Would you advise starting a healthcare degree - with the current NHS issues

[Santascoming159]

I am planning on starting a foundation year prior to a 3 year midwifery degree in September. I currently work in a maternity ward and I’m constantly being told by my colleagues that training to be a midwife was a mistake. Some of them tell me that they cry when they get home, they are left short staffed with so many patients that they are scared of making a mistake at work etc. Bullying is very high, as I’ve experienced myself over my 5 years on that ward. Some of them don’t eat at all, until a ridiculous time of the day like 4pm. I see them on the postnatal ward just on the computer constantly and not in with the mums caring for them, I’m guessing the amount of documentation and paperwork is endless. Managers hide in their office and when things do go wrong they blame the staff.

I am still seeing so many students join every year who are so hopeful... until 2 months later when they express the truth of what they are going through. Students are apparently treated quite badly at my trust, they seem to be so shocked to realise what they have signed up for. I see this on every rotation and I just want to hug them! It then sinks in that I will be that student. I suppose every job especially within a hospital is going to be stressful and you are going to be rushed off your feet etc. I understand that, but the way the midwives have told it to me is to stay clear!

The NHS needs a serious overhaul of staffing and money to be put into training more staff. Attitudes and bullying are awful in the whole of the NHS apparently and not just my ward. I think things are only going to get worse, one midwife looking after 12 women and 12 babies can’t be safe, then add in that both HCA posts are blank as they don’t have enough staffing or sickness is high. Mental health sickness is high too, even with me and I’m not a midwife.

It’s a joke because I have applied for midwifery and attended the interviews and they were a great success and all came with conditional offers, until they received my Access results. I studied from home with no help or guidance from my “tutors” in the end I didn’t get enough distinctions to be accepted so they’re adding on a foundation year that I have to pay another £6000 for, plus the £4,500 I just paid for the Access course which proved to be useless. I didn’t understand the grading or marking and I thought that as long as you passed each assignment that would be enough and any higher grades you got were a nice bonus, but every uni near me seems to want the majority of marks to be distinction. None of this was communicated to me, my tutor used to take 3-4 days to email me back if I had a question or needed support on an assignment.

I’m angry with myself for “not trying hard enough”, however learning online is not easy... the support just isn’t there. At least with the company I went with. The woman marking my grades never gave me a distinction and every time someone else marked them I did get a distinction. I’m pretty sure she was way too harsh and I wanted to submit my work to someone higher for a re-evaluation, but I didn’t because I felt that nothing would have been done.

The current state of the NHS makes me want to stay clear of any healthcare career. The things that’s bugging me is that I can’t see myself doing anything else. I want to work with women and care for them. I just don’t want to put myself in the system where the government uses you and ruins your mental health. Who would willingly do that when they’ve seen what I’ve seen? I’ve seen enough to put me off. But I don’t know what else I would be good at? If anyone else has any other ideas surrounding healthcare that is not as bad as nursing/midwifery, please let me know as I would like to look at all options available.

I can’t see myself doing anything else. I want to work with women and care for them.

Okay … But there’s more to women than the act of giving birth. And there’s more to maternity than actually being in The Room Where It Happens. I can think of a million roles you might have, in and outside healthcare, which might provide support to me as a woman.

I say this not because I don’t think people should train to become midwives (that would obviously be ridiculous) but because I wonder whether it would be the right career for you.

Have you seen the length of your OP?

My first thought was that you much prefer writing about midwifery to actually performing it. Which suggests academia or policy making. But then you say your grades aren’t stellar. I do think online learning can be problematic. And learning in isolation definitely is.

It’s difficult to advise because it’s hard to assess how you might fare in competition with other students in a concrete setting. You write with such engagement in your topic that I was waiting for a revelation that you’re actually writing a journalistic piece.

I’m a student midwife and I absolutely love it. I think a lot depends on the hospital - mine is really nice. Yes it’s busy and hectic and due to covid isolation rules staffing is dire but with a good team it’s fine. We do have days where you don’t eat until 4 but they are very rare and usually totally avoidable.
Can’t speak for everyone - but I love it. And I say go for it!

First of all, when you researched courses you will have seen entry requirements specifying grades needed and this will also have been on your conditional offers, so not sure how you didn’t realise you’d need distinctions. Second your Access Course debt is wiped after you finish your degree.

Honestly reading your post it doesn’t sound like you want to become a midwife at all - what other healthcare roles have you looked into?

The (disappointingly disappeared) OP has already indicated that she isn’t going to find any aspect of NHS employment satisfying.

Other than becoming a private Consultant it’s hard to see how healthcare would be a sensible choice here.

Do you think Healthcare is the area for you? You need to think about your attention to detail- failing to notice that you didn’t need a set amount of distinctions when it is clear on the admission guidance is startling

I studied midwifery. I left after the first year, mostly due to the issues you've outlined, but some of it really was amazing! It is a vocation and if you feel you have that pull to do it, I'd say give it a try. Lock away the negatives for now, all jobs have downsides and most have some stress attached. The foundation course sounds good, like a fresh start. As you know, it has a high drop out rate, but you also know the ins and outs, so no surprises. You'll have a better chance of making it to the end. Students who had been MCAs were the best students, in my opinion.

If you do back away from midwifery, look at courses on UCAS to see where your Access results could take you, maybe one of the Allied Health degrees like Occupational Therapy or Radiography (and go on to train as a Sonographer?). I now have a place to study S&LT in September, which just feels right for me. There are so many ways of helping people, maybe Social Work is another option? Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

@Santascoming159 just wondering if you were still about and what you decided.

I keeping thinking about trying to get into maternity care as a second career (im 36) but I too do wonder to myself about all the stress and worries midwives and nurses report. In my mind I was thinking about trying to go for a MCA position so I can support the women and other midwives as best I could but without the stress and responsibility of going on to train as a midwife. You mentioned you were currently working on a maternity ward and I just wondered how you found that job? Would that be 'enough' for you to stay at that level? Do you have the same stress that you hear the other midwives warn you about? I completely get what you mean about not knowing what else you would want to do so just wondered if being maternity support worker itched that scratch enough?