Risks of External Midwifery Training Interstate

[Ilithyia]

Ok so where do i start. At the beginning i suppose!

I started my Bachelor of Nursing Sciences course at the beginning of this year through James Cook University in Townsville. Unfortunetely i had to defer due to complications in my pregnancy with Colby. The QTAC applications will close on the 28th of September and after this i will recieve a letter from JCU asking if i want to continue on with the course.

Now, my problem is i am not sure wether i want to go back just yet or not. At the time i was studying part-time on campus and found this pretty full-on. As my girls are still very young i don't want all of my time taken away from them and put into uni. So i have been umming ahhing about wether to go back and just do it part-time external or just to put it off until the girls are a bit older.

I really want to study at the moment for some odd reason. So today i have been doing a fair bit of net surfing about some other options. I looked into and enrolled into a Doula course as this is offered externally. Once you have completed your course its pretty much work when you want and how much you want. Which really suits me and my situation at the moment.

Then i thought about doing a direct midwifery course externally. Problem is none are offered in Queensland. I had seen some of the girls here on BB mention about Uni SA offering the course. So i've been and had a look at their webpage about the course. The course runs for 3 years full-time which is shorter than the 4 years i would have had to study if i go through JCU. But i am not sure wether this course qualifies you as a Registered Nurse or not either.

I am just wondering, is it too much of a risk to study external through a University that is in another state? Has anyone else done this???

Any comments or advice would be really appreciated.

[SamanthaP]

The UniSA mid course will enable you to register as a midwife only. The course is designed to produce midwives not nurses and I think it is a good idea to be aware of that before you start. Different professions. I think it would be hard to do externally but still do-able. It is quite a high score to get in, I think the GPA this year was 5.83. Good luck, it's a really personal decision.

[Ilithyia]

Hi Samantha,

Yes i realise that now. I am going to have a hard decision ahead of me!

Thanks heaps.

[Mother Goose]

Hi Sara,

Samantha is correct in that the Bachelor of Mid at UniSA (and all other Uni's) will only qualify you as a Midwife. To graduate as an RN in addition to a Mid, you can do the combined Nursing/mid course which is 4 years as opposed to three. If you decide to go and do mid now and then follow up with nursing later, I think Post-Grad nursing is till 2 years. However, if you were to do it the other way (Nursing and then post grad mid), Post-Grad Mid is only 1 year (at most Uni's). I can't explain the difference - just what I've noticed in the past.
There are several Uni's that offer the combined Mid/Nursing degree - but I'm not sure how many offer it externally. I think someone mentioned an alternative in the "Nursing and Midwife students or wannabe's" thread to UniSA.

Good luck with your decision!

MG