Building Endorsed midwives’ Advancement, Competency and Ongoing Navigation: BEACON Study

This descriptive, cross-sectional study will be conducted nationally employing an anonymous online survey designed to collect quantitative and qualitative data aligned from 300+ Endorsed Midwives.

Background and rationale

The number of Endorsed Midwives practising privately, and in recent years, publicly has rapidly increased. As of 31 March 2025, there were 1,502 Endorsed Midwives registered in Australia. Pre-existing research has largely focused on Endorsed Midwives’ prescribing practices and challenges. As Endorsed Midwives are being integrated into public hospital settings and continue to increase in number in private practices, research is needed to identify their professional development and organisational support needs. This study aims to build upon prior research to address this gap, providing needed evidence about the resources and facilitators at a systemic level that will support Endorsed Midwives to thrive.

Research aims and objectives

The overall research question is, what do Endorsed Midwives need to support practice and scope fulfilment?

This question will be addressed through the following objectives:

To identify current resources used by Endorsed Midwives to support their practice and scope fulfilment;
To identify Endorsed Midwives’ needs and preferences for professional development resources;
To map the national approach to public employment of Endorsed Midwives;
To measure Endorsed Midwives’ satisfaction with current resources and workplace/organisational support to fulfil their scope;
To test for differences between Endorsed Midwives’ current resources, needs, preferences and satisfaction by number of years practising as a midwife, number of years practising as an Endorsed Midwife, setting of principal practice, state and regionality.

Expected Outcomes and Impact

The findings of this study may be used to inform future professional development resources and initiatives for Endorsed Midwives and offer key insights to inform the successful integration of Endorsed Midwives into the various health sectors, ultimately equipping them to fulfil professional scope with confidence.

This study has been approved by the Curtin University Research Ethics Committee (HRE2025-0203).
The BEACON Study is supported by the Woman and Newborn Health Service and Curtin University.