Nursing/Midwifery students (or wannabes LOL)....

[hannahfroodoo]

Hooray! good luck blue!! Have you thought about doing a bachelor of midwifery instead of a bachelor of nursing? The BMid is 3 years so it is shorter than doing a BN and then doing postgrad midwifery studies.

[SamanthaP]

HI MG,

I think what you have said about masters applies in most states except in QLD (and an honours degree is 'ranked' higher than a masters). In QLD you can undertake a masters in midwifery straight out of your BN. There is much hoohaa about this at the moment as the masters is only a 1 year course so it is turning out midwives who have very little clinical experience and who have lower competency standards than other states. eg, 5 VE's compared to 10, 3 follow throughs compared to 30. The education standards are currently being looked at at the moment so hopefully this will all change within the next few years.

[Mother Goose]

How interesting Sam! I know that "they" (whoever they are!) are also looking at bringing nursing and mid studies in all states and territories into line with each other so we all graduate with the same knowledge and experience etc. Seems we all graduate at different levels! Will be interesting to see the changes!

[BellyBelly]

Moving to the new studying forum

[Karina]

Mother Goose, do you mind if I ask a question?
I remember you mentioning that you did your Nursing degree externally through UniSA. How did you do your exams and assignments? From my understanding of what is on the UniSA website, you can submit assignments online.. but what about exams? Did you have to go to Adelaide to do them or can you organise to do them at another uni local to you and unisa send the assignment in the post and you have the other uni supervise you while doing the exam?

[Mother Goose]

Hi Karina,

No problems at all. Assignments: Some assignments can't be submitted via AssignIT (the online system) and so you post them in. So long as you have it post marked by the close of business on the due date - that is fine (they know it takes a couple of days to transport).
Exams: You CAN go to SA to do them or do what I did - organise an invigilator (supervisor) and you can do them here in Vic. There are places that you can call but they charge per exam. I used a Doc I know. There are certain professions that can supervise, police, justice of the peace, etc... the Uni sends a list of suitable porfessions to you.

[Karina]

Oh wow, thanks so much for your quick response MG! That sounds so much better than what I was imagining! Here I was thinking I might have to go to Adelaide for all the exams! Can I ask, MG, were you already an EN when you started your nursing degree or had you had no nursing experience yet?

[Mother Goose]

No, I was not an EN before I did my degree. I did however, have extensive experience as a volunteer ambo in SA (but we are not entitled to credit - only EN's are and even then it is limited).

[Karina]

Thanks MG
I'm submitting my application very soon! Just need to ring them tomorrow about my transcripts from TAFE, then I'm going to send my application! Cant wait till Jan when I'll find out whether or not I got in.

[ninacadman]

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.

Am doing uni applications at the mo.....

Thanks

Nina

[Mother Goose]

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!

MG

[Ilithyia]

Hi girls,

Well today i bit the bullet and enrolled in the Bachelor of Midwifery externally through UniSA. I have ummed and ahhed the last few days about wether it was the right decision and i think it is. I guess i was worried about studying interstate the most. But for me to do it this way save's 4 years of studying externally at James Cook University in Townsville.

I know it is an extremely hard course to go into and i have prepared myself for the chance that i don't get in. I will be sitting the STAT next month. Fingers crossed i am one of the lucky ones!

Good to see there are a few others that a applying for the same course. It would be great to have someone to have a bit of support from and give support to. Thats if we all get in! Wishing you all luck.

Now the waiting begins....

[ninacadman]

Mother Goose - thanks for your speedy response - this web forum thing is great ) I've done a search and it doesn't look like UniSA offer the combined degree anymore. So I'm left with deciding between the external Bachelor of Midwifery through UniSA and straight nursing through Tas Uni followed later on by the graduate diploma of midwifery. I will apply for both to keep my options open. Thanks again.
Good luck to you Sara - I might see you in Adelaide.....!

[Karina]

Sara, i'm applying for the same as you! Hope we can both get in. Good luck!!

Nina, good luck! I was reading some stuff on the UTS website about their bachelor of Midwifery and it stated that their graduates have a really high employment rate once they have finished their degree. Thats in Sydney, but I dont see why it would be so different in Tas? Maybe have a look at some of the job advertisements for midwives and see what they want in terms of qualifications.

I still havent submitted my application. I wanted to ask them if they need my tafe certificates, but I dont think I'll bother to include them as I'm doing STAT and I think that will mean my TAFE study wont be counted. Anyone know if thats the case?

its totally going to kill me waiting until January when they tell us whether or not we got in!

[Ilithyia]

Hi Karina,

I applied yesterday and with my application i have to send of my certificates from Tafe. When you apply you have to print of a document list. Then it will is the certificates you have to send in. It says if you fail to send in the certificates it will affect your application.

I'd send them in just to be safe.

[Karina]

Oh ok Thanks Sara. I better send my certificates then!

[Ilithyia]

No worries! Wishing you (and me!!!) all the best of luck!

[StudentMid]

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!