by us in collaboration with Heather Bower from the RCM and Lindsay Gillman from Kingston University to guide the learning. The third year students have already achieved many skills, from facilitating births to inserting IV cannulas and performing vaginal examinations. While they are on block placement, they slot into the maternity team and sometimes women know about midwifery students and have asked to have one support them. The word is going out there. For Emirati women, the chance to have culturally sensitive care is amazing and they appreciate it. After eight weeks on this placement, now these students are gaining confidence in providing care for women with uncomplicated pregnancies.  

Our second year students and third years got the opportunity to come together at our Perinatal Loss event which was held in October. It was also Karradene’s first day at the college, so it was a lovely opportunity to get to know one another. The feedback from the event was really positive. It opened a conversation for people that was important for them. We had external speakers – Ms Cecilia McNish, bereavement midwife from SSMC, Dr Summia Zaher Consultant Obstetrician from Danata al Emarat and Ms Lala Langtry-White from a UAE peer support voluntary group- Love through loss support. The seminar was accredited by the Department of Health so attendees were certified with Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits for attending. 

The future is bright for Fatima College Midwifery. Now that we are accredited, there are many students enquiring about studying midwifery and we are already signing up students for next year’s cohort. We are really grateful to the staff in our clinical areas for their mentorship and support without which we couldn’t provide a quality education for our midwifery students. We have been so fortunate to have fantastic support from the clinical midwifery staff in the hospitals. It’s time to spread the word and recruit students so we can grow midwifery in the UAE! 

Dr Maeve O’Connell 

Fatima College of Health Science, Abu Dhabi 

November 2023