Introduction:
Continuous education within non-medical healthcare professions is a clear and unassailable condition for providing quality and safe care. In the Czech Republic, the system of qualification education is relatively clearly defined, but lifelong education is still very vaguely defined. Act No. 96/2004 establishes the obligation of lifelong education and its control. However, the scope, frequency, content or method of evaluating educational activities is no longer clearly defined. Based on the identification of key competencies of midwives in accordance with real clinical practice, the authors create a proposal for a system of lifelong education for midwives.

Aims and objectives:
The objective of the presentation is to present partial results of a project aimed at creating a proposal for a system of mandatory lifelong education for midwives in the Czech Republic in connection with the identified key competencies. This is a partial result of identifying key competencies in midwifery and creating a description of these competencies.

Method:
To identify key competencies, the researchers used a focus group and the Delphi study. The participants of the focus group were midwives from various clinical practice environments, managers and educators. The results of the focus group were processed and further discussed within the Delphi study by representatives of care providers, educators, professional organizations and doctors.

Results:
The 1st phase of the study is a comprehensive set of identified key competencies for midwives, including a description of the conditions for acquiring, maintaining and rules for possible withdrawal of key competencies.

Conclusion:
For quality midwifery, it is clearly necessary to ensure a system of lifelong learning, which will be developed on the basis of the key competencies in close cooperation with clinical practice. The methodology used in this study seems to be a good way to identify key competencies in other countries.