I have my trust induction at the end of the week and as a result I have had a few days off. I can't say it's been restful, after all I do have two children under 5. However in between studying I have had the opportunity to combine one of my hobbies with my learning. I am lucky enough to have quite a few friends that are currently pregnant and three of them allowed me to take photos of their bumps today. I love photography and last year I invested in a DSLR and aimed to teach myself how to take better photos. Over this time I have learnt a lot about how to edit and how to take better shots, and I am looking forward to sharing in their journey, whilst creating a record for them.
I've obviously had friends who were pregnant before, but it's a whole new perspective as a student midwife. I am lucky to have such friends that support me and are happy to share their pregnancies with me.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
A bit of time out
Friday, 25 June 2010
Getting started
I have now been a student midwife for 7 weeks. It doesn't seem possible but we are already about to be released onto our first placement and for some it feels a very scary prospect.
Over the last 7 weeks we have been introduced to each of our subjects; some gently and others thrown in at the deep end. The biology, for example, is intense; one lecture on the cardiovascular system, one lecture on the respiratory system, one lecture on the endocrine system etc. It doesn't take long for us to realise that we will need to do a lot of self-study to keep up and to really know these systems properly.
For others, it is perhaps the midwifery skills that are more scary. Having had children myself, I found these lessons more reassuring that I wasn't out of my depth completely. Whilst I obviously don't know anywhere near enough yet about how to do the appropriate checks, I at least do know what they are e.g palpation, scans, urine analysis etc. I've attended enough of my own antenatal checks to know the drill. It's been enjoyable for me to find out what they are really doing these checks for and what the notes really meant. I remember reading LOA in my notes and I'd always assumed it meant 'left of abdomen' well now I know it means 'left occipito anterior' and what's more I understand what that means (in case you are wondering, it's the ideal position for the baby to be in, in preparation for birth. The head is down and the baby is facing towards the mothers spine, and curled round to the left of the mother's abdomen).
Academic skills has been an interesting one and it's been a challenge for some to understand why we are doing it. It's essentially a course to teach us how to do further reading, how to reference and make quotations and eventually write our assignments. For me, it's been really useful as it's been a long time since I was at school and certainly we didn't have the same resources for further reading that are around now. Those that have come from doing other degrees, or straight from school, are maybe finding it a bit easier. Though I still feel they can learn from the course.
So now I am on the cusp of my first placement and feeling really excited about it. I simply can't wait to start my real practical training. I am hoping for good mentors, and to be lucky enough to see some births. I am hoping my own experience as a breastfeeding mother helper will come in useful and that I can share my knowledge. I am also hoping to get more to grips with listening to blood pressures and performing abdominal examinations. The one thing I am really nervous about is needing to take blood. Not because I am scared of needles or blood, neither bother me, but because it was really difficult to get to grips with the technique on merely a dummy arm. With the abdominal examination, although we have only practiced with the dummies, at least we can't hurt anyone, the blood taking is another matter. In theory, we could damage nerves, or bruise the ladies and whilst I know our mentors will be on hand to support us, it's still a slightly nerve wracking thought. Still I have just over a week off now so shall of course be studying all I can in preparation......whilst enjoying the good weather ;)
Over the last 7 weeks we have been introduced to each of our subjects; some gently and others thrown in at the deep end. The biology, for example, is intense; one lecture on the cardiovascular system, one lecture on the respiratory system, one lecture on the endocrine system etc. It doesn't take long for us to realise that we will need to do a lot of self-study to keep up and to really know these systems properly.
For others, it is perhaps the midwifery skills that are more scary. Having had children myself, I found these lessons more reassuring that I wasn't out of my depth completely. Whilst I obviously don't know anywhere near enough yet about how to do the appropriate checks, I at least do know what they are e.g palpation, scans, urine analysis etc. I've attended enough of my own antenatal checks to know the drill. It's been enjoyable for me to find out what they are really doing these checks for and what the notes really meant. I remember reading LOA in my notes and I'd always assumed it meant 'left of abdomen' well now I know it means 'left occipito anterior' and what's more I understand what that means (in case you are wondering, it's the ideal position for the baby to be in, in preparation for birth. The head is down and the baby is facing towards the mothers spine, and curled round to the left of the mother's abdomen).
Academic skills has been an interesting one and it's been a challenge for some to understand why we are doing it. It's essentially a course to teach us how to do further reading, how to reference and make quotations and eventually write our assignments. For me, it's been really useful as it's been a long time since I was at school and certainly we didn't have the same resources for further reading that are around now. Those that have come from doing other degrees, or straight from school, are maybe finding it a bit easier. Though I still feel they can learn from the course.
So now I am on the cusp of my first placement and feeling really excited about it. I simply can't wait to start my real practical training. I am hoping for good mentors, and to be lucky enough to see some births. I am hoping my own experience as a breastfeeding mother helper will come in useful and that I can share my knowledge. I am also hoping to get more to grips with listening to blood pressures and performing abdominal examinations. The one thing I am really nervous about is needing to take blood. Not because I am scared of needles or blood, neither bother me, but because it was really difficult to get to grips with the technique on merely a dummy arm. With the abdominal examination, although we have only practiced with the dummies, at least we can't hurt anyone, the blood taking is another matter. In theory, we could damage nerves, or bruise the ladies and whilst I know our mentors will be on hand to support us, it's still a slightly nerve wracking thought. Still I have just over a week off now so shall of course be studying all I can in preparation......whilst enjoying the good weather ;)
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
The first week
On my first day I was so excited, it was like my first day at school all over again. I had organised to meet a couple of the others in the cafe, so I wasn't worried about walking in on my own. I was really interested to see who else would be Midwifery students though and wondered what sort of age mix there would be. At 32 I expected to be one of the oldest but in reality I was somewhere in the middle.
The first three days we spent most of our time in the one lecture hall. We had talks from people from various different departments e.g. student support, library, student union; and an introduction to some of our subject tutors. It was hard going in that there was lots of sitting and listening and not a lot of doing. Some parts were also a bit repetitive too - they'd each explain how to get onto the computer system and for those of us that were perhaps comfortable with negotiating our way round a computer, found this a little tedious. But on the whole, it was informative.
On the Thursday and Friday we were lucky enough to have a lie in.....well those of us without children did anyway...as we didn't start till 11. We had the theory of moving and handling, theory of resuscitation and our first Biology session. The Biology was the first time I felt I was in a proper lecture and learning something.
One thing I hadn't been prepared for was how tired I was. We really didn't do very much that first week but I was coming home starving and exhausted. I could literally fall asleep at the drop of a hat and for someone who usually takes a good hour to get to sleep at night, this was a bit of a shock. I was very reassured when I spoke to the others about this, as they were all feeling the same. It didn't take too long to settle down luckily.
So that's the applying, preparation and first week covered. I hope you are enjoying reading my journey so far and I hope it's useful if you are thinking about applying to Midwifery too. If you do have any questions, then do feel free to ask :)
The first three days we spent most of our time in the one lecture hall. We had talks from people from various different departments e.g. student support, library, student union; and an introduction to some of our subject tutors. It was hard going in that there was lots of sitting and listening and not a lot of doing. Some parts were also a bit repetitive too - they'd each explain how to get onto the computer system and for those of us that were perhaps comfortable with negotiating our way round a computer, found this a little tedious. But on the whole, it was informative.
On the Thursday and Friday we were lucky enough to have a lie in.....well those of us without children did anyway...as we didn't start till 11. We had the theory of moving and handling, theory of resuscitation and our first Biology session. The Biology was the first time I felt I was in a proper lecture and learning something.
One thing I hadn't been prepared for was how tired I was. We really didn't do very much that first week but I was coming home starving and exhausted. I could literally fall asleep at the drop of a hat and for someone who usually takes a good hour to get to sleep at night, this was a bit of a shock. I was very reassured when I spoke to the others about this, as they were all feeling the same. It didn't take too long to settle down luckily.
So that's the applying, preparation and first week covered. I hope you are enjoying reading my journey so far and I hope it's useful if you are thinking about applying to Midwifery too. If you do have any questions, then do feel free to ask :)
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Neverending form filling
I very soon discovered that the majority of my preparation for Uni involved a lot of form filling - a 36 page bursary form and then the 24 page Dependents form to accompany it, then the health questionnaire, the student loan application and the registration forms. It took a lot of time to make sure I filled them in correctly as well......having to check what childhood illnesses I'd had was not something I'd expected.
The bursary form was definitely the form that gave me the most headaches....having to find my husbands P60 from 2007-8 was a challenge in itself, and then the obvious discrepancy with the fact that he'd been working then and wasn't now. It took a few weeks to gather all the information together but once it was sent off I could relax for a bit. Even the uniform order form gave me some headaches as the measurement guide didn't match up with my usual size, nor even close to. I tried ringing them for some advice but that didn't prove to be very useful. I ended up ordering a size bigger than my usual and hoped for the best...luckily when it arrived it fit just fine.
Once I got my signed form back from the doctors, which took a ridiculous amount of time, considering he just had to sign it, I posted that off to Occupational Health and organised my health check with them. I'd started my Hep B course of injections when I dropped my form in to be signed so the health check was the final thing I needed to do. The day before my Health check I had my second Hep B injection and also a Men C jab. Sadly that night I was very unwell and ended up having to cancel my appointment the next day. The nurse was not very happy with me and reminded me that I needed health clearance in order to start my course. I re-booked my appointment for two weeks later and it was all fine. Finally a shopping trip with my Mum to get some new clothes, pens, paper and a bag and I was all set.
All that was left to do was wait for my first day....
The bursary form was definitely the form that gave me the most headaches....having to find my husbands P60 from 2007-8 was a challenge in itself, and then the obvious discrepancy with the fact that he'd been working then and wasn't now. It took a few weeks to gather all the information together but once it was sent off I could relax for a bit. Even the uniform order form gave me some headaches as the measurement guide didn't match up with my usual size, nor even close to. I tried ringing them for some advice but that didn't prove to be very useful. I ended up ordering a size bigger than my usual and hoped for the best...luckily when it arrived it fit just fine.
Once I got my signed form back from the doctors, which took a ridiculous amount of time, considering he just had to sign it, I posted that off to Occupational Health and organised my health check with them. I'd started my Hep B course of injections when I dropped my form in to be signed so the health check was the final thing I needed to do. The day before my Health check I had my second Hep B injection and also a Men C jab. Sadly that night I was very unwell and ended up having to cancel my appointment the next day. The nurse was not very happy with me and reminded me that I needed health clearance in order to start my course. I re-booked my appointment for two weeks later and it was all fine. Finally a shopping trip with my Mum to get some new clothes, pens, paper and a bag and I was all set.
All that was left to do was wait for my first day....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)