Regulation of the nursing and midwifery professions is often viewed as a detached, rules-based process, yet its true role is to protect the public by actively supporting the professional development of its practitioners. This balance is critical to maintain the public's trust in these highly-regarded caring professions, and it requires a forward-thinking approach that embraces both the science and the humanity of care.

This episode explores the unique identity of the midwifery profession, examining its core principles of art and science, its evolution towards integrated community care, and the importance of its professional distinction from nursing. It offers perspectives on education, the future of practice, and the profound, privileged role of the midwife.

Host Kathyann Barrett, NMBI Head of Operations, is joined by Dr. Karn Cliffe, NMBI Director of Professional Standards Midwifery, and Lauren Walsh, a second year midwifery student at UCD, for this insightful discussion.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

Midwifery career path and travel
The art and science of midwifery
Midwifery's distinct professional identity
Shift to integrated community care
The privilege of a midwife's role

GUESTS DETAILS

Dr. Karn Cliffe is the Director for Professional Standards for Midwifery with the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI). A dual-qualified nurse and midwife, she has extensive international experience in community and hospital settings and holds the Adjunct Professor title at Trinity College Dublin.
She is joined by Lauren Walsh, a second-year midwifery student at UCD.

MORE INFORMATION

NMBI is the statutory body which sets the standards for the education, registration and professional conduct of nurses and midwives. We advise on how nurses and midwives should provide care to patients, their families and society. Our mission is to protect the public and the integrity of the professions of nursing and midwifery through the promotion of high standards of education, training, and professional conduct. We achieve this by providing leadership to registered nurses and midwives to support them to deliver safe care through innovative and proactive professional regulation.

Our functions in safeguarding the public involve establishing and maintaining the Register of Nurses and Midwives. We also establish procedures and criteria for the assessment and registration of nurses and midwives. Visit the Registration section of our website to learn more. Additionally, we set the standards and requirements for nursing and midwifery education programmes. We approve education programmes and further education programmes for nurses and midwives. Visit NMBI.ie to learn more.

QUOTES

It's looking at the woman and the baby as a unit. So we never look at just the woman, and we look at the woman carrying her baby. - Dr. Karn Cliffe
I hope we see more integration and integration of care across the community and the acute settings. - Dr. Karn Cliffe
I loved literally within the first week of starting in my training, the end of the first week, going, Wow, this is it. I'm home. - Lauren Walsh

KEYWORDS

#IrishMidwifery #MidwiferyStandards #PerinatalCare #MidwiferyEducation #NMBI

Nurses and midwives need clarity on regulation's dual role protecting public whilst actively supporting their professional development.

Carolyn Donohoe, NMBI CEO, explains how right touch regulation balances proportionate standards with fairness, why undergraduate education now incorporates equality diversity inclusion and social determinants of health, and how strategic focus on plain English communication makes professional requirements accessible.

With a nursing background spanning intensive care teaching to hospital management, she shares a career journey from bedside's instant gratification to broader leadership impact, maintaining public trust consistently ranking top two professions in Ipsos surveys, and encouraging registrants to engage without fear through road shows, webinars, and consultations whilst doing their best with available resources.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

• Career journey bedside nurse to CEO
• Regulation means setting standards based risk
• Right touch proportionate fair transparent approach
• Undergraduate reform equality diversity holistic care
• Supporting registrants plain English accessible communication

GUEST DETAILS

Carolyn Donohoe is CEO of Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, appointed permanently summer 2025. She leads strategically for the protection of the public by shaping and developing professional regulation for the nursing and midwifery professions. Her nursing career spans intensive care clinical facilitation, hospital management, and strategic education leadership before joining NMBI, bringing expertise in regulatory frameworks and translating clinical experience into effective governance.

MORE INFORMATION

NMBI is the statutory body which sets the standards for the education, registration and professional conduct of nurses and midwives. We advise on how nurses and midwives should provide care to patients, their families and society. Our mission is to protect the public and the integrity of the professions of nursing and midwifery through the promotion of high standards of education, training, and professional conduct. We achieve this by providing leadership to registered nurses and midwives to support them to deliver safe care through innovative and proactive professional regulation.

Our functions in safeguarding the public involve establishing and maintaining the Register of Nurses and Midwives. We also establish procedures and criteria for the assessment and registration of nurses and midwives. Visit the Registration section of our website to learn more. Additionally, we set the standards and requirements for nursing and midwifery education programmes. We approve education programmes and further education programmes for the purposes for nurses and midwives. Visit NMBI.ie to learn more.

QUOTES

• It's just trying to be more valuable to society. So for the next 10 years, what's the value add of nursing and what's the value add of midwifery? - Carolyn Donohoe
• It was about human interaction and those connections and how you could help and make people better. - Carolyn Donohoe
• We set rules for nurses and midwives in this country to practice, because we recognise they have the opportunity to interact with very vulnerable people and to do jobs that could potentially cause a lot of harm if they didn't, if the nurse or midwife didn't know what they were doing. So you have to put in kind of safeguards around that. - Carolyn Donohoe

KEYWORDS

#NursingRegulation #MidwiferyStandards #PublicProtection #ProfessionalCompetence #RightTouchRegulation

What is NMBI Voice?

NMBI Voice covers the key changes and challenges facing our profession today.

Whether you're dealing with new regulations, maintaining your professional development, or navigating ethical decisions in your daily practice, NMBI Voice breaks down complex topics into practical guidance you can use.

You'll hear from NMBI experts and colleagues who understand the realities of our work environment, offering clear explanations of what new policies mean for your practice and career.

New episodes air on the first Monday of every month, giving you the information you need to maintain excellent standards while focusing on what matters most – caring for your patients.

Fitness to practise sounds intimidating—and for nurses and midwives facing complaints, it can feel like the hardest side of regulation.

Marie-Therese Hackett is NMBI’s Inquiries Legal Adviser, with 20 years’ experience in the legal profession working across criminal law, civil litigation, and healthcare regulation.

Marie-Therese’s professional background provides a strong foundation for ensuring regulatory processes are fair, transparent, and proportionate. Having worked closely with vulnerable participants in a range of legal processes and regulatory systems, she is deeply aware of the impact such processes can have on the individual.

These experiences have made her passionate about promoting compassionate practice and reducing harm wherever possible. Marie-Therese’s personal experience of neonatal intensive care units has given her a profound respect for healthcare professionals and a deep appreciation of the trust that patients and their families place in the healthcare system. These personal experiences strengthen her commitment to fairness, empathy, and continuous improvements in healthcare regulation.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

• How fitness to practice protects public safety
• How the three-stage legal framework for complaints works
• How the Compassion Project transformed witness care through dedicated liaison officers and 24/7 emotional support line
• Why witnesses experience re-traumatisation without trauma-informed practices
• How reducing "witness work" through practical measures supports participants

MORE INFORMATION

NMBI is the statutory body which sets the standards for the education, registration and professional conduct of nurses and midwives. We advise on how nurses and midwives should provide care to patients, their families and society. Our mission is to protect the public and the integrity of the professions of nursing and midwifery through the promotion of high standards of education, training, and professional conduct. We achieve this by providing leadership to registered nurses and midwives to support them to deliver safe care through innovative and proactive professional regulation.

Our functions in safeguarding the public involve establishing and maintaining the Register of Nurses and Midwives. We also establish procedures and criteria for the assessment and registration of nurses and midwives. Visit the Registration section of our website to learn more. Additionally, we set the standards and requirements for nursing and midwifery education programmes. We approve education programmes and further education programmes for the purposes for nurses and midwives. Visit NMBI.ie to learn more.

QUOTES

• When I think of healthcare regulation, we are all working in that wider system to protect the public and the trust in the professions. - Marie Therese Hackett
• When we say that someone is fit to practice, what we mean is that they have the appropriate skills, they have the knowledge, they have the character and the health to practice their profession safely and effectively - Marie Therese Hackett
• With over 90,000 people on the register, the number of complaints coming through is really small. - Marie Therese Hackett
• We launched our witness care project with the focus that we wanted every single person coming through to have a person-focused tailored experience based on trust, showing them respect and appreciation for the role that they play. We can't do our job without witnesses - Marie Therese Hackett
• This is a regulatory process, and emotion has to come out of it, but for those people involved in it, you can never take the emotion out of it. We need to recognize that. - Marie Therese Hackett

KEYWORDS

#witnesscare #altruism #processimprovement #traumainformed #participantsupport