Nursing direction ideas anyone???

[rayvensmom]

I am seriously thinking about becoming a Nurse Midwife once I graduate. I currently work in the ER at a large hospital in Cleveland, Ohio and one of the ER doctors suggested that I look into becoming an Anesthesist. It seems like there is too much involed with that. Does anyone know what all you have to do to become a Midwife? I am sure it involves getting a Bachelors, but is there anything else....I would love to deliver babies...

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Congrats - looking back, I think the most difficult part of making a change is - adopting a new mindset where you can 'see' yourself successfully doing something new.

Don't know about where you are, but here in Texas, CNMs require a Master's degree. It's roughly the equivalent of getting an NP in OB if that makes sense.

BTW, that doc probably was paying you a very sincere compliment when he suggested you become a CRNA. That may be the closest thing he (?) could think of to a nurse being very "physician-like". So, you must be hot stuff from a clinical standpoint!!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

We actually have a forum here: https://allnurses.com/forums/f254/ dedicated to nurse midwives. I'll move your question there and hopefully someone will come along and help, but in the meantime take a look around the various posts there. It's a slower moving forum and might take some time to get an answer, but you also might find your questions already answered there.

Good luck to you.

[CNM2B]

Hi! Welcome to the board!

Becoming a CNM requires a Master's Degree in Nursing. Since you live in Cleveland, you might want to look at CWRU's program. There are also some really great mostly-distance programs where you do your clinical work in your home community. The programs are usually 2-2.5 years long if you go full-time.

Let us know if you have questions!