My PS is on a past PC and I don’t have a copy but here’s how I did mine, and given I got in first time, I guess it’s along the right lines! In the past year (yes SMNET is almost a year old!! Wahoo!) I have helped hundreds of applicants write personal statements and this 'formula' seems to work! If you have PMd me re reading and commenting on your PS please bare with me as I have about 30 yet to get through! I will get there though I promise! Do give me a shove if your deadline is coming up though!
In short tell them why you would make a good midwife
and a good student and back it up with examples and let your passion show!
Why you want to be a midwife
- personal passion
- to work with women and families
- to be an advocate for women
- to care for women
- to provide women with informed choice
- to educate women
- to give them the birth experience they want
- to work as an independent practitioner
- to work as part of a multidisciplinary team
Relevant skills to bring to midwifery i.e. transferable skills from a past life, personal etc
Here's some examples;
- Working as an HCA/MCA in care environment (I didn’t have any direct care experience)
- Being a birth partner/doula (I was my sisters pregnancy/birth partner and was hooked)
- Coming from a large family where pregnancy and birth were normal events, so you are familiar with pregnancy/birth/new babies
- Having a baby and wanting to care for other women in pregnancy/labour, because of your experience whether that be a good or bad experience
- Skills you may have, maybe you have volunteered for an organisation or worked in a particular role that makes you a good organiser, listener, having experience of working with women and families, or as part of a multidisciplinary team.... even if you haven’t worked for years and have been raising a family - how you organise family life and responsibilities, how you have fed your love of midwifery in that time
If you have
NVQ's/qualifications that are relevant then highlight these and explain why they are relevant. Say why these make you a good student.
- if you have a degree already say how you are educated to degree level, show you can complete degree level work
- if not say how your access course has prepared you, or your A Levels, or that you have the 210 UCAS points (or whatever your institution requires) via whatever route it is you have them!
- You will need to show evidence that you have studied in the past 3-5 years (usually) even if its totally irrelevant to midwifery put what you have studied and if you got good grades then tell them you are an excellent student and why!
- Say how you organised your time between home and study, whatever your age and background say how you achieved a study/life balance and how you enjoyed researching assignments or reading or whatever it is you loved!
Your passion for midwifery - unleash it on paper!
- books you have read
- articles
- websites (like this one shows interest and enthusiasm in midwifery plus lots of Uni's now have a link to us from their websites so they must like what we do here
)
- journals
- midwifery magazines i.e The Practising Midwife, British Journal of Midwifery, Midwifery Matters
- organisations you are part of/aware of Royal College of Midwives, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Association of Radical Midwives....
- talk to a current student midwife via here or in 'real life' - read our interviews with student midwives section demonstrating you have researched life as a student midwife and say how it is for you Interviews with Student Midwives
- talk to a current practising midwife show you have researched the job by reading around and also by going to the real people that do the job, look under our interviews with a midwife section, show you have researched what it is really like out there in midwifery today http://www.studentmidwife.net/interv...h-midwives-rm/
I’m happy to look over anyone’s PS, I had a previous life in employment law and personnel (from recruitment to case work) so have lots of experience of application form sifting and interviewing, writing person specifications etc. Just drop me a PM and let me know or post in here.
Good luck!