Currently, there is no specific certification for the Women’s Health Nurse Leader offered by national certification organizations.

Our Women’s Health Nurse Leader curriculum follows the Women’s Health Nurse Leader Competencies published by the Association of Women’s Health Obstetric & Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) in 2014.

We encourage prospective Nurse-Midwifery certificate students to consider taking the first three courses as electives. These courses are open to any current UW student, even before formal admission into the certificate program:

• NURS 568: History and Politics of Abortion and Family Planning
• NURS 570: Systems Approach to Abortion Care
• NURS 572: Advanced Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

Learn more about courses for non-majors

Successful graduates of the Nurse-Midwifery graduate certificate are eligible to sit for the certification exam offered by American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB).

The UW Nurse-Midwifery and Women’s Health Clinical Nurse Specialist programs undertook a truth and reconciliation process in 2020-2022 to address harms that impacted former and current students in our program. You can review the final report describing the process and outcomes from this process.

Philosophy

The UW Nurse-Midwifery and Women’s Health Clinical Nurse Specialist programs aim to train and support the education of highly qualified and compassionate health care providers caring for individuals and families through the reproductive life course. We acknowledge the unacceptably high mortality rate of Black and Indigenous birthing people and infants in this country due to medical racism, social determinants of health, and chronic stress. We also acknowledge that systemic racism exists within our school and our programs,  and we strive to build an anti-racist culture in academia to create a more equitable and safe future for all families. Our guiding philosophy is grounded on the following values:

• Autonomy and self-determination: We believe all people have the right to access a full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health care, and we trust people to know what is best for their own bodies and make the best decisions for themselves. We provide training sites for our students to learn skills to provide services, including care related to pregnancy, birth, abortion care, gynecology across the lifespan, primary care, and gender-affirming care for all people seeking these services.
• Social and reproductive justice: We believe that it is our responsibility to leverage the privilege and power granted to us by our position within the healthcare field to support and amplify the voices of those in communities marginalized by racism and discrimination. We recognize the need for all faculty and students to do the work to develop an anti-racist program. We acknowledge the deep history of medical racism and the structures within the healthcare system that perpetuate harm to marginalized communities. We aim for students to emerge from our program with the skills to disrupt and rebuild structures.
• Collaboration and community engagement: We believe that collaboration extends beyond the traditional relationship with our physician colleagues and includes those with expertise in other professions within and outside of the nursing profession. This includes nurses, those in other advanced practice nurse specialties, community-based midwives, nursing and midwifery students, and the communities that we all serve. Our commitment to community engagement is demonstrated by our goal to center community stakeholders, including students and alumni, in how the program is structured and prioritizing our relationships with community partners.
• Accountability:  We hold ourselves accountable for adhering to these values and building systems that maintain integrity in our program. We prioritize student involvement in all aspects of the nurse-midwifery program and center their experiences as foundational to our success. We value the expertise and are accountable to our community partners to ensure we uphold the values we describe.

Mission

The mission of the UW Nurse-Midwifery program is to advance midwifery practice through the preparation of nurse-midwives who will:

• Apply scientific evidence and person-centered care principles to promote the health and well-being of individuals and families in Washington communities and beyond.
• Serve as leaders in advancing healthcare practice by applying, generating, and testing innovative models of care in the areas of perinatal care, sexual and reproductive health care, newborn care, and primary care.
• Disrupt the racist and oppressive systems that impact access to the midwifery profession and midwifery care to improve perinatal outcomes for all communities.
• Be accountable for professional growth, evaluation of practice, and developing and advancing equitable policies supporting the above-described philosophy and mission.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the Nurse-Midwifery track are to prepare graduates who:

1. Provide competent, safe, high-quality, and culturally sensitive nurse-midwifery care to address the health needs of people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, family structures, and communities.*
2. Critically evaluate theories, concepts, and research findings from nursing, midwifery, and related sciences for translation into clinical practice.*
3. Use effective communication and leadership skills in interprofessional teams to promote positive change in the health care of people, newborns, and families.*
4. Use information systems and other technologies to improve the quality and safety of health care for people and newborns.
5. Apply principles of transformative justice and the social determinants of health in evaluating health policies and advocacy for the health of people and families in local, national, and international contexts.
6. Evaluate care systems by analyzing the needs of consumers, health care policies, service delivery and finance models, political contexts, and health indicators to increase access to health care for all people and their families in a variety of communities.

*These objectives are included in the graduate certificate program.

From 2014 to 2016, nurse-midwifery students were 100% female, 10% Hispanic/Latina, 5% Asian, 12% Black/African-American and 2% Native American/Alaska Native. Over the past five years (2012-2016), UW has graduated 44 nurse-midwives. Of these graduates, 37% are working in either rural, primary care shortage areas or with medically underserved populations (program objective 1).

In the most recent employer survey of new graduates, supervisors rated recent graduates of the nurse-midwifery program from 1 (Never) to 5 (Consistently) on program outcomes:

Two public events highlight nurse-midwifery DNP student scholarship:

1. DNP Final Poster Day is open to the public and scheduled in March yearly. Students present their DNP final projects, demonstrating accomplishments related to program objectives 2, 3, 4, and 6.
2. Student Scholarship Day is open to the public and allows the nurse-midwifery student to highlight their DNP projects.

A sample of recent Nurse-midwifery student projects include:

• Implementing Immediate Postpartum Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC)
• Meeting the Health Care Education Needs of Prostituted Individuals
• Development & Evaluation of Category II Fetal Heart Rate Training
• Patient and Provider Satisfaction with a Hospital-Based Doula Program
• MAKING WAVES: An Evidence-Based Waterbirth Protocol
• Tools to Improve Nursing Care in 2^nd Stage Labor

At the end of the program, the graduate will:

1. Provide, safe, competent, high-quality care as a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner.
2. Provide culturally sensitive care to address the diversity of health needs among children, families, and populations.
3. Critically evaluate and apply research findings to advanced nursing practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of care to children and families.
4. Demonstrate effective communication and leadership skills to promote positive health outcomes for children, families, and populations.
5. Apply relationship-building values and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different team roles to plan, deliver, and evaluate patient/population-centered care that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.
6. Demonstrate a personal commitment to professionalism, values, and ethical behaviors inherent in pediatric advanced practice nursing.

After successfully completing the PNP-AC graduate certificate, students are eligible to sit for the PNP Acute Care examination through the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB).

At the end of the program, the graduate will:

1. Provide, safe, competent, high-quality care as an adult/gerontology acute care nurse practitioner.
2. Provide culturally sensitive care to address the diversity of health needs among older adolescents, adults, older adults, families, and populations.
3. Critically evaluate and apply research findings to advanced nursing practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of care to older adolescents, adults, and older adults.
4. Demonstrate effective communication and leadership skills to promote positive health outcomes for individuals, families, and populations.
5. Apply relationship-building values and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different team roles to plan, deliver, and evaluate patient/population-centered care that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.
6. Demonstrate a personal commitment to professionalism, values, and ethical behaviors inherent in adult/gerontology advanced practice nursing.

After successfully completing the AGNP-AC track, students are eligible to sit for the AGNP Acute Care examination through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or American Association of Critical Care Nurses Certification Corporation (AACNCC).

At the end of the program, the graduate will:

1. Provide, safe, competent, high-quality care as an adult/gerontology primary care nurse practitioner.
2. Provide culturally sensitive care to address the diversity of health needs among older adolescents, adults, older adults, families, and populations.
3. Critically evaluate and apply research findings to advanced nursing practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of care to older adolescents, adults, and older adults.
4. Demonstrate effective communication and leadership skills to promote positive health outcomes for individuals, families, and populations.
5. Apply relationship-building values and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different team roles to plan, deliver, and evaluate patient/population-centered care that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.
6. Demonstrate a personal commitment to professionalism, values, and ethical behaviors inherent in adult/gerontology advanced practice nursing.

After completion of the graduate certificate, you are eligible to apply for certification as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner: Primary Care and for licensure as a nurse practitioner through either the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

At the end of the program, the graduate will:

1. Provide, safe, competent, high-quality care as a pediatric primary care nurse practitioner.
2. Provide culturally sensitive care to address the diversity of health needs among children, families, and populations.
3. Critically evaluate and apply research findings to advanced nursing practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of care to children and families.
4. Demonstrate effective communication and leadership skills to promote positive health outcomes for children, families, and populations.
5. Apply relationship-building values and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different team roles to plan, deliver, and evaluate patient/population-centered care that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.
6. Demonstrate a personal commitment to professionalism, values, and ethical behaviors inherent in pediatric advanced practice nursing.

After completion of the graduate certificate, you are eligible to apply for certification as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner or a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist through the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB).