Hi
I'm new - a qualified midwife of many years - i want you to tell me the little things that mentors do to make you feel good in placement and the not so good things that we may overlook that make you feel bad. This will help me to help mentors to improve

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Laugh in the face of the devil Eat Chocolate

Nappysack! Hello and a huge welcome!

Good to have you here!

My best mentor so far has been kind, welcoming, supportive, honest, enthusiastic about midwifery and my learning, motivational and inspirational.

It is very, very hard to work with lots of different midwives as you don't know them and they don't know or trust you to do things, the biggest problem is making you feel stupid when you make a mistake or get things wrong (which is inevitable IMO)

There are quite a few comments on here, if you do a search the poll 'attitudes to students' should prove interesting to you. My outlook has changed alot since then.

The main thing about coming to a hospital as a student is the unfriendly atmosphere that faces you on the very first day, the sister we met first ignored us for ten minutes!

That is pretty tough on your first day, nervous but incredibly excited as it is the day we've worked hard for for two years!

Hope you enjoy the site, we also have another one for midwives www.midwiferyworld.NET which may also interest you.

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Hi, and welcome to the site, it is good to have you join us.

I feel that a mentor who doesn't make me feel stupid if I do things wrong, makes time to answer my endless questions....even the silly ones, who makes me feel welcome and acts like they actually want to work with me goes a long way to making me feel happy.

The not so good things are, saying to me that she doesn't want to work with another student on my first day (what a welcome that is!) making me feel stupid in front of the woman if I make a mistake.

What a good topic this is by the way.

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Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker

attitudes to students

here is the link to the poll regarding the students views.

Missy, I forgot that and still get it now. Though I am getting used to it, it used to crush me

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Good post, i too am a mentor who enjoys working with students, i always try to
remember how i felt as a student and really try to make students feel welcome.
I remember being ignored as a new student standing there with my bag waiting for
someone to speak to me!!! awful feeling so always go out of my way to welcome
new students.

Jules xx

It is crushing smwife, espcially when you are a first year and new to the whole placement setting.

I just wanted to turn round and go home and never go back, but I am so glad I stayed though.

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Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker

Not being constantly late on her shift.. especially when I travel and sort out 3 kids before hand and get there in plenty of time, and she is childless and lives round the corner. Grated me that did, especially when the rest of the staff are so used to it, they just accept it... sorry, but that is never acceptable, I felt so sorry for the midwife doing the shift before having to hang around to do the handover. Also trying to 'test' me in front of women on things she had never covered with me before. I was asked on my first ever shift to interpret a CTG, I wasn't asked how much I knew first, never mind the fact I'd never seen one before.
Good mentors ask where you are up to, help you relax and chat to you like you are a person instead of something scraped off their shoe. Oh, and they make an effort to help you with your paper work by signing it when they say they will instead of hanging onto it for a week after placement has ended and still not even looked at it (can you tell my mentor didn't impress me ..lol.)

I have probably said this before, so no one shoot me please, but..

Maybe you could give us your perspective NS? As I think alot of midwives have forotten what it feels like to be new, and have to learn all of these knew things, the course is extremely difficult and one of the most testing aspects is the negative behaviour we come across.

That said, I have made a huge effort not to be too sensitive and roll my sleeves up and get involved, chat to midwives and MCA's and try to fit in and have been surprised at the change of opinion I have of some people who I though were pretty mean at first tbh.

Statistically how many midwives choose to mentor?

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Hi Nappysack, welcome to the forum,
love the name!
and good thread too........
here is my random collection of thoughts based on working with a variety of different mentors........

dear mentor:
please stop

using me as a general runner when we are not busy. If we are busy and pushed for staff, then by all means use me I am great at pitching in.......but in the quiet times, dont just assume that I will do it, or say 'can you just do me a favour' or volunteer my services to other mentors who need a runner.

please
dont ignore me on my first scary shift! take the time to find out my name and look out for me.

and please dont make me look stupid in front of a woman if you can help it! I know I do stupid things sometimes, but if they are little things, please wait until we have left the room to tell me they are stupid if they are not life threatening rather than right there and then in front of a woman.

and please, if possible dont rush my VE!! It takes time to find all that stuff out. If you gave me a few more seconds I might just nail it!!

and finally...
please stop
thinking your way is the only way there is!!!!

Dear Mentor:
You are a fab mentor and I really love it when you:

trust me to be with woman to care for her and to guide her through her labour.

make me a cup of tea

make time to work on my documentation

teach me in the quiet moments, whether it be getting out the doll and pelvis, opening up the clinical guidelines, looking in the emcs box or looking in the CD cupboard....whatever it is, there is so much to learn and so little time that I appreciate it when you impart your knowledge

share research with me and ask my opinions

trust me to do and say the right thing

when you thank me at the end of a long day!

hth?
x

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Site Administrator, Student Mentor Scheme Manager

STMW 2nd year - no, really!

That is excellent olly, I love it, so very true too.

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Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker