We are excited to announce we are undertaking a review of our flagship Maternity Emergency Care (MEC) program. As with any course in health care, the maternity emergency course (MEC) has undergone regular updates – five to be exact – since the initial course was designed in 2018 by Ree Dunn, Geri Malone, Sue Kildea and Sue Kruske.
Many innovative practitioners have been involved since then, producing and creating this program. Their work is greatly valued and the team plan to build upon the resources that they gathered over the years. It is imperative that CRANAplus continues to deliver up-to-date and current material.
Over time, feedback had indicated course participants wanted a change. To home in on how to best meet the needs of midwives and RANs, we sent a survey out to over 1,000 past participants and stakeholders. The results are in, and we are now aware of our audience’s requests and needs. Thankfully, the background work that previous writers had done on the course created a fantastic foundation for the clinical experts to expand and update.
The team of subject matter experts (SME) consists of Leonie McLaughlin, Amy Shepard, Amanda Forti and Michelle Price as lead.
They are currently nutting out the new layout and being guided by the CRANAplus learning and design manager, Julie Moran. Julie’s ideas, framework and learning strategies are second to none, and with her design, our SME’s content and a whole lot of passion and dedication, the course is expected to be more interactive and motivating than ever before.
This MEC (6th Edition) will feature the information and evidence-based education relevant to rural and remote nursing in Australia that CRANAplus is renowned for, but with an interactive and engaging format that will instil knowledge and create thought-provoking learning.
Once the online modules are finalised, the work will start on the workshop restructure. This will ensure that the online modules and workshop complement each other beautifully to enhance hands-on learning, which is what the audience has demanded.
After the vigorous process of writing, designing and internal review is complete, the material will be reviewed by an external team. It is hoped that this will validate that what has been written is relevant and appropriate for the intended audience of rural and remote nurses and health care workers in Australia.
This will give the remote area nurses and other health care providers that attend these courses the absolute key skills they require to be able to provide care to pregnant women in rural and remote Australia, in conjunction with their maternity care providers. It is estimated that the modules will be complete by June 2022, with a trial course to be announced in the second half of 2022.
Michelle Price
Remote Clinical Educator
Midwifery Stream
