Studying for Your Midwifery Degree

Siobhan Scanlan, Hilary Walker, Author

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781446256770, 9781446256763
• eBook ISBN: 9781473904637
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nursing

This essential handbook helps midwifery students to make the most from their time studying. It clearly explains the core learning skills you will need right from the start of the course, such as academic writing, placement learning and understanding theoretical concepts. It also introduces more advanced skills, such as reflection, research, evidence-based practice, writing a dissertation and complex decision making. It shows why these important skills are essential for you both to succeed at university and when you are a registered midwife.

Key features

- An accessible student-friendly guide specifically written for midwifery students
- Three midwifery students are followed throughout the book to show real issues that you may face during your studies
- Activities throughout help you test and develop your own learning skills
- Each chapter is linked to relevant NMC and QAA standards, so that you can see what you are expected to know in order to pass your programme.

Series Editor

The Transforming Midwifery Practice series editor is Judith Jackson, Canterbury College.
 

Part One

Chapter 1
Beginning your midwifery education

NMC Standards for Pre-registration Midwifery Education

This chapter will address the following competencies:

Domain: Professional and ethical practice

Practise in accordance with The Code: Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives (NMC 2008) within the limitations of the individual’s own competence, knowledge and sphere of professional practice, consistent with the legislation relating to midwifery practice.

Chapter aims

After reading this chapter you will be able to:

• understand what will be expected of you when studying for the degree in midwifery;
• appreciate the particular characteristics of midwifery education;
• identify what knowledge, skills and experience you bring to the course;
• discover some effective ways for you to study, learn and develop.

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to help you to think about some important aspects of studying for a midwifery degree and what you will need to consider when embarking on your studies. It will provide you with some ways of approaching the challenge of studying in a positive and constructive way.

The degree in midwifery

Studying for any undergraduate degree is a demanding undertaking. For students of midwifery there are particular features and requirements that provide added challenges. In the first part of this chapter we will explore these and highlight the implications for you. The degree in midwifery enables you to develop an understanding of the art and science of midwifery, and the concepts of lifelong learning.

A range of midwifery settings

The qualification you receive at the end of your education enables you to practise autonomously across different settings of the maternity services – for example, in the community, midwifery-led units, birth centres and hospitals. You will gain an appreciation of the importance of working in a multidisciplinary team with a range of other professionals, including obstetricians, health visitors, social workers, physiotherapists and pharmacists (DH, 2007). You should also have the opportunity to practise with midwives who have a specialised area of work within public health, such as working with vulnerable groups or prenatal advice clinics. During your practice placements you will develop greater knowledge, skills and understanding in these different settings. When studying for your degree you will need to think broadly about the very wide range of services, agencies and service users that are a part of contemporary midwifery practice. The examples in this book have been drawn from different contexts to assist with this.

Incorporating perspectives of women and families

The participation and involvement of people who use the services of midwives has become a key issue in current midwifery policy, practice, research and education. Women who use midwifery services may be involved in the selection of students, teaching and assessment on your course, and in its design, delivery and evaluation (NMC, 2013a). When studying on a midwifery degree, thinking deeply about and actively taking into consideration the experiences and perspectives of women and families who use the maternity services are essential. As Professor Paul Lewis (2011, p6) argues, ‘What does this mean for the woman in our care?’ is the question we should constantly ask ourselves. This means that you will have to give careful attention to the various ways of expanding your understanding of these perspectives.

There are several ways in which you can learn more about the views of women and families. First, you could access documents produced by campaigning groups such as National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (AIMS). Second, it is, of course, expected that student midwives will listen actively to the women they are caring for on placement to learn more about their lives and experiences. Third, there is a body of literature that presents research into the views and voices of women who use services (NPEU, 2007; RCM, 2008a; Redshaw and Heikka, 2010; Singh and Newburn, 2000).

It is important to bring this understanding of experiences, thoughts and feelings of women and their families into your academic essays and assignments. This is one of the challenges of the degree in midwifery – to be able to integrate – or blend – academic ideas and personal and professional perspectives. However, it is essential as it is part of learning to practise midwifery in a way that is respectful of the lives of the women who use the services. This will be a theme throughout the book.

Learning in practice at an early stage

Within the first few weeks of your degree, you will be shadowing a midwife and observing and working alongside her. This will give you the opportunity of applying what you have been taught in university. This could include physically examining women in a clinical setting, taking blood, examining sutures in the home setting or even attending a birth in a hospital or a community environment. This is the beginning of your learning in practice, which will run alongside your university-based studies. Throughout your course it is important that you continue to develop and connect academic and practice learning.

About half of your degree course will be spent undertaking learning in practice in a hospital or community setting. Some students relish this opportunity to ‘get into the real world’ and be ‘hands on’. It may be tempting to see the two aspects of learning – university and practice – as separate. But it is essential that you appreciate the connection between the two and develop the ability to think about one in relation to the other. Students can find their first experience of practice different from their expectations and sometimes, initially, daunting (Barkley, 2011; Clarke, 2011). However, by using your skills of observation, listening and asking appropriate questions you can soon learn to understand the way in which midwives work and how you can best make use of this experience.

Midwifery is based on a set of ethical values

From its formal beginnings midwifery has paid close attention to its values – what is regarded as important or valuable. It has been understood that the decisions and actions of midwives, and how they go about their work, can have potential for benefit or for harm. All student midwives must learn about and be able to demonstrate these values. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) regulates professional practice in the UK with the overall aim of safeguarding the health and well-being of the public. All qualified midwives must register with the NMC and submit their ‘Notification of Intention to Practise’ form before they can practise as a midwife. The NMC produces standards for practising midwives in the Midwives rules and standards (NMC, 2012) and in a code (NMC, 2008), which sets out required core values of professional midwives and nurses; these will be discussed later in the book. When you start the course you will be given a copy of the publication Guidance on professional conduct for nursing and midwifery students (NMC, 2010), which can be downloaded from the NMC website. From the beginning of your studies you will be learning how abstract concepts such as values and ethical principles are relevant to practice; this will be discussed further in Chapter 2.

In order to set the scene for your studies, we have introduced the degree in midwifery, explored some important aspects and highlighted some of its complexities. With this in mind, in the rest of the chapter we will consider some helpful ways of getting down to studying.

Studying for your degree in midwifery

In this section we will consider some important things to think about before you start studying, such as your own background, how to use previous experience, how learning will challenge you and using the help of others.

About you

Some of you may bring to your course a great deal of experience of life and work, together with previous knowledge and useful, relevant skills – so you will have plenty to build on and lots to contribute to other people’s learning. However, there may be aspects of studying with which you may not be familiar. Others may have some recent experience of studying but limited experience of midwifery issues. This activity is designed to help you to become more self-aware of what you bring with you to the course.

Activity 1.1 Reflection

What I bring to my degree in midwifery

Try to take a step back and think about yourself – and answer the questions set out below.

• What experience, knowledge and skills do you bring to your studies?
• What aspects of the course do you feel fairly comfortable about tackling?
• What aspects of the course might be a real challenge for you?

Record your answers to these questions and note the date.

Below are answers from three midwifery students, Nazneen, Paul and Linda, who we will be following through their studies.

Nazneen Khan (19 years) wrote:

• In my gap year I have looked for employment that would help me with clinical and practical caring skills. I worked as a health care assistant for three months in a residential facility for the elderly and then was successful in obtaining a post as a support worker in a busy maternity hospital. I feel confident this experience will help me feel more comfortable in clinical environments when I start my midwifery course. I am also continuing with some volunteer work at a local family centre where a national parenting charity organises a peer-support group.
• I was pleased to achieve good results in my A levels and feel this will be a positive foundation for the academic side of the degree course. Speaking Urdu and Punjabi has been more than helpful in my care work, and I think it will be an advantage for me as a student midwife.
• Does it matter if you don’t have children of your own? This seems to be an important question for women when they meet midwives and support staff for the first time. I feel that I have lots of life experience and that I am mature for my age – but will I be perceived as ‘too young’ by some of the client group?

Paul O’Connor (39 years) wrote:

• When I left school I was in youth work for a few years and then became an auxiliary in an acute admissions ward in a psychiatric hospital. Eight years ago I trained in craniosacral therapy and moved to France to be near my wife’s family. My communication and listening skills are good, and I can adapt to changing circumstances and be creative with problem solving.
• Having my own children and working with parents and families as a therapist has given me the confidence to approach midwifery education. I’ve really enjoyed the access course and feel ready for the research and writing side of things.
• There are more men in midwifery now, with great role models in the profession. But some women and families will prefer to be cared for by a woman: that might be hard for me. Being an independent practitioner as ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• References
• Index