Introduction:
Quality midwifery education is urgently needed to prepare competent midwives and improve quality of care, end preventable maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths, as well as deliver the agenda of Universal Health Coverage. There is a global shortage of 900000 midwives, this is most severe in low-middle-income countries which will experience a shortage of 750000 by 2035. Investing in midwifery education can save 4.3 million maternal and newborn lives each year by 2035 (WHO, UNFPA, ICM). International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and Laerdal has a joint mission in ensuring that women have access to a well education and competent midwife and have an established long-standing partnership to co-develop educational solutions to achieve that goal. Laerdal’s experience with education and training for decades has made way for products such as SimCapture for Skills, a digital platform for student-led learning, for psychomotor skills and interactive and timely performance feedback. The ICM competencies are globally well acknowledged and form the fundament for quality of education and care provided by midwives. The ICM-Laerdal new student led solution; ICM Midwife Competencies builds on a hypothesis that combining and building the digital solution with the ICM Competencies, will strengthen and help scale up midwifery education, which as a result will reduce the faculty shortage, and meet the coverage gap of 900000 midwives needed globally. The co-developed solution will help midwifery institutions who want to produce proven competent graduates ready to graduate by bridging the quality of the program and meet educators’ gap of adequate resources.

Material and Methods:
Implementation of a quality and efficient midwifery program is a challenge for many universities, faculty, and students globally. Time constraints for deliberate practice and resource shortages also impede midwifery school programs in education and retaining students. To alleviate faculty burden and provide timely feedback to students, midwifery university programs would benefit from data-capture solutions with competency checklists that are co-developed and endorsed by ICM. ICM and Laerdal's intervention is a competency-based education solution that aims to strengthen the quality of midwifery education and develop competent and confident midwives by integrating skills and simulation in midwifery curricula, based on ICM competencies.

Results:
ICM has taken steps to develop a complete ecosystem around Midwifery Education globally – including an accreditation (MEAP), essential competencies, Midwifery Education Development Pathway (mPATH) including e-learning, OSCE-like assessment criteria, and a competency assessment tool in development. To ensure scalability and ease of adoption, the presentation will focus on the findings from the test sites using the solution as well as the principals for student led learning. The presentation will also focus on student-led efficient and data-driven education centred around essential ICM competencies. rove and scale the solution in alignment with the MNH community. The ICM, Laerdal intervention is unique in the sense that it addresses the challenge many faculty face today, not limited to the following: lack of resources, low budgets, crowded classrooms, the opportunity for repetitive skills practice, lack of digital infrastructure to evaluate assessments, and slow feedback. The intervention drives change by combining technology with simulation skills training. The technology component of this intervention supports faculty in optimizing evaluations of student performance and improving learning outcomes. The skills training component is fully linked to the ICM competencies to help students achieve skills mastery through self-driven practice.

Conclusions:
Laerdal’s partnership with ICM to develop this intervention will benefit 600000 midwifery students by 2025, equating to 70% of the midwifery student population, many in low- and middle-income countries, a largely underserved student population. To ensure those who need this intervention most a sustainable model is in development to secure increased access in low-resource settings. ICM and Laerdal believe this intervention will contribute to the transformation and expansion of the health workforce by producing competent and confident midwives and increase the potential to accelerate inclusive economic growth and progress toward health equity.

Partners:
International Confederation of Midwives and Laerdal Medical