Do you feel you are treated differently is you are direct entry? do you think being RGN gives you a good grounding? Is an 18 month course too short/long?

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J
StudentMidwife.NET Founder & Director

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Not generally.

But have been asked many times.

It is a standing joke in our cohort

'Oh my god, you're a first year , oh, and direct entry?'
(look of barely concealed disgust, we try to laugh about it, what can you do?)

We are the scum of the earth at the mo. I have only met a handful of direct entry qualifieds too

I have heard talk of extending the 18 month course to 2 or 3 years. Don't know if this is true though?

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I am a direct entry student too, there are only a few students doing the 18 month course at my uni, but I have no idea who they are as we haven't been introduced.

Pauline

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Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

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Direct Entry. To the dismay of my mentor(s) and other RMs. I feel i have to apologise straight away when i see the usual reactions hahaha

I don't know if it is nationwide, or just at my uni, but they are stopping doing the post-reg course, which I think speaks volumes. Us direct entry peeps are not lesser beings. I think we are more focused on woman-centred care, maintaining normality and things like 'optimum hormonal balance' as opposed to 'coping with pain'. I don't want to offend anyone by saying this, it is merely a huge generalisation, cos I have worked with several fab nursey-midwives. But I do think that you can't 'unlearn' things that have been instilled in your head after years of being socialised as a nurse. But us direct entry students can learn the clinical skills with time, that a nurse can do. However, I do envy the knowledge that nurses have with regard to pathophysiology. This is definitely invaluable.

In my first year, one mentor actually told me that she thought we weren't as good as the nurses 'no offence'. No surprises that she was a nurse. I was outraged.

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3rd year Student Midwife

A colleague of mine had exactly the same, Ive not had it directly tho.....

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J
StudentMidwife.NET Founder & Director

"You're braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And smarter than you think."
Christopher Robin in Pooh's Grand Adventure

Please help us raise funds for a bereavement room in Honey's memory by taking part in the SMNET Auction & Raffle here thanks x

Oh, that it terrible.

I can see the point and completely agree, but in my opinion they are separate careers and I think it is hard for us DE's. Direct entry midwifery has been available since the 70's for goodness sake.

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I have met some brilliant midwives who have done the short course but by and large I think DE come out with a better understanding of midwifery. In our first year we sat in on OSCE training with some near to be qualified RGNs. We knew more than them then and still had two years to go.

I have had the comments from m/ws and shortcourse students alike. However in our trust the DEs consistently are the ones who are employed so that speaks for itself.

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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Dory, I agree ... as always...

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J
StudentMidwife.NET Founder & Director

"You're braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And smarter than you think."
Christopher Robin in Pooh's Grand Adventure

Please help us raise funds for a bereavement room in Honey's memory by taking part in the SMNET Auction & Raffle here thanks x