Hi Chrisine, I’m with you on this one completely, but I
wonder if some of the confusion and difficulty in defining things is because
there is also a Post-grad Bachelor of Midwifery here in Tania (someone who WAS a Nurse, IS a
Midwife, and who believes it would have been a more comprehensive and
appropriate course if I’d been able to do the 3 yr BMid) x From: I understand why people refer to the Bachelor of
Midwifery as a direct entry course but I wish we could learn to stop doing
this. If we continue it still means we are measuring midwifery against nursing
or still referring to nursing, we never see Registered Nurses referred to as
direct entry nurses. If you are having difficulty explaining direct entry
midwifery to managers etc if you refer to RN’s as direct entry nurses they do
seem to get a better grasp on this. I don’t intend this to sound critical just to try and
cause change. Christine -----Original
Message----- I would like to reply to this one as a
just about to finish Mid student with 6 years as an RN. There are two ways to
become a midwife in Au, a one year (18 months) upgrade or a 3 year direct entry
course. The upgrade course for RN's relies on the fact that you have some
nursing experience WHY? From where I am now, I absolutely agree that an RN
cannot do the full job of a
midwife without formalised midwifery training. Before I began my course, I too
thought that midwifery was really just another nursing specialisation like an
ICU nurse or a Psyc Nurse. There are a lot of skills and
practices that are common to both professions especially as most of us work in
a hospital setting. Midwifery requires advanced people skills, time management
skills and assessment skills as well as learning to work within the hospital
system and learning to work with other health care professionals in an often
autonomous role. Even after 3 years of training RN's need a new grad year to
develop the basics of these skills and probably a further 2 or 3 years to
become proficient. Obviously maturity, background and life experience all play
a part in this transition. I have met a couple of new grad RN's
who have gone straight into 1 year mid training and they appear to find it
difficult as the upgrade program appears to expect a level of
knowledge/experience not yet developed in a new grad RN. Not to say that
experienced RN's find it a breeze, its not. It's hard work and can be bloody
stressful ;) Obviously this is a generalisation and once again the maturity,
background and life experience of the individual will apply. In NZ RN's were able to upgrade in a
similar way. However those RN's felt that they were not receiving as adequate
training as the direct entry Midwives. So now RN's complete the same course as
the direct entry mids with a credit for a portion of the course based on their
qualification/experiance. So that is why I feel as an RN
almost midwife that RN's should have at least one year post grad experience
prior to training. The better way would be to do the 3 year direct entry course
if you want to be a midwife and not an RN as well. Some more thoughts on the original
post. It feels like the proposal to train
RN's to work in mid is not based on a concern for the patients or the RN's but
a way of staffing the ward cheaply. They could offcourse pay for these RN's to
do the Mid training which is available, as it is appropriate for mid students
who happen to be RN's to work on the ward under midwife supervision. Assuming
the RN's are willing to complete the appropriate assignment work etc. If they
aren't they are they really the right ppl to be working on maternity in the
first place. Most RN's would agree that it would be
inappropriate to replace RN's with AIN's and train them to look after patients,
take obs, change dressings, mobilise patents etc. Then have an RN be held
responsible should the AIN make a mistake or fail to recognise a patient who
had deteriorated or needed reviewing. That is the legal situation in Remember an American obstetrics nurse is
just that, not a midwife (yes Rgds Mike On 10/2/06, Rene and Tiffany
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote: It has been fantastic reading all the responses to the
nurse/midwife question. As a nurse about to begin midwifery training, I
look forward to learning and developing the specialist skills you wonderful
women have described! My original response stemmed from the fact that I
became a nurse ONLY to become a midwife (as there was no other way at the
time), but found that, I was unable to get any exposure to such, as training
nurses and RN's are generally unwelcome in maternity. I would have given
anything to have the opportunity to work and 'help out' in maternity whilst
waiting to secure a student midwife place. Instead I went straight into Mental
Health after I qualified as an RN, whilst waiting for one of the 6 midwifery
training positions that are offered. Perhaps this does raise the issue
about providing more training places for student midwives, and why is it that
we have to work as NURSES for a minimum 12 months before we can train as
midwives, when as many have pointed out – 'where is the nursing care in
midwifery?' Thanks J From: owner- ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au [mailto:owner-
ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au] On Behalf
Of brendamanning Going back to the maternity nurse or Gen/ Obstetric
nurse working in Midwifery is how NZ worked in the 70's & 80's.
It was unsatisfactory then & would be the same now, despite the fact the we
did 6 months obs in our general training we weren't midwives & it
showed. I worked in mid whilst attending homebirths,
worked in birth suite, postnatal, taught pre-natal
classes & spent 3 years in charge of SCN as a RGON in the
early 80's & when I went to train as a midwife just like Di M I
too found it a revelation. It's a retrograde step
& undermines all the recognition of your specialised profession you
Australian midwives have fought so hard for. It's just another path on:
"follow the American leader". With kind
regards ----- Original Message
----- From: D. Morgan To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 9:54 AM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] RE: I agree Michelle, I too
worked in a rural area prior to completing my Mid many years ago and can still
remember the revelations I felt while learning Midwifery. As an RN
non Midwife, I was quite ignorant of what a true Midwife's role involved. It
was scarey stuff. Cheers Di M
-- -- |
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Rene and Tiffany
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step diane
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step B & G
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Rene and Tiffany
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step diane
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Rene and Tiffany
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step D. Morgan
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step sharon
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Mike & Lindsay Kennedy
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Christine Holliday
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Tania Smallwood
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Mike & Lindsay Kennedy
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step sharon
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Sonja & Barry
- Re: [ozmidwifery] Backward step Sonja & Barry
- RE: [ozmidwifery] Backward step B & G
- [ozmidwifery] DO SOMETHING! Mary Murphy
- Re: [ozmidwifery] DO SOMETHING! Jan Robinson
- Re: [ozmidwifery] DO SOMETHING! info
- RE: [ozmidwifery] DO SOMETHING! Mary Murphy
- Re: [ozmidwifery] DO SOMETHING! Lisa Barrett