Clinical Faculty at NMI
Shaping the next generation of midwives through hands-on practice, community training arrangements, and structured clinical support.
Already registered NMI Clinical Faculty? Access your Faculty Portal →The Role of Clinical Faculty
Clinical Faculty play a crucial role in a student’s midwifery education and training. NMI Clinical Faculty are tasked with teaching the hands-on midwifery skills that are fundamental in the transformation each student makes in their journey to become a proficient, entry-level midwife.
Clinical Faculty are responsible for teaching in the discipline areas in which they have specific training and/or competence. All clinical faculty at NMI are required to facilitate student learning in the clinical setting by careful planning, organizing, and providing learning opportunities.
Further, clinical faculty provide structured feedback to promote and direct student learning in alignment with NMI’s values and in a manner that meets the NARM Skills, MEAC Essential Competencies, ICM Core Competencies, and state and/or federal requirements.
Structuring Apprenticeships
In keeping with our mission to provide decentralized midwifery education, NMI does not place students with clinical faculty. Rather, NMI students are responsible for finding and securing their own clinical apprenticeships, ideally in their home communities or within the communities they hope to one day serve. However, NMI’s Clinical Director is available for support with finding clinical apprenticeships that best meet the needs of the individual student.
Typically, NMI students work with one clinical faculty member at a time, who teaches all essential clinical skills to the student. However, some students learn in clinical sites with multiple clinical faculty, or apprentice with two midwifery practices at the same time. For optimal learning, students are encouraged to work with more than one clinical faculty member to broaden and diversify their learning experience.
Clinical Faculty Requirements
Clinical Faculty for National Midwifery Institute must be credentialed health professionals providing primary care for pregnancy and birth in an out-of-hospital setting, including postpartum care, newborn care, and reproductive health family planning care.
Mandatory Qualifications Required
- Be a health professional who provides primary care for pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and the newborn.
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Be certified, licensed, or otherwise recognized as a provider in their jurisdiction:
- Midwives practicing where midwifery is neither regulated nor prohibited by enforcement of existing law must maintain the CPM credential.
- Midwives and other providers practicing in states where licensure is required must maintain licensure.
- Have at least three (3) years of work experience in clinical midwifery practice – OR – a minimum of 50 births as the primary attendant.
- Be in active practice in an out-of-hospital setting.
- Practice in a state where NMI has Permission to Operate.
- Comply with all applicable local, state, and federal laws pertaining to midwifery practice.
Additional Preceptor Criteria Flexible Guidelines
- Accepted Designations: Preceptors may be a midwife (LM, RM, CPM, CNM), family practice physician, or other care provider.
- Non-Midwife Preceptors: Expected to make additional clinical experiences and practice opportunities available as appropriate for skill acquisition and in accordance with practice policies.
- State-Specific Rules: Preceptors may need to meet additional requirements, and/or complete additional registration or paperwork depending on the state, region, or country in which they practice, OR to meet qualifications required by the state in which the student wishes to practice upon graduation.
- Shared Research Responsibility: Students and preceptors are responsible for doing the research necessary to determine what these additional requirements may be, and to fulfill them.
In addition, preceptors should become familiar with the NMI Student Handbook (particularly areas related to Clinical Instruction & Apprenticeship, Clinical Faculty Evaluation Process, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities).
Apply & Register
Ready to register as clinical faculty or register your clinical site setting? Review our required document checklist and timeline sequence to begin.
Registered Faculty Portal
Already approved Clinical Faculty? Access the secure portal to complete student evaluations, sign skills, and manage clinical tracking logs.
