Choosing BSN pgm to prep for MSN in Midwifery

[theyseemescrollin]

Hi, lovely midwives. If you could spare some time to help a newbie, I'd be forever grateful.

I'm a 26yo CC graduate and doula choosing 2-year Traditional BSN programs now (and have to decide by May 1st). My plan is to follow graduation with a residency, 1-2 years of floor or community work, and then the MSN in Midwifery.

What do I need to know, or what do you wish you had known, when you were choosing your undergrad?

• How much does it matter who my instructor is for Nursing of Women & Children/Maternal-Infant Nursing/Women's Health, and do different schools teach this course very differently? Should I make sure a midwife is likely to be my teacher, and try to figure out how much the school-determined content supports physiologic birth rather than the medical model? Or do all schools pretty much teach a medical approach?
  
• If a school's WH course is fewer credits than other specialized courses (Med-Surg, Gerontology, etc.), does that really mean WH is a smaller part of the curriculum?
  
• What should I look for in the university hospital and other affiliated clinical sites - Baby-Friendly, midwives on the floor, has/doesn't have a well-baby nursery, etc?
  
• If I choose a school whose placement office handles clinicals, will I be able to ask for placement at a site that really promotes evidence-based birth, or is it luck of the draw?
  
• WH service learning trips - how respectful are these partnerships likely to be of local people and customs? Who is a 10-day program really helping, the women or the students? I have a choice between a school offering a 10-day trip to an international maternal health intervention & research site in a developing country with dire statistics, and one offering a 10-week trip that is basically study abroad with clinicals in a newly developed country where I speak the language, with the option to lengthen to a 6-month paid internship. Then there's the school where I would basically figure it out myself, but has a rural health project on smoking cessation during pregnancy.
  
• Will I have any opportunity to work as an undergrad research assistant, or does this vary by school? How much should I weigh faculty research interests in my decision? Or whether the school has a midwifery grad program?
  
• Did your BSN program's name recognition affect your MSN applications or your job prospects? (Especially if you relocated, did anybody care if you went to a super fancy school?)
  
• Should I just pick the cheapest one?? Should I just pick the one closest to my grandparents, or my parents?? Should I just pick the one where I don't have to move states?? Or the warmest one?? Or the city with the lowest rent?? Should I just scrap it all and hitchhike across the country??
  

For reference - I'm choosing between Emory in Atlanta, Drexel in Philadelphia (where I live now), and Binghamton in New York State, and waiting to hear from VCU in Richmond, VA. Only Emory has a midwifery MSN, but I don't think my partner would want to stay in Atlanta for that long.

THANK YOU!!!

[omw2cnm]

I went to Drexel for my ABSN. The WH course there is intense and mostly medical model. The WH clinical sites are hospital based, you have zero say in where you go. I liked Drexel but it's not for everyone. You have to be independent, there's no hand holding from the faculty. I am in the Midwifery program at Penn. I applied before I graduated. There is no RN experience required. I work now in med-surg and I do believe that clinical experience is beneficial.

[theyseemescrollin]

TL;DR: How can I select a BSN program that will best support future midwifery education?

[mkk99]

I would think any of the options listed would get you into midwifery school. I graduated from a top CNM program and all of my BSN-prepared classmates were from "good" schools - both public and private, but all schools you would have heard of. No one came from for-profit schools or very small 4-year colleges. That's a small sample size, but all of those other things you listed - I don't know that they would make any difference in the end. My advise would be out of those, pick the school that will keep you happiest, keeping in mind student loans and long-distance relationships (including friends and family) can make you VERY unhappy.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

I think you should just pick the most convenient, affordable BSN program near you. You really won't have any control about your clinical instructors or clinical sites (or a way to find out this much information about them prior to being in the program), and it really won't matter. Focus more on the nitty-gritty details when picking your CNM program.