On March 20th, the College’s Council approved a new New Registrants Policy introducing important changes to the way the College has been administering new registrant provisions outlined in the Registration Regulation under the Midwifery Act, 1991.
The policy comes into effect on June 1, 2019 and will apply to all new registrants of the College who receive their initial General certificate of registration on or after June 1, 2019.
Under s. 12(1)4 of the Registration Regulation, all members with a General certificate of registration must meet the following requirements in their first year of practice after receiving their initial general certificate of registration:
- must only work within an established practice, and
- must attend a minimum of 30 births as a primary midwife and 30 births as a second midwife with another general registrant who is not subject to this condition.
All members and practices must be aware of the changes to the New Registrants Policy. The most important changes are summarized below. Click here to access the policy.
[expand title=”Definition of established practice“]
The definition of “established practice” has been revised to ensure that practices taking on new registrants have the capacity and resources to adequately orient and support them to the practice and hospital environments.
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[expand title=”Working with other new registrants”]
The new policy requires that new registrants attend births only with a general registrant who is not subject to new registrant conditions unless such registrants have already met the condition of attending a minimum of 30 births as a primary midwife as well as 30 births as a second midwife. This new requirement means that new registrants cannot attend births with another new registrant and is a significant change from the old policy that allowed new registrants to attend births with another new registrant up to a maximum of 20% of primary care births. This change brings the College’s practice in line with s. 12(1)4ii of the Registration Regulation and ensures that members who just entered the profession work in an established practice with more experienced midwives who can mentor and orient them to the practice of midwifery.
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[expand title=”Transfers of care”]
The new policy allows new registrants to include births, where a transfer of care occurs during the intrapartum period, towards their 30 births as a primary midwife requirement. When a transfer of care (to either a physician or another midwife) occurs during the intrapartum period and a new registrant takes on the role of the second midwife, they can count that birth towards fulfilling the requirement of attending 30 births as either a primary midwife or a second midwife, but not both.
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[expand title=”Practising in Ontario”]
The new policy requires that all births in the new registrant year be attended in Ontario. This is in line with the Registration Regulation that requires that all births must be attended with another College member.
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[expand title=”Impact on Transitional and Supervised Practice certificate holders”]
After June 1, 2019, members may only count births attended while holding a General certificate towards meeting the new registrant conditions, specifically the 30 births as a primary midwife and 30 births as a second midwife. Therefore, births attended while holding a Transitional or Supervised Practice certificate, prior to issuance of a General certificate of registration, do not count towards meeting the 30 and 30 new registrant requirement, unless the births were attended prior to June 1, 2019.
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[expand title=”Removal of new registrant conditions”]
The new registrant conditions remain in place and are noted on the College’s online public register, until the member has worked in an established practice for a minimum period of one year and has attended 30 births as a primary midwife and 30 births as a second midwife in accordance with the New Registrants Policy. Once these conditions have been met, the new registrant may submit the completed New Registrants Conditions Reporting Form to the College. The College will process the form and if both conditions have been met, the new registrant conditions will be lifted from the midwife’s certificate of registration. Click here to access the form.
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