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IEMBP Application Guide

Thank you for your interest in the Internationally Educated Midwives Bridging Program (IEMBP), the orientation course for working as a midwife in British Columbia, Canada. The course has limited places each year, and we strive to take on the strongest candidates to increase and diversify our midwifery workforce.

Prior to completing the application, please make sure you have read all of the pages and FAQs on this website.

Please use this guide as you progress through your application, to ensure accuracy and completeness.

Demographics

Please complete this section with all of the names you have used through out your midwifery career. For example if you trained with one last name then changed your name at a later date and your registration is under your new name.

If you have changed your name, we will need proof of that change (for example a marriage certificate or a legal name change certificate).

We need to know where you are currently a citizen – you may be a citizen of more than one country – please indicate that on the form.

English Language

Please let us know what language is your primary language, and which other languages you speak. If you do not speak English as your primary language, you may need to take an English Language exam – please see link in FAQs for details.

English Language testing

The following countries are considered to be eligible for exemption from English language testing if you completed your midwifery education there in English.

American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Canada (including Quebec), Cayman Islands, Dominica, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malta, Mauritius, Montserrat, New Zealand, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, St. Helena, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Tanzania, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, United Kingdom, USA, US Virgin Islands, Zambia, Zimbabwe

If you are not exempt, then you will need to take the IELTS academic test, and achieve a minimum of 7 in all areas.

Midwifery Overview
Education Program Narrative

Use this section to let us know about your midwifery education program. How did you learn midwifery – was it at university, was it an apprenticeship program? Did you learn across different sites? Did you learn about homebirth? Did you learn about midwifery from conception to birth, post-partum, neonatal care? Did you learn about caring for people over the whole lifespan, e.g. well woman care or childhood care? How did your schooling link to the clinical practice?

Midwifery Education

Please tell us about all of your midwifery education. This might also include a nursing or naturopathic doctor course, it may include apprenticeship, bachelors, masters courses.

Philosophy and style of practice

What kind of a midwife are you? What is your philosophy of care? What attributes do you have that make you a good midwife? Please also tell us which areas you have worked in e.g antenatal clinic, only on labour ward, only on postpartum, worked in all areas, worked in the community, or only in hospital.

Remember we have many applications – we want to know why we should consider you for the course, or why you would be a good addition to the Canadian midwifery workforce. 

Midwifery Registration

Please let us know all of the jurisdictions you have been registered in as a midwife, currently and in the past. The regulating authority is usually the institution that issues a registration number, or grants the right to practice midwifery legally in your country or region. Examples might be the Nursing and Midwifery council, or the medical council. It may be a midwifery college (for example the BC College of Nurses and Midwives).

Continuing Education

Please tell us about the continuing education you have done whilst working as a midwife. Have you updated any skills? Have you taken mandated emergency skills courses? Can you demonstrate a commitment to learning? Have you been involved in teaching in classroom or clinical setting?

Midwifery Practice

Please tell us ALL of the places you have practiced midwifery since registration. These may be sites over different regions or countries. For each site, please tell us how many of the births you attended and if they were in hospital and out of hospital. We are interested in those you attended in a primary role. Please see definitions at the end of this document.

Births in the last 10 years – it is important for us to know how many births you have done in each of the last 10 years. If you do not have exact records, then you can make a reasonable estimate based on usual workload. For example, if you know that every time you worked on labour ward you usually attended one birth, and that you did 20 labour ward shifts, then you could estimate 20 births. We want to know the number of births you are reporting, so we can follow up with you if we need more documentation from your employers or workplace.

Canadian Health Care Experience

Please tell us if you have worked in any area of Canadian health care before, in any role. For example maybe you have worked as a care assistant in a home, or as a RN in hospital.

World Education Services

All applicants need a WES assessment https://www.wes.org/ca/partners/credential-evaluation-requirements-ubc-i... You must submit documents for all of your relevant qualifications. For example if your midwifery was a post nursing or post naturopathic medicine course, then you should send those to WES along with your midwifery certificate or degree. There will be a fee associated with this service that is your responsibility.

Form A

All applicants need a form A, completed by each education program that is pertinent to midwifery. This might include basic midwifery training, advanced midwifery, Bachelors, Masters, but does NOT need to include pre midwifery nursing or naturopathic doctor materials.

We need to know about your education program, so they will need to include the syllabus and other details that show us how long your training was, where it took place, and what was covered in your course.

The form must be sent directly from the educational institution. We do not accept forwarded emails or hard copies.

Form B

All applicants need a form B, or a verification from the registering body, of registration in good standing. Most institutions will fill out form B, but some jurisdictions have an online portal. The IEMBP recognizes that some jurisdictions have transitioned to an online verification process.  The IEMBP requires verification of registration and good standing and will accept any Regulatory organization document for verification of standing in lieu of the B Form.  

Form C

Not all applicants will need a form C. If your references have only worked with you in a role outside of births, then you may need a Form C to verify the number of births you have. We prefer your references have worked with you in a birth setting, but understand that occasionally this isn’t possible. This can be filled in by someone who doesn’t necessarily know you, but who has access to hospital records and can verify the number of births you did there.

Form D

All applicants will need at least 2 references.

Who should you pick to be your references?

We would like at least 2 references that can vouch for your recent midwifery work. They should be midwifery managers, team leaders or senior colleagues. They must have worked with you in some capacity, preferably during births in some way, or supervised your work. You may use doctors as a referee, but they should have worked directly with you (so not usually the medical director of the hospital) and be only one of the references. We prefer to have midwifery references where possible.

References should only verify the births that they have direct knowledge of – so they can not verify births from other institutions that they have not worked in. 

Your reference forms, and your notarization, will need to have recent passport sized photographs attached. All photographs across your application should be identical. 

Form E

Not all applicants will need this form. If we receive a document that is not in English, you will need to pay for a translation. Please see the instructions on this form about how to proceed with the translation.

Notarization

All applicants must have a notarization completed. If you are proving English language by testing, then you will not need to complete page 1.

Please note that you must complete the form in the presence of a registered notary and all pages are signed at that time. We will need to be able to verify that the notary you use is legally able to practice as such in that jurisdiction.

This is not an e-form, and the original should be scanned and emailed to us at iembp.admissions@ubc.ca then the hard copy sent to the address indicated on the form.

Definitions

Primary/Principal Midwife The primary (principal) midwife is a midwife with complete, non-delegated, responsibility for the care of a woman and her newborn. The primary midwife is normally responsible for managing the labour and delivery and for the immediate care of the newborn. In cases where complications arise, the primary midwife makes the decision to transfer care, coordinates the transfer, collaborates with the health professional to whom she has referred her client, and provides supportive care after the transfer occurs. Supervised student midwives who act in the role of primary midwife are also included in this definition.

Other Midwife The other midwife is a midwife acting in a role other than Primary Midwife.

Continuity of Care Applicants have provided continuity of care to a single client, if they have met with the client prior to the birth, attended the birth and had at least one visit post partum.

Out-of-hospital birth A birth conducted by a midwife in a setting without on-site surgical (cesarean section) and/or anesthetic (epidural) capabilities. Such sites may include homes, birth centres, nursing stations, health centres, and some smaller hospitals without onsite obstetricians or surgical services.