AOM-NPAO joint statement on midwife and nurse-practitioner collaboration

The Association of Ontario Midwives (AOM) and the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO) support collaborative practice in perinatal, sexual, reproductive and infant care. Increased access to comprehensive primary care is a shared objective and responsibility of nurse practitioners and midwives, in addition to our physician colleagues and other allied health-care providers.

Collaborative care is founded on the principles that each discipline has a distinct philosophy, approach, scope of practice and set of skills that is unique and valuable. Nurse practitioners and midwives are autonomous primary care providers who thrive in environments that value clinical excellence and strong communication and respect their leadership in clinical decision-making. The value to clients is amplified when midwives and nurses work together, to their fullest scopes of practice, with clear roles in care delivery and reciprocal respect for professional autonomy.

The AOM and NPAO are committed to working towards gender and health equity. As gendered professional bodies, we are united in challenging and eliminating gender discrimination in the health system. Further, the associations are aligned in their commitment to addressing and eradicating systemic and interpersonal racism and colonialism in health care.

Nurse practitioners and midwives have not been afforded equal opportunities for leadership within the health-care system. Compensation inequity and the suppression of professional autonomy have limited midwives’ and nurse practitioners’ full participation and impact in primary care.

Together, midwives and nurse practitioners:

• Build collaborative teams to support individuals, families, and communities through their reproductive life cycle
• Foster best-practice environments and contribute to bodies of knowledge through collaborative education and sector-led research
• Support programs and care delivery that centre health equity
• Advocate for funding models that prioritize appropriate remuneration for health care practitioners working in diverse models of care delivery
• Identify systemic impediments to collaborative care and champion solutions
• Demonstrate the value of health care with gender equity at its core, for Ontarians and for practitioners
• Provide leadership in practice, in communities and in the health-care system

Nurse practitioners and midwives can work collaboratively to support equity, access, improved population health, healthy work force sectors and a thriving health-care system. Ontarians and the Ontario health system have yet to fully benefit from the transformative potential of nurse practitioners, midwives and their collaborative care. Together, midwives and nurse practitioners offer real solutions to remedy the primary-health-care crisis facing the province.