Nurse to Midwife

World International

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I know this is a nurses forum, but just on the off chance that a midwife was lurking.......that had been a nurse first......was it a good move to midwifery, do you enjoy this profession better than nursing?

Are there any nurses thinking of doing the Grad Dip or Masters or the undergrad?

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

Hi C

My gf is a midwife & she was an RN before that. She said midwifery is a TOTALLY differernt ballgame compared to registered nursing. You are more autonomous, ie: they can put up fluids & give certain drugs without a Dr's order. My gf is very busy and on call a lot as babies never wait, & she has 3 kids too, but she didn't regret it. The course she did required her to attend 10 or 12 births on her own with supervision but you have to decide the plan of care for baby & mother. It is very intense with lots of new study.

I say go for it: what have you got to lose? Just ensure you can organise a clinical placement where you are before starting study, ie: call & liaise with some of the hospitals near you & see what they say. Cos if you don't organise this early, you will have to travel quite far if the university decides to organise your placement - this is one problem many of my gf's friends had studying midwifery. Some had to move to other towns to do their placements, away from family & kids etc & found it very hard. Some just quit cos they couldn't handle the separation.

Anyway look into it early. It's not something I would enjoy (though I thought about it) but would definitely be worthwhile to do, & you also become more employable. My gf told me though with 2 degrees, she only makes about $50,000 per year (not including overtime) but most of it gets taken in tax (what else is new?)

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the reply Carol,

they all seem so happy most of the time, not tearing around like the nurses pulling their hair out,, complaining why they every thought nursing was a good idea (in the hospital of course.)

Tell your friend to salary sacrifice, even if she pay the same tax, she will at least be paying her HECS debt, that if she has one of course.

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