Q's about the bachelor Of Midwifery Undergraduate degree

[SamanthaP]

I have an acquaintance who has just completed her midwifery masters in QLD. She was saying that she doesn't feel at all comfortable in the labour ward environment. They have much lower standards than the Bmid course. I think it's something like only 15/20 NVBs to register compared to 40 NVB's for the Bmid course. I can't remember all the differences as we had the discussion a good six months ago, but it was so striking the difference in what you learn. She said that people assume that because you're a nurse you somehow know about midwifery, which obviously it doesn't. Scary stuff.

[SamanthaP]

MG, I'm not sure about that. It doesn't sound right to me. You can register as an RM in all states of Australia now. I'd be interested to hear more if you find out.

[feeb]

I did by nursing and then worked for a few years and then did my midwifery and i loved doing it this way i felt having nursing backgroud gave a grounding on diff medical conditions that i have come accross occasional in mid.

I work in a hopsital who does employ Bmids and also has students throught and if something is out of the ordinary the girls who did bmid often feel out of there depth as they have learnt about it and they dont know what peopel are talking about in handover. THIS IS NOT AN OCCURANCE ALL THE TIME BUT DOES HAPPEN.

The bmids in vic are restricted to major hospitals as of course going to the country areas they want staff who can work in general as well as they dont have many births and cant always gurrantee that they will be working with mid patients.

The double degree is a great choice a frined of mine did that and worked in mid for 2 years and has now moved to teh country and is working in nursing and mid and loving it, she liked doing the course this way for the same reasons i did mine seperate.

[~mamaspice~]

MG, Samantha & Feeb. Thanks so much for your replies. There are certainly pro's and cons either way aren't there.
I think I am going to do the BMid, especially if our local Uni - Griffith, starts the course in 2010. I don't think I'll be needing to work in any rural settings (don't think I'll ever be able to get DH to leave the Gold Coast) so that won't be a concern.
Griffith already has an affiliation with the current Gold Coast Hospital and in 2012 there will be an additional tertiary hospital opening here on the coast. They are calling it a Super Hospital. It will be as good as any of the major hospitals in the capital cities. No babies will ever have to be transfered to Brisbane from the Gold Coast again. In the postnatal ward every mother will have their own room with own bathroom and fridge etc. Also the SCN will have private rooms so mums can stay there right with their bubs. It's all very exciting and I'm very excited about the oportunity to be able to learn and possibly work in this hospital.
I guess if i do decide I'd like to be an RN I can always do it afterwards. I know it's the ass-about way of doing things but I really just want to be spending 3 years doing a degree that I enjoy and if BMid is going to give me more knowledge and experience in the field of mid first up, then I think it's the way to go for me.

Thanks again for your replies.

PS: feeb, not long now hey

[feeb]

Nope not long now i am so excited!!

[~mamaspice~]

How exciting Feeb, enjoy the rest of your pregnancy. It'll be over so quickly

Just a question guys. Where you work, do midwives who are also an RN get a higher rate of pay then those who are only RM's?
Not that it's all about the money for me because it isn't. An aquaintance of mine who is an RN & RM apparently gets a specialist rate of pay but I was wondering if that was maybe because she works for an agency.

[feeb]

You get paid the grade of nurse you are according to years of working (or if like me you have applied for CMS clinical midwife specilaist at that rate) plus a diploma allowance for having done post grad studie (its not much but better than nothing) you get paid more again if you have masters.

[3GirlsOnly]

Hi ladies....

I am currently first year of the dual degree of nursing/midwifery at UQ. It is very hard work, four full days a week and a heap of research is involved as it is basically self directed learning.

Studying at UQ is very different to other uni's because of the problem based learning/self directed study... I did first year nursing last year at QUT but applied to UQ for this year just to do the double degree.. because it is structured very differently, I was unable to get credit for most of what I have done previously however fortunately enough I loved what I did last year and did not find it a total waste of time!!

Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to message me, or you can msn me on mum23girls@hotmail.com

Good luck with what you decide to do!!