Introduction: Besides different laws and orders of these states, midwifery in Slovenia and Italy is regulated also by European directives. The diploma thesis discusses education, competences, and professional development of midwives in the mentioned states. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma thesis is to present midwifery in Italy and Slovenia based on the valid documents and sources and present main similarities and differences. A comparison of both states can indicate advantages and disadvantages of midwifery in the individual state. For the development of the profession, a weakness of one state can be a lesson or challenge for improvement to the other. Upgrading of knowledge can lead to the development of an occupation to profession and therefore to better quality of work and higher contentment of women and families. Methods: The descriptive method has been used in the diploma thesis with systematic research of scientific, professional, and legal literature. Sources and literature have been chosen by web databases DiKUL and ScienceDirect. When researching literature, the following keywords and phrased in Slovenian, English, and Italian have been used: competence, midwife, professionalization, education, occupation, European Union, Italy, Slovenia. Results: The purpose of the European directives has been to encourage free flow of professionals inside European Union. Every member state can pass its own regulations how to achieve the goal. Every state has different laws to legally standardise midwives. Italian midwives have a possibility during their schooling to specialize for one year in the so-called »master«, which does not exist in the Slovenian educational system yet. They can also finish the master’s degree in midwifery. Discussion and conclusion: Italian midwives are professionally in better position than the Slovene ones. Free flow of professionals enables that midwives can employ in other states of the European Union and therefore, upgrade their knowledge. Slovene midwives can also do that and bring new gained knowledge and competences back to Slovenia. The diploma thesis limits to theoretical findings, which have to be also tested in practice.
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