I am a DE qualified midwife, I think that how you get there is far less important than what you do with it. I did find a research article that compared the standard of practice one year post qualifying betwwen DE and nurse qualified midwives, and found no significant difference. We have many 18 month students who go straight from nurse training to short course midwifery with no nursing experience in between. In my experience student nurses are allowed to do less than student midwives on placement, and one of the 18 month course the pressure for numbers and academic work is so high that the students barely have time to just watch and learn, which I think puts them at a disadvantage.

Everyone brings the whole of their life experience to their midwifery - nursing can be valuable, but people who don't have a nursing background have many valid and important skills and experiencs to offer.

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

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