The BCCNM board on Sept. 26, 2024, approved a new standard: Registered Midwives Screening and Diagnostic Tests & Imaging: Standards, Limits and Conditions. This standard, which will replace the Registered Midwives Ordering and Interpreting Screening and Diagnostic Tests: Standards, Limits and Conditions, comes into effect Oct. 28, 2024.
Context
Screening and diagnostic tests & imaging are an integral part of clinical decision making. The results of these tests and images help inform the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, stratification of risk, and treatment of disease. Any error in the screening and diagnostic tests and imaging process can lead to either missed, delayed, incorrect treatment, and/or diagnosis leading to potential harm for the midwifery client and their newborn.
The current standards contain a lengthy list of screening and diagnostic tests and imaging that a midwife can only order from, as well as detailed screening and diagnostic clinical information and instructions, general standards, and test and imaging specific limits and conditions.
Midwives identified the screening and diagnostic tests and imaging list as restrictive, and the clinical information within the standard as potentially outdated. As such, the list of tests and imaging, and all the clinical information within, have been removed in the new standard.
BCCNM conducted extensive consultation and surveyed midwives during the development of the new standard to ensure it was clear, and to understand how it would impact midwifery practice.
The new standard sets clear expectations for midwives when ordering, performing, interpreting, and managing screening and diagnostic tests and imaging. Current evidence-based resources exist to support midwives in the ordering and interpreting of screening and diagnostic tests for their clients.
Questions?
Submit a request to the Standards & Guidance team.