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Original poster

Sorry-another question-anyone know the sitation with midwifery via nursing route?

71 replies

Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 08:52

Am thinking on career options. Thought I'd do this in another thread to catch nurses/midwives. Also like the attention

Would like to be dual qualified BUT I know there was talk about a year ago of stopping post nursing qualification midwifery courses.

Anyone know if this is still the case.

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Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 09:14

bump

someone must know

even if its just "ooh filly stop making a fuss its all fine"

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bristols · 11/02/2007 09:39

Filly - I'm pretty sure they've stopped it at my hospital but don't know if that's a nationwide thing. Something about funding (as always) and the fact that all the money spent on the nursing qualification will be wasted if the nurse then becomes a midwife. I reckon its also to stop nurses leaving. Although from what I can gather, there's a shortage of midwives and too many nurses at the moment. I don't think they'll ever get the balance right.

I suppose the best thing to do would be to ask at your trust or the local university and see what they say. Good luck!

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 09:43

ta bristols

are you in bristol btw? am in cardiff but bristol would be an option so that might be me buggered

will ring. thats usually the best way I know.

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bristols · 11/02/2007 09:47

Not in Bristol but from Gloucester originally. Have just read your other thread. I don't think you need a degree for phlebotomy. Its on the job training. They teach qualified nurses to do it in a day! If you want to get a feel for working on the wards then I would definitely go for an HCA job. Will be like work experience but you'll get paid! You could join the 'bank' of your local trust. That way you will get work all around the hospital rather than on just one ward which might give you a better idea of what you might like to do.

bristols · 11/02/2007 09:48

I think that if you want to be a midwife, direct entry would be the best way. Also quicker.

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 09:53

yes, need to know about bank working. do I need experience? I mean, I MUST need experience, surely?

my big reason for wanting to be dual qualified is that I would like the option of working abroad. I mean, I really really want this, it sound trivial but I would love to do this when the kids are a bit older.

I dunno, I'd absolutley love to be a mw but am a but worried hearing stories of some of the trainee mws on here tbh.

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Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 09:54

is a HCA an auillary btw?

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preggerspoppet · 11/02/2007 09:57

agree dual trained would be great, are you already rgn? or would you want to do the whole lot in one go? they are 2 totally different jobs imo, and with a bit of work experience you might find you prefer one much more to the other

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 10:05

I've bloody NOTHING atm

I mean, I am, I did law conversion and stuff but...

I know nowt about this really. Am just starting out

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lexiemum · 11/02/2007 10:08

our local hospital pulled funding on their seconded midwife students last year - they were tryin gto pull back some money to cover over-expenditure.

i think that if midwifery is what you want then you'll need to do this as direct entry. If you go for nursing first and then look for a seconded place on midwifery, you may struggle. but then if you can fund the two courses yourself, then life will be easier.

yes, HCA is auxilliary - HCA is more commonly used now.

preggerspoppet · 11/02/2007 10:15

fily what is it that appeals to you about the two jobs?
i did general nursing then paediatric after that, I find even adult/paeds a totally different job, but midwifery is altogether different in terms of what you spend all day doing.

also i would guess that the conversion courses are few and far between, even now, and prob more so in 3 years or more.

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 10:23

when you say funding-do you know if I would get course fees paid? don't mind SO much not getting paid a wage but having to pay full fees would be a real whack. They would be +10k I think?

I have always kind of wanted to do midwifery but am worried about getting stuck in it if its not what I expect. Am worried about politics and medicalisation really.

Am also worried about taking ages to get onto the course, and faffing around doing nowt in interim, when I could be doing nursing.

Nursing...hmmm. I have always had advocacy type jobs. Nursing seems similar but with a nice sciency bit. Plus you get to DO something, not hit your head against a brick wall 90% of the time . I hope.

I read somewhere that you should do direct entry mw if you were 100% that was what you wanted to do, else nursing and see. Now I am never 100% sure of ANYTHING.

I really think I need some work experience here, tbh. No HCA jobs atm bu am looking at st john's ambulance, which would be at least working with injuries and so on.

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3LoveHeartsAndNoMore · 11/02/2007 10:24

Hm...I think it's been many years already that a m/w doesn't need Nursing training before, tbh.....unless they had changed it inbetween.
I was talking to one of my m/w's about it, when pg with my ms and she told me, that it is often better if a m/w student wasn't a nurse before, as ex nurses can tend to over medicalise things, rather then seeing Birth as the natural process it is...!

3LoveHeartsAndNoMore · 11/02/2007 10:25

I think if funding is lacking then they can't train any new m/w's at the time.

3LoveHeartsAndNoMore · 11/02/2007 10:26

How about training as a Doula, and then you will get some idea of what m/w's do...I mean, I know it's completely different, but you will be able to support women thorugh childbirth and then you will also be able to see m/w's at work and the responsibilitys they carry.

3LoveHeartsAndNoMore · 11/02/2007 10:27

Nursing of course will give you a large variety of ways to specialise etc...!
I am in two minds right now about going back into Nursing afterall.

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 10:33

would love to doula

am seriously considering it and am going to collar lulu or someone quite soon and make them explain training to me

but

I have in my head the idea that its rather unpredictable work, so I would need a childcare support sytem of iron. I am far from family and just don't have this. And my kids are quite little still.

I have heard that you can get regular shifts quite easily locally, once trained, as a mw, so childcare would not be such an issue.

Oh and want to be able to offer a wider service really. God would LOVE to be an independent mw

I guess nursing appeals also cos...it gives me more options. As I get older, for example, i suspect I would like to do older women's health stuff, for example.

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Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 10:35

I think if it was pretty much guranteed that I COULD do midwifery after nursing, I'd do nursing (unless I did something more researchy or dietitics).

So i need to find out south walian situation

Am clarifying my thoughts now

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preggerspoppet · 11/02/2007 11:08

filly when I decided that general nursing wasn't for me I could have done the 18 month course but I was in a good position to carry on as a student bum for a bit longer (which I loved) so I did the three years and it flew by, so that is always an option to you, if you can't find the conversion course that is.

There is no real way of knowing without trying which you will prefer, but nursing is pretty much the same as the rest of it in terms of brick walls.

In fact I would say that you are able to be more autonomous as a midwife in a hospital setting than as a nurse on a ward.

a good midwife can make ALL the difference to a birth, and I think that you are still able (and hopefully more so in the future) to be able to utilise other learnt skills as an nhs midwife in order to steer away from drugs and medical instruments!

It sounds like midwifery is what you see yourself doing in the long term, you might be surprsed how easy it would be for you to join a course, do you have a levels or equivilent?

experience of care work is important but that doesn't have to be nursing, life skills count too...

preggerspoppet · 11/02/2007 11:12

I sound like I'm trying to recruit you!

nursing is fantastic once you 'find your thing' but that can take years of searching, unless you get really lucky.

the decreasing funding for nursing courses and lack of student mentors means that some students don't set foot nto the hospital fr the first year and train in nursing homes which is really quite demoralising.

I would do some digging to find out what your local nursing/midwifery school offers.

McDreamy · 11/02/2007 11:14

Filly nursing has changed alot. Years ago it was good to be dual qualified and often the only way to become certain qualifications like a midwife was to be a general nurse first.

It's not like that anymore, so many courses are now direct entrant and I don't think nurses that became midwives are any better than direct entrant midwives. In fact if you really want to become a midwife why waste 3 years doing a general nursing course?

Apparently they are thinking of bringing in direct entrant Health Visitors course very soon.

SpaceCadet · 11/02/2007 11:24

well i know that when i left nursing to have dd2, the school of nursing in cambridge had just introduced a direct midwifery course, but im not sure if they had pulled the post rgn registration midwifery conversion.
you could apply for a job as a maternity care assistant in a maternity hospital or ward and see if its really the career for you, if it is, you could do your nvq;s and then apply to be seconded to complete your midwifery training, you would continue to receive the wage you had been getting as an nvq level 3, there is usually a long wait for secondment though.
or apply for a job as a nursing assistant, maybe on the nurse bank, work on lots of different wards and see what appeals to you, again, if you decide the general nursing is for you, then you complete your nvq;s, once you have nvq 2 you become a health care assistant, then once you have nvq3 you can apply for secondment, mist people that i worked with had qualified via the secondment route.

3LoveHeartsAndNoMore · 11/02/2007 11:30

Mc Dreamy, really, direct entry HV course....oh, please.... sorry for high jacking the thread Filly...
my situation is as this:
I am a general Nurse, but I trained in Germany ( I am german), I worked for 2 years in Oncology and then for 1 3/4 year on a ward for orthopeadics/surgery....then we moved to england (dh is in the army). I did get registered over here, but have never actually worked as a nurse over here....over the years I did work as a Health care assistent, Homecarer, Auxillary Nurse...but never actually as a Nurse....
My reguistration has expired in 2000...
anyway, been thinking of what I want to do now, etc...have started a job (on Bank) as a residential Support worker wrking with children from difficult backgrounds and challenging behaviour, but I really don't know if I want to go down that route as a career...i.e. do my Helath and Social care nvq's....and am not entirely sure yet if I really enjoy it....
In a way, I would either love to be a HV or work with the elderly (got a real soft spot for the elderly, lol), I suppose....but, I don't want to work shifts, etc....! Working with the elderly, for me teh perfect Job would be in a Day Hospital setting, I must admit....
thing is, if I want to return to Nursing I would to fund the course myself...which is just under £600...the positive of this is, I suppose, that I am then not obliged to work for the NHS, as I would have funded myself...but the negative is...will there a Job for me?
Anyway, am just rambling on, aren't I, lol...
but direct entry HV course...oh that does sound good, and possible would make for better HV's I suppose...

preggerspoppet · 11/02/2007 11:40

filly, also do you know about how funding works? people are often surprised that nurses recieve a bursery of more than £5 k per year, usually more if you have kids, and fees are paid for you. you might know this already but jut incase you didn't...

might make it more achievable for you to do bothe courses in full in necessary.

if fact if you don't have a-level or equiv then it might be easier or quicker to do nursing first followed by either direct or conversion for midifery as I think midwifery you need more points to join the course than nusing, partly due to the tough competition for places.

roughly where are you in the uk?

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 11/02/2007 13:10

am cardiff

bursary sitation good-i think its quite generous and non means tested

I have spent 8 years in various legally/ advocacy type things, then 2 years out with kids, and have done some science qualifications which i think are around a level (OU level 1).

ah perhaps I should just apply...

the trouble is I suspect recent work experience would help...but its bloody childcare really.

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