Hi all,

my name is Megan and I found this forum whilst searching for things about the Bachelor of Midwifery at UniSA.

I am a mum to 4 children (aged 9, 5, 3 and 1) and am about to embark on my second year of nursing at UniSA.

I applied for the Bachelor of Midwifery for this year however missed out by 1 point (my ranking score was 86, the internal cut of was 87 and the external was 88). To say that I am devastated is an understatement. There have been alot of tears, tantrums and reflections along with the what ifs??? over the last 3 days and at the moment I am just trying to get back on track and refocus on the nursing degree. My STAT test when I applied for nursing wasn't high enough for midwifery and for some reason they dropped the midwifery places back to 25 spots this year from around 40 in 2007 so it was harder to get into, even though my rank was high enough for the 2007 entry I don't know if they have done this because it has a high drop out rate or if so many mid students are doing it part-time that they aren't filling the expected classes or wether it just comes down to a funding issue, which is silly if that is the case because there is such a huge shortage of midwives at the moment!

I am trying to work out at the moment wether to do nursing part-time this year and try to improve my grade point average and then reapply to midwifery hoping to get in for 2009, or just accept it and finish nursing and then apply for a post graduate position in 3 years after completing my graduate nurse program. Unfortunately the post graduate positions in Adelaide are becoming quite hard to get into as well. At UniSA this year there was only 10 post grad midwifery positions and Flinders only offered 15. My best friend (who is an RN working on a post natal ward) finally just got an offer of a place in her third year of applying.

Sara - have you checked on SATAC to see if you have an offer for nursing?

To answer some of your questions about the nursing course, there are 4 subjects in the first year that both nursing and midwifery students are required to do (Human Body 1, Human Body 2, Being a Health Professional and Determining Australia's Health). There is a compulsory workshop to attend for being a health professional which was two days and then we had an elective workshop for determining australia's health but I am not sure if this will always be an elective or wether it was just last year. I would check to find out about that one.

Regarding placements, at UniSA nursing your first placement is in the second half of 2nd year and it is done in a Residential Aged Care Facility. It is a 4 week placement either in October or December and it is a full-time placement. You then do 2 x 8 week placements in 3rd year in a hospital setting. From enquiries we have made they do not offer mid ward type placements to nursing students as they are reserved entirely for the midwifery students.

Nina, congratulations on your offer for midwifery that is awesome, and congratulations on your pregnancy. I had the same thing happen to me when I first applied for uni and ended up deferring until after Jack was born, but luckily for me he has been a great baby and I have been able to study with him and I had great pregnancy's as well so it made it a bit easier! Regarding your placements I would definately take Sara's advice and speak to your local hospitals and make sure that they will allow it. I know in nursing most people haven't had a problem with interstate placements but I guess there are alot more hospitals around that the uni can put agreements into place with. I think the issues are something to do with insurance and invigilators etc. I know that on the course rules it says that interstate students may be required to attend placements in Adelaide (which is what they have told you) but I would talk to them and ask. Don't forget too that in order to gain your qualifications with the nursing boards you need to do 40 follow throughs with women for the antepartum, intra partum, post partum and post natal experiences as well as assisting in 30 (that is from memory so may be 40) normal births and there may be a requirement for complicated deliverys that they expect you to get outside of your normal placement times. Delivery's at placements do count but you also need to get extra from what I can tell. I am pretty sure you can start that from your first semester though so I would start seeking out pregnant women! LOL! Just give the nursing and midwifery school a ring (08) 8302 1805 (I had to speak to them today about subject choices so I had the number written down) and ask them about what places are available in Tasmania. They should be able to give you an indication of numbers as well as how hard it is to get hospitals on board if they aren't already.

Anyway, enough rambling from me!

Hope to talk to you guys a bit more and Sara, I will be checking back to see what offer you get! I am thinking that If I do study part-time this year I might look at doing a doula course as well so at least I am making a head start into my career as a midwife (especially as I won't be doing any placements this year doing it part-time!)

Bye!