Developing clinical competency: Experiences and perceptions of Advanced Midwifery Practitioners in training.

This paper will describe the experiences and perception of a cohort of trainee Advanced Midwifery Practitioners (AMP's) during their training on an MSc in Advanced Practice. The educational philosophy underpinning the master's programme is interprofessional learning linked closely to work based learning and assessment. The focus group explored how the AMP's were developing core competencies within four domains: The links between the university and clinical assessments were instrumental in developing both midwifery and specialised skills required for extending their scope of practice. The changing demographics of their client group facilitated the need to provide safe assessment and management of ladies with complex health and social needs in pregnancy and childbirth; provide specialised clinics and the development of a robust staff training and assessment process. The generic competencies they gained improved collaborative working with their medical colleagues, raising the trainees profile and acceptance of their extended role. In addition to this, development of specialised midwifery skills promoted a high degree of decision making responsibilities within midwifery to facilitate service development and promote evidence based care.