How academic do you have to be to become a midwife?

[Amy501]

Sorry but I’m not the brightest academically and would love to train to be a midwife. Any midwives be brutally honest about how hard the degree is?

also, do you enjoy the job?

not really an AIBU I know but I know this is where I will get the most traffic

It’s absolutely not correct that midwifery is an easy degree to be excepted on to. The uni I’m at had over 800 applications for 70 places and others I had offers for had similar rates of applicants vs. places.
As others have said, we do have to do a safe medicate exam each year. My uni require 80% in first year, 90% in second year and 100% in third year in order to pass.
They have also introduced the learning support fund so all students receive £5000 per year of study, plus an additional £2000 if you’re a parent.
Whilst the 40% is a fairly low benchmark, as others have said, it’s standard for all degree courses. In addition, we have to pass the practical element of the course and if you’re not competent in a clinical setting, you won’t be signed off to move on to the next year.

40% is the standard mark needed to pass an essay at Degree Level, not just nursing and midwifery!

But will someone getting say, a pass or third easily get a job in midwifery? For other degrees almost all employers will pretty much ignore that you have a degree at all with a third or pass (you certainly won't access graduate training programmes) and most won't accept you with a 2.2 either. So in reality, the vast majority of graduates from other disciplines working in graduate level occupations will have 2.1 or above.

@InChocolateWeTrust truthfully, nobody asks your degree classification. That being said, in my experience, students don’t tend to scrape by with 40% in clinical placements. That would essentially be failure to fail, and I wouldn’t consider her to be a competent midwife achieving 40% in placements. Students who are underperforming have action plans put in place to address any issues with practice. mid they don’t improve they are failed.
We have students who scrape through the academic side, however clinically are really good and score highly in placements. The placement marks tend to pull their overall marks up.
in my cohort, the majority of us got first class degrees, with a handful gaining 2:1.

Just to add-the academic side is very heavily research based. Students who struggle with this aren’t necessarily poor students- often they are excellent in clinical placement and do really well. Research and academia isn’t for everyone.

To be fair, that is a quirk of the British academic marking system. The marking criteria for a first (70%) for academic writing is that the work is of a professional standard and would be suitable for publishing in a journal with no changes or only minor changes. I doubt Einstein would have got 100%. It's not like GCSEs where they are being tested on facts that are right or wrong.

DS is a medical student at Imperial, and only their (academic) BSc (which is optional at most medical schools) is marked like that, the medical degree (which is a pass or fail professional qualification, there is no degree classification) has factual written exams and practical exams (testing knowledge rather than academic writing skills) that have a higher pass mark.

You don't need to be able to write a brilliant academic essay to be a good midwife. I don't believe that was a requirement when nursing and midwifery qualifications were professional exams rather than academic degrees. I think it has been added to make the degree comparable to other degrees IYSWIM. It would only be concerning if 40% were the pass mark for factual "right or wrong exams" like the drugs calculation test.

"So in reality, the vast majority of graduates from other disciplines working in graduate level occupations will have 2.1 or above."

Younger age groups maybe. 2.2 was considered respectable when I was at uni. A third was seen as no better than a fail even then.

@InChocolateWeTrust As Spring has sprung has said, no one asks what classification your degree is, there isn't a graduation training scheme for nursing or midwifery. Truth is the midwifery places are so highly sought universities can pick the cream of the crop academically and therefore very few will just scrape by.

"No wonder incidents such as Mid-Staffs, Morecombe and the rest happen"

I don't see what those have to do with academic ability.

I did return to practise just a few years back for general nursing. Hardest part was the computer based maths test at the end. All medication conversions and calculations and had to be a 100% to pass. Try it as many time as you like but no PIN without it.
I would hope midwifes have to pass it too, they calculate a lot of meds and doses, not as easy as some think.
every decimal point makes a huge difference.
I'd contact the midwifery school/college see what they say, they may have some sort of admissions test so you can gauge whether you will find it OK.

Midwifery, childrens and adult nursing and paramedic courses are now as difficult to get onto as Medicine and VetMed. If you look at FB or MN lots of applicants are rejected every year, and there is a feeling that all of these courses are now a two year application process. Many applicants for Midwifery in particular seem to come from post grads, so already have a degree, plus a bit of work and life experience.

Same! Lovely woman but, by her own admission, not academic. She's qualified now and doing well.