the 78 week midwifery course

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

Just had more exposure to mother and baby and am thinking of possibility training in midwifery. Seems though that the trusts are reconsidering funding the secondment for the RN-RM course.

Also to any Midwifes or student midwifes what is the 78 week course like is it tough going, and is there any bias against short course midwifes. There are less unis providing this course and it will be degree only from 2008 so as a diploma student it will be hard to get in.

[lisamct]

I'm not sure about the situation with the trusts and funding for the 18 month courses but I do know that a lot of uni's are considering dropping the course and that a few have already done so completely. My uni (in Glasgow) attempted to change their shortened course to 24 months but werent able to so they have kept it at 18 months for now but are considering dropping it in the future. Another thing to consider is that it can be very difficult to get a place on the 18 month course even if you can find a uni still running it. We only have 1 intake for the short course in my uni and there's only 6 places each year.

From speaking to the 18 month girls who have just joined our 3rd year cohort some but not all, are struggling to fit everything in. I think they feel its possible to get all your clinical 'numbers' in 18 months (40 deliveries, 100 post natal checks, 100 antenatal checks etc.) but that it was more difficult to pick up the 'art' of midwifery in the short time they have.

I wouldn't say there is any bias against 18 month midwives, some would say there's actually more bias towards 18 month students if anything but thats a whole other debate.

Sorry if that all sounded a bit negative and stuttery, just in from a mad shift on labour ward and havent quite sorted my head out yet.