Firstly, I work in an obstetric unit, our women are a mixture of low risk and high risk women, and for low risk women I am more than happy to write 'in labour' on the board without doing a VE. For high risk women, it depends on the situation and the risk factors involved.

With regard to students practising in ways that do not sit comfortably wth their own philosophy - I think that good and consistent mentorship is vital in this respect. It is something which, going on the experiences of my cohort and student midwives at the unit I work at, and in online st m/w communitites, seems to be an ongoing problem. I was lucky to have good continuity of mentorship with a mentor who got to know my abilities and shortcomings and was willing to listen to what I had to say. We did not always agree on things, but we respected each others opinions and felt comfortable enought with each other to be able to discuss them. Mentorship is all too often a case of 'finding someone to work with for today', so the student is bounced from one person to the next, with no continuity in terms of the experience gained, or in terms of the mentor developing a knowledge into stengths, weaknesses, needs and views of the student. Students tend to become quite 'task orientated' in this situation, focussing on what is the right and wrong way of doing specific tasks (when the reality is that there is often no absolute), along with the stress and grind of getting paperwork completed and things signed off. What is lost in the noise is reflecting on experiences, looking at why things happened in the way that they did, what could have been different, how this fits with the philosophy of the student, and how the experiences are affecting the student as he/she evolves into a midwife. Students don't have the 'safe zone' to develop their own style and philosophy within the reailities of clinical practice but under the guidance of a mentor, so become anxious, stressed, and not really understanding where they are at and what they are tryng to achieve. So practice becomes regimented and defensive, and the individualilty of birthing women in easily lost.

Sorry to ramble and to go off topic....

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Love Dory xxx
Just keep swimmin', just keep swimmin'....

Have you just been offered a place? If so and you want a mentor please post in post this forum (also post here if you would like a mentee)