Great news on midwifery
May 5th, 2012 by Martin Dawes
Yesterday was a great day for the department.
The University of British Columbia’s Midwifery Program – bolstered by increased funding from the Province of British Columbia – will double in size.
“UBC’s midwifery education program is part of government’s commitment to educating health professionals in British Columbia,” said Minister of Advanced Education Naomi Yamamoto at an announcement today at UBC’s Vancouver campus. “This funding means more students can pursue their chosen field at UBC, and more midwives will graduate, helping to serve the needs of B.C. families.”
Saras Vedam must take a lot of credit along with all the faculty and staff who have worked so hard over the last 10 years. They demonstrated clearly that this academic program was training midwives to work in BC and meet an increasing demand for midwifery care from mothers to be. That demonstration of success led to the successful negotiation for sustainable funding and expansion. To see the academic performance of the program one just has to look at the Canadian Journal of Midwifery Research and Practice (Winter Spring Issue) to see the many contributions from several faculty. Congratulations to everyone.
Other news is the successful OSCAR electronic medical record meeting being held in Vancouver this weekend. This is more about the added value of the EMR rather than technology. Just glimpsing some of the incredible work done by David Page, John Yap and others is incredibly impressive. If you want an example try this link to David Page’s Chronic Kidney Disease form. You don’t have to have an EMR – just open the page in your browser to see what sort of decision support is available. This meeting really helped us think about how we practice with so many patients with multiple morbidities.
Pie Palooza
Finally many of us are suffering from an over indulgence of pies. After tasting, and scoring, fourteen pies we were all overcome with great tastes and even more calories. Thank you Shelagh for arranging, Anita, Roy and others for helping run it. A great party.
Martin