Hi, I just registered for this site, having found you all through Google! It's great to see that lots of other people are experiencing similar dilemas to me. I have a science degree and have worked in science for a while but since having my son Oliver 2 years ago I am really keen to change proffessions and become a midwife. It's good to read all the information contained here but I'm still a bit unsure.
I have done lots of research about options for study then work and it's a shame that it's so difficult. I am in Tasmania and we are pretty backward as far as I can tell. I found out about the UniSA bach mid which I was keen to do (as we don't even have a bach mid here) but have talked to a lot of people in the industry in Tasmania and found out that without nursing it will be virtually impossible to get work even if I am a registered midwife. The birth center (where I delivered Oliver) is part of the hospital and the hospital require nursing. So I could do nursing through Tas Uni then work as a nurse then do the grad dip mid but this all seems very hard and I'm worried that I will get depressed studying something that I'm not interested in. I am in half a mind to go ahead and apply for SA and do it externally but I could end up a midwife with no work. As lots of you have already said I'm also worried about the highly medicalised/hospitalised model of care in Australia and would like to make a difference but am worried that I'll just be sucked into the system and unable to change it.
Does anyone know of a combined nursing and midwifery degree that can be studied externally? At least this way I would get to include some of the midwifery right from the start of the degree and it would be shorter than doing nursing first. I am really worried with the post-grad diploma of midwifery that I won't get enough experience before work.
Nina I will respond to a few of the things you wrote about. I am not a midwife so I can't comment on how easy or difficult it is to get work as a midwife if you are not also a Registered Nurse. However, I can tell you that the University of South Australia (unless they changed it this year) offer the combined Bachelor of Mid/Nursing externally. Also, at UniSA, they subjects studied in the first two years of mid and also in nursing are almost identical in title and content - it is only the final year that is dramatically different.
If you do the combined degree, you will find that the majority of employers want you to have done a Graduate year for both disciplines (nursing and mid) so it may be an option to do nursing, your grad year as a nurse, then apply for post-grad mid and do the mid grad year. The only potential issue with that is how competative mid actually is. Whether you do the combined mid/nursing or do nursing and then post-grad mid, the duration of tertiary study is 4 years both ways.
Karina Good luck with your application. I hope you get in!
Hi - thought I'd pop in as I am studying at UniSA and can offer some "insider knowledge" here . While the subject lists for the two courses are similar for first year, the courses are very different - you are a student midwife from the first day, and you have placement in first semester which student nurses don't. It's hard to explain why, but nursing and midwifery are such different professions that there is little in common between them from a philosophical or literal approach and that's how it is taught.
There is a lot of extra work that BMID requires in follow-throughs and juggling placements while also studying, and it's a lot tougher than a straight BNURS.
There is no problem with getting a job as a midwife - there is a huge shortage of them around the country. A lot of places such as Tasmania and anywhere outside of metropolitan locations will require you to be a RN/RM though, which means that you can do an extra year after the BMID to also be an RN - it is mostly clinical placements and it quite easy to do.
Doing the grad year is entirely up to you and is also VERY competitive to get in to. It's not required by most employers, but it is of great use to the students themselves!
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. While the subject lists for the two courses are similar for first year, the courses are very different - you are a student midwife from the first day, and you have placement in first semester which student nurses don't. It's hard to explain why, but nursing and midwifery are such different professions that there is little in common between them from a philosophical or literal approach and that's how it is taught. 
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