Kirstie Balding

RM, Bsc (Hons), MPH, PhD candidate

Senior Midwifery Lecturer/ National Midwifery Programs Coordinator

Email: kirstie.balding@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Kirstie has been a registered midwife for over 20 years, her initial midwifery qualification was gained in the UK. Her midwifery career has spanned the full scope of midwifery practice from working in as a coordinator on a tertiary hospital birth suite to working in low risk models in the community including home births. She also has a strong interest in in working to improve maternal and child health in vulnerable populations and undertook her Masters degree in the field of public health recgonising the importance of the midwives role in supporting positive maternal and child health outcomes. Since then she worked specialist midwife for teenage for pregnancy and established the STAR (Supporting Those At Risk) clinic at local Perth metropolitan hospital maternity service prior to joining the university  in a sessional teaching role in 2014. Kirstie has always enjoyed a supporting students in clinical practice and remiains passionate about her role at UNDA striving to support and empower the next generation of midwives through midwifery education which is clinical relevant to contermporary midwifery practice. Kirstie is currently completing her PhD research about emotional intelligence and its relevance to midwifery practice.

  • Teaching areas

    All areas of midwifery theory and practice

  • Research Expertise & Supervision

    Research interests

    • Kirstie research interests are in emtional intelligence in midwifery, midwifery workforce and education issues, working with women in vulnerable populations and clincial simulation.
    • Kirstie research skills include mixed methods research, survey research and  phenomenongraphy ( a qualitatitive methodology).

    HDR supervision

    • Kirstie is currently supervising two MPhil midwifery students and plans to to supervise PhD  students on the completion of her own doctorate (expected completion 2nd half of 2023).

  • Conference Papers

    • Trans-Tasman Midwifery Educators Conference 2020 (Oral presentations)
    • The Midwifery Objective Structured Clinical Assessment (OSCA): Stressful or useful? Perspectives from recent graduates
    • The ‘near peer project’: Using recent midwifery graduates in the midwifery OSCA to assess the affective abilities of midwifery students.

  • Professional Affiliations

    • Australian College of Midwives
    • Trans-Tasman Midwifery Educators Committee
    • Australian Nursing Federation
    • Western Australia Midwifery Workforce Advisory Committee

  • Awards

    School of Nursing & Midwifery Teaching Excellence Award 2021

  • Professional affiliations

    • Australian College of Midwives
    • Trans-Tasman Midwifery Educators Education Consortium Member
    • Western Australian Simulation Healthcare Association
    • Midwifery Educators Western Australia