Undergraduate midwifery student published in peer-reviewed journal

UTS third-year Bachelor of Midwifery student Koby Elliott has been published as a single author in the peer reviewed journal, Contemporary Nurse.

The paper, titled "Providing culturally competent learning experiences for Aboriginal students: An undergraduate midwife's perspective" is an original perspective on the discussion of cultural competence in healthcare programs and higher education.  

It is almost unheard of for an undergraduate to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Elliott's inclusion marks the exceptional quality and originality of her work; which is published alongside experienced researchers and leaders in nursing.

Adapted from an essay Elliott submitted for an undergraduate midwifery subject assessment, the paper proposes that culturally appropriate clinical placements would be enhanced through the provision of Aboriginal mentors and role models and more clinical placements in facilities that cater primarily to Aboriginal women.

"After being well supported by the Aboriginal Support Unit within the university, I found clinical practice placements in mainstream health facilities challenging," Elliott said.  "It made me think about what cultural competency really means in education programs and how mainstream clinical settings could improve culturally competent learning experiences for Aboriginal midwifery students."

"I was encouraged to develop my essay for publication by one of my lecturers at UTS, Tamara Power.  It was a great experience to work with her and to find out what it takes to prepare a piece of work to submit for publication.  I was so thrilled when I found out that my paper had been accepted."

Lecturer Dr Tamara Power sees Elliott's achievement as the first of many: "This is an incredible achievement for Koby.  It is a fantastic paper and to be published as a single author as an undergraduate student is incredibly rare.  It is a very well deserved recognition of her talent, both as a student midwife and (we hope) a future researcher.

"As it is so uncommon to be published as an undergraduate I don't believe this perspective of clinical practice has been previously revealed.  There is often a focus on culturally appropriate placements in rural and remote settings for Aboriginal people undertaking health degrees, but less consideration in an urban context."

In addition to her midwifery study, Koby is also working part time as a research assistant for the Breaking the Cycle for Incarcerated Parents: Towards Pro-social Parenting project, and the A-Clinic: developing and evaluating a model for alcohol "home detox" in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service project.  After graduation, she is looking forward to enrolling in honours and working part time as a midwife within an Aboriginal Maternal and Infant Health Service (AMIHS).