Work Experience

Yeah I know someone who did that as well, she went straight from school on a gap year and then sent her application while she was travelling and had no experience whatsoever and got in first time, whereas I've know lots of people with years of work experience who don't get in, I know its not just based on experience obviously, but I do find it odd when people get in first time without any

I had no luck with the hospitals or independent midwives in my area so I looked further afield and got voluntary work in a hospital in the next county along, just 20 miles journey each way . I'm not on maternity though, its a childrens ward they put me on.

I think I'm having the best work experience ever - working as a Maternity Care Assistant at *** Hospital . It was a long way of applications, tests and interview.

By the way, I had work placement at King's Hospital too. But I had to queue for 5 months.

Hello
i am trying very hard to get some experience in midwifery as i have already applied to uni but i am recieving rejections so i feel i need to prove i have some experience. I did arrange a week work experience with my local hospital - but it was awful. it took me a year yes a YEAR to get this placement as they have a waiting list and i was soo dissapointed - i spent everyday putting records in alphabetical order!
i am going to contact my local indpendant midwife - what a great idea!
thanks! any more suggestions for experience or research into midwifery?

Hi

I have been reading on here for quite a while although not posting.
After seeing that having work experience/volunteer work is important then I have applied to my local hospital.
I was quite surprised that they got back to me so quickly and they do accept volunteers in the maternity department. I have filled the application form in and now just waiting to go and have an informal interview.
I hope that the days and hours I can offer are suitable for the maternity department as I hope that this will make me decide if I definetly want to commit myself to becoming a midwife or not.
Can anyone who has already got some experience tell me what kind of things are volunteers allowed to do in a maternity unit?
Thank you

It's not on a maternity unit but my volunteering is on a ward and I am not allowed to have physical contact with the patients. I help out the staff - in my case with meals, but I think people do other things at other times of the day too.

I am in the process of organising work-shadowing. I am lucky enough to have a large teaching maternity hospital 1 mile away from me. They offer work experience in 1 week blocks, but I wanted something a bit more perm. After many phone calls I spoke with the midwife co-ordinator at the hospital who was lovely. She informed me that I would need to apply as a volunteer, which would require me to commit to a min of 6 months, for a min of 3 hours a week. This suits me grand as I am currently a stay at home mum to my 15 month old son. She is sending me the application pack, which should arrive anyday, which she said to view similar to a job application form. I am required to have a CRB check, provide 2 referees and be up to date with my MMR immunisations. She said that it would take about 3 months before I start working, but I'm just happy that the ball is rolling as I am looking to start my Access course for health professionals in September.

Hi ladies! I have just got off the phone with a couple of my local maternity units, one of them gave me a name and address of the delivery suite manager to contact, and the other directed me to the volunteer scheme and I now have the email address of someone on that maternity ward to contact! Really hope I can get on a maternity ward for some experience!

If it doesn't go to plan though, I can contact a few local antenatal class groups etc, but just wondering if that would be good enough experience by itself, or would it not get me very far?

Anything like that should help. Very few universities
expect you to have loads of experience on a maternity ward because it's quite hard to come by. I'm doing breastfeeding peer support work for Sure Start and I only have one weeks work experience on a maternity unit but it's got me an interview at Bradford so far. Sounds like you're doing all the right things fingers crossed !