Interested in expanding your professional role to providing primary care for women and their newborns? Midwifery education is the next step for you!
Scope of Practice
The skills, knowledge, and expertise you've acquired in your nursing education are a solid foundation for a career in nurse-midwifery. As a certified nurse-midwife (CNM), you will be qualified to manage prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. You will also be able to provide most of the primary care, family planning and gynecological needs of women throughout the lifespan.
Education Requirements
To become a CNM, you'll need to earn a graduate degree from an Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME) accredited midwifery program. Midwifery education programs are located throughout the U.S. Many programs allow part-time study and others offer distance-based midwifery education.
If you are an RN and you do not yet have a Baccalaureate degree, you have an option of applying to an RN to BSN/CNM graduate degree program, which is a midwifery program that offers a "bridge" to a BSN for RNs who have Associate degrees or diplomas. Alternatively, you may choose to obtain your BSN from the many nursing schools that offer such options as the RN to BSN, and then apply to any midwifery education program.
Consider exploring what each educational program requires by clicking here
After Graduation
All graduates of ACME accredited midwifery programs are eligible to take the national certification exam to become a CNM. CNMs are legally recognized to practice in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Midwifery education involves a graduate degree. ACNM does not endorse the proposal that a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree become the entry to practice requirement. For more information, see the ACNM Position Statement on Midwifery Education and the Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree.