Cathryn visits Cambodia
Posted on 19 May 2015
Her assignment was to produce an ‘Assessment Tool for Competency Based Curricula’ which would be used to assess the current curricula of all midwifery education programmes in Cambodia to ensure that education providers meet the minimum standards of the Core Competency Framework for Midwives.
She was based at the Cambodian Midwives Council, which is similar in status to the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK. At present, the Ministry of Health in Cambodia is considering the implementation date for the Assessment Tool, as the task of assessing all state and private providers of midwifery education is an enormous undertaking.
Regulation of midwifery in Cambodia has improved significantly in recent years with 87% of midwives working in a public healthcare setting being registered. This compares to about 40% of doctors being registered. During her time in Cambodia Cathryn had the opportunity to participate in a multi-professional conference and workshop which confirmed the commitment of health professionals to strengthen regulation of the professions in Cambodia.
She said: “I also had the opportunity to visit a national maternity hospital and a midwifery education centre. The facilities in both contrasted significantly to those in the UK. Although maternal mortality in Cambodia has declined in recent years it is still at an unacceptable rate of 250 deaths/100,000 live births; the UK rate is 12 deaths/100,000 live births. Student midwives have difficulty accessing appropriate clinical practice opportunities due to the volume of students and the lack of appropriately prepared mentors. Once qualified the students may have little say in their first position and often get sent to remote healthcare facilities.
“Although the work I did with the Cambodian Midwives Council was challenging at times I feel I have been given the opportunity to strengthen midwifery education in Cambodia and look forward to seeing the implementation of my work at a national level."