Since the winter semester 2021/2022, young people have been able to study the Bachelor's degree programme "Applied Midwifery Science" at the Faculty of Health Care at Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR). The faculty has set up four "skills labs" so that students are optimally prepared for their future careers.

These rooms have now been presented to the public. Many of the degree program's cooperation partners also came to the Krefeld South Campus for the event. After words of welcome from the President of the University, Dr. Thomas Grünewald, the Dean of the Department, Professor Dr. Bernhard Breil, and Annika Walker, Professor of Midwifery Science and Head of Degree Programme, looked back on the still young history of the Degree Programme. This was followed by a tour of the rooms.

The premises include a fully equipped delivery room with birthing area and delivery bed, a maternity ward with 5 beds, a large seminar room and a simulation room. In the simulation room, lecturers can observe the students and their actions via cameras behind mirrored glass. The recordings are then discussed on the large screen in the designated meeting room.

In addition to the furnishings, the rooms are also equipped with realistic medical consumables such as blood pressure monitors or blood collection equipment and a growing collection of models and props. These include doll "Priscilla" and her baby "Apple", the software-controlled full obstetric simulators on which students can practice various birth scenarios. In addition, there is the innovative teaching concept "Kreißtheater", in which twelve freelance actors simulate the people and families to be cared for in class or during examinations.

The Skills Lab plays a central role throughout the entire course of studies: here, theoretical knowledge can be practiced and advanced in a protected space before students apply it in cooperating practical institutions.

"As an innovative teaching and learning space, the Skills Lab supports the development of students' midwifery-specific skills and thus contributes to the best possible care for women, newborns and families during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period," says Annika Walker, Head of the degree program and Professor of Midwifery Science.

More information on the seven-semester Bachelor's degree program "Applied Midwifery Science" can be found at: https: //www.hs-niederrhein.de/gesundheitswesen/studieninteressierte/b-sc-angewandte-hebammenwissenschaft/