Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG) and Frontier Nursing University (FNU) are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to expand clinical opportunities for nurse-midwifery students nationwide. OBHG is the United States’ largest and only dedicated OB/GYN hospitalist provider, and FNU is a national graduate nursing university educating 40 percent of the United States’ nurse-midwives.
“The primary goal of the partnership is to simplify the process for nurse-midwives to secure their clinical rotations,” said Dr. Amanda Shafton, DNP, CNM, FACNM, OBHG’s National Director of Midwifery. “Nurse-midwives practicing at OBHG programs consistently strengthen the clinical team. This partnership helps to establish a steady pipeline of new nurse-midwives to expand and grow the profession.”
The partnership builds on the robust relationship between OBHG and FNU, which includes the current placement of 22 students in OBHG programs. The clinical education requirements for FNU’s nurse-midwifery students include a significant amount of time in a labor and delivery setting.
“This partnership is an exciting opportunity to expand our clinical site options for students, many of whom have to travel outside of their local communities to gain access to inpatient sites,” said Dr. Joan Slager, DNP, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, FNU’s Dean of Nursing. “Keeping our students in or near their home communities, and ultimately retaining them in the community as healthcare providers, has been the vision of the Community Based Nurse-Midwifery Program since its inception.”
The formalized agreement is expected to remove barriers to clinical placement by streamlining the contracts and documentation process to credential preceptors for student rotations. With OBHG operating in 39 states, FNU’s 2,700 students, who reside and work across all 50 states, gain access to more localized clinical opportunities.
“I had the privilege of working with two different certified nurse-midwife (CNM) preceptors at two different OBHG clinical sites and had different experiences with each,” said 2024 FNU graduate Megan Agardi, CNM. “I truly appreciate the knowledge and experience that OBHG providers brought to each clinical site. One clinical site had OBHG just in OB triage, and the other site was both in OB triage and as a laborist. Both experiences helped me feel confident in my transition from student to CNM.”
“There’s a misallocation of OB/GYN clinical resources in the U.S. today,” said Dr. Mark Simon, OBHG Chief Medical Officer. “Expanding access to midwifery services within hospitals offers significant benefits to patients. The partnership between Certified Nurse- Midwives and OB/GYNs ensures comprehensive, patient-centered care.”
“Midwifery care can improve outcomes – including lower morbidity and mortality among mothers and infants, said Dr. Amy VanBlaricom, OBHG’s Chief Clinical Officer. “OBHG is dedicated to integrating more Certified Nurse-Midwives into our hospital programs as another important way to address the maternal mortality crisis.”
The partnership is now in effect after a year of careful planning and development. Four state contracts are currently in place, with more expected soon. The agreement has been formalized without any time limit on the duration of the partnership.
About Ob Hospitalist Group:
Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG) is the nation’s largest and only dedicated provider of OB/GYN hospitalist solutions, focused on improving access to care and ensuring all women receive timely, unconditional obstetric care. Our team partners with hospitals across the nation to improve maternal safety and outcomes and reduce physician burnout. As part of our dedicated women’s health focus, we ensure that every pregnant woman presenting to labor and delivery with unscheduled medical needs receives timely, expert care from a skilled clinician. Our 1,800+ clinicians partner closely with local OB/GYN physicians, providing collaborative, non-competitive support. Together, we deliver great patient care and clinicians passionate about their role in caring for pregnant women. OBHG is headquartered in Greenville, SC. For more information, visit www.OBHG.com.
About Frontier Nursing University:
The mission of Frontier Nursing University is to provide accessible nurse-midwifery and nurse practitioner education that integrates the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We transform healthcare by preparing innovative, ethical, compassionate, and entrepreneurial leaders to work with all people with an emphasis on rural and underserved communities. FNU offers graduate Nurse-Midwifery and Nurse-Practitioner distance education programs that can be pursued full- or part-time with the student’s home community serving as the classroom. Degrees and options offered include Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), or Post-Graduate Certificates. Frontier has been named a “Great College to Work For” by the Great Colleges to Work For® program for each of the past three years (2021-2023). To learn more about FNU and the programs and degrees offered, please visit Frontier.edu.
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).
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