Lifelong midwives of education.

The theme of this thesis is ?Lifelong Midwifery Education?. The midwife´s competence is a subject to a three-year Bachelor's study and then repeated award of the Certificate of Eligibility to work without professional supervision. This is conditional on not only obtaining a Bachelor's degree, but also implementing the program of lifelong education. These conditions have not always been as such. In ancient times there was not any emphasis on midwives´ education, over time the knowledge and experience became more of an importance. A midwife of today is still forced to complement her skills. Despite of the fact that training courses had already existed, midwives were not obliged to attend them or prove any ongoing collection of new skills. After joining the European Union the education system of non-medical staff underwent changes, and in addition to existing secondary education or higher professional studies the schools proved inadequate and the studies had to be transferred to universities. At the same time the midwives had to prove their ongoing education and studies with their reached credits. The objective of this effort is a high quality nursing care and the care in midwifery. This research aims to map the interest of midwives in Lifelong Education events and detect possible gaps in some parts of the training. This can be used to extend the practice of lifelong studies. The research method used an anonymous questionnaire which was filled in by the Ústí Region midwives. The expectations that the midwives with lower education would not be as much interested in the offer of the education as the ones with higher education were incorrect. According to the questionnaires the topics and events of education are sufficient. Both the groups have proved comparable demand for education and training. The offered themes were, according to the midwives, fully satisfactory. The research has also showed rather poor knowledge of foreign languages. The midwives should be encouraged and motivated to expand not only their professional but also language skills going forward