Vanessa Leutenegger represents the future model of midwives who discuss eye-to-eye with doctors and develop their own profession.
illustration: fh schweiz / flavia korner
Work in progress
Every mother-to-be is happy to have a well-trained midwife. But does it have to have a doctorate right away? Vanessa Leutenegger is working on it exactly and explains why we can learn from other countries.
Vanessa Leutenegger is a freelance midwife with a corresponding Bachelor’s degree from the ZHAW. But the 32-year-old is not satisfied with that. She also completed her Master in Nursing at the ZHAW and is taking the rare path of also gaining a doctorate, the PhD in Care and Rehabilitation Sciences. At the same time, she works as a lecturer in the midwifery master’s course at the ZHAW. It is a rare professional profile and begs the question: Do midwives now need doctorates?
Soon with PhD: Vanessa Leutenegger.
picture Julian rüthi
Frau Leutenegger, why are you doing a doctorate as a midwife?
Vanessa Leutenegger: In order to be able to discuss with doctors at eye level, together about to reflect on the currently high intervention rate and thus to reinforce the physiology of parenting. And because I am convinced that we midwives could work better together with the medical staff in many situations than is the case today. To do this, however, we need more background knowledge as well as technical and evidence-based in-depth knowledge in order to jointly promote the natural course of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium.
Content partnership with FH Switzerland
The contributions to this blog come from the umbrella organization for graduates from universities of applied sciences ( FH Switzerland ). It is about work, career as well as training and further education. It’s not paid content. (red)
you would you like to remain a midwife?
I am a passionate freelance midwife and would like to stay that way. The corona crisis has also underlined how important our accompanying function is when visits are restricted due to a pandemic. But I really appreciate having this additional knowledge and working with it in practice. As a midwife, it opens up new perspectives and opportunities for me to take new knowledge with me into practice that one does not learn in basic training.
You can Give an example from everyday life where this knowledge helps?
Often there are overarching topics. On the way to my PhD, I am learning communication techniques, for example, but information about our health system is also conveyed. And when I’ve read evidence-based studies and thus know the scientific context, it also strengthens my daily work. As a concrete example, one could cite the heartbeat of the unborn: There are always discussions about how to read and listen to them correctly, what the right times are, and whether we draw the right conclusions from them. In the basic training we learn the simple application, together with the basic knowledge. Now I have also received the reasons and the scientific basis for it.
Does every midwife need such a technical specialization or do you remain the exception?
It certainly needs both and that is also necessary for the future . On the one hand, quite simply so that we can maintain a high-quality education. On the other hand, midwives open up new options with in-depth, scientific training. For example, in order to further develop the profession in line with the question mentioned at the beginning. Things can always be optimized, especially when working together. Some countries are ahead of us here, for example England or the Scandinavian countries, where already Experts work precisely in this interface.
«Here some countries are already ahead of us, for example England or the Scandinavian countries.»
You studied at a university of applied sciences, but for a doctorate you have to go to university and have a corresponding degree. How does it work for you?
It will get through with me a cooperation program between the University Zurich and ZHAW (see box) possible. In Switzerland this is still fairly new and there is little Experience with it. It’s also a bit complicated at times. In my case it was an application process: I had to present my project and explain what I wanted to achieve. I am now taking the subjects at the university; direct support from my supervisor is organized by the ZHAW. As a college graduate, I also have to collect 30 additional ECTS credits via the so-called passerelle at the university. Fortunately, I am allowed to take the necessary subjects during the PhD and did not have to show the credits beforehand. However, I dare to doubt the point of these additional credits. Because you have to choose from a given range, although not all courses bring so much for your own subject.
Without Gymi for a doctorate
Since 2017, cooperation between universities of applied sciences (FH) or universities of teacher education (PH) and universities for doctoral programs (PhD, from Doctor of Philosophy) has been possible in Switzerland . However, the right to award doctorates, i.e. the award of the doctorate, is reserved for the universities alone. The previously isolated programs enable a small group of graduates from a non-university university to have access to the dissertation. Graduates from universities of applied sciences in particular have originally mostly chosen the practical training path via vocational training and, for example, vocational or specialist school-leaving certificate. A doctorate, in turn, makes it possible, among other things, to work as a lecturer at a university. For this reason, too, there are voices calling for universities of applied sciences to be granted the right to award doctorates and to be allowed to offer independent PhD programs, as is the case in Germany, for example. In this way, the application-oriented training path can also be extended to teaching staff and research.
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