How long are your placements? How long in each area and do you think it is long enough?
I have had one week in maternity day care, 4 weeks labour ward and then 2 weeks antenatal / postnatal ward.
I have found that on the short placements, there is barely time to know where everything is kept and how they like things to be done before you are off to the next place. Even the four weeks on labour ward have been too short, but thats all I get.
Do you keep the same mentor for all placements, or do you have a different mentor for each area? I have had two mentors so far, one in community and one on labour ward, but in the other areas I just work with whoever I am put with for the shift.
Busy

Hi... My first and second placements will both be 6/7 weeks.. Think the DS placement later in year one is longer though.

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Swansea Uni placements range from 5 - 7 weeks I think!

xx

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So far I have had 4 weeks community to start, then 2 further weeks community, then one week ante natal clinic and one week post natal ward. My last placement has been 4 weeks on post natal ward again.

I worked with the same mentor on community both times, but on ante natal clinic and post matal ward I have worked with whoever for most of the time. My next placement is 4 weeks on delivery suite.

I think whether it is long enough or not depends how the placement is going to be honest, but that is just my opinion. For me community wasn't long enough as I loved that placement lol.

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I'm in, thanks & bless you Mum & Dad x
Student Midwife 2007

Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

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)

So far we've had 5 weeks in each placement area. I had 15 weeks so far of community, but at the end of 5 weeks I've moved to a different community team. Those in my cohort who have had a DS placement earlier in the course are currently on a 10 week community or PN ward placement, because I have not had DS placement yet this placement was split for me into 5 on comm and 5 on DS.
Our uni is a pain in the arse though, they rotate us between different trusts and teams, so each placement we are on we get a different mentor each time. I have found it is not great for continuity for us, because one mentor on comm will let me do so much and another will start me from scratch and won't let me do anywhere near as much as what I did before, so I don't gain the confidence. Partly my fault though as I think I need to push myself a bit more, and just say 'well actually, I can do that', but sometimes it is nice to step back and just watch.

We have five week blocks of placement.

There are some variances, such as two weeks birthing centre, two weeks day care and the general medical placements at the end of this year. 1 week in each area, A& E ,general ward, gynae etc.

We had two 5 week blocks on community at the start and we are on labour/postnatal ward for the majority of the rest of the course.

Third year has some differences, such as the elctive placments and caseloading in the community at the end.

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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)

we have 8 week placements for each area (d/s, community and ward) and we have a mentor assigned to us for each placement area. I think 8 weeks is definatly long enough but like miss said it depends on how you are finding the placement and how good your mentor is!
xxxx

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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)

hey

im new this this... at salford uni!!

I have done 4 weeks community 4 weeks delivery and 4 weeks postnatal ward!!

I think you need at least 6 weeks to get any idea what your doing!!!

i love it though and love postnatal and delivery!!!

I am at Salford uni too lol, we must know each other surely????

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I'm in, thanks & bless you Mum & Dad x
Student Midwife 2007

Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

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)

LOL Pauline!!!

Its Amy x