Comments on: Clinical Trials http://www.bellytales.com/2006/02/15/clinical-snafus/ The Diary of a New Midwife Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:12:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: The Student http://www.bellytales.com/2006/02/15/clinical-snafus/comment-page-1/#comment-313 The Student Sun, 19 Feb 2006 05:15:26 +0000 http://www.studentmidwife.org/2006/02/15/clinical-snafus/#comment-313 There is a lot of controversy that exists in midwifery about how beholden midwifery should be to nursing: should we continue to acknowledge our nursing roots, or continue to strive for independent direct-entry midwifery education? Should we remain the American College of Nurse-Midwives, or become the American College of Midwives instead, in order to be more inclusive to direct-entry midwives? I know this has been an ongoing debate in the ACNM for decades. For my own part, I'm not entirely sure what side of the debate I fall on. Obviously I am a nurse, and I've worked as an RN for the past three years, and my labor and delivery experience has been *invaluable* to me. There are many, many aspects of nursing that I really enjoy, and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. However, I am definitely at a point in my education and development where I am very eager to move on to the next step, and to have *midwife* become my primary identification, rather than nurse. I also find myself becoming increasingly frustrated by the hospital system, and by some of the work that I do as a nurse which aids and abets this system, but maybe that's just my inner homebirth midwife finally emerging in protest. This post was written out of frustration from all of the stumbling-blocks I have encountered so far at my clinical site, but I certainly wasn't trying to denigrate the profession of nursing. If other students from my program who are direct-entry do get assigned to this clinical site, though, and end up going through the nursing office, they may encounter even more stumbling-blocks than I did, and this is something I think my midwifery program needs to be aware of, and something they need to clear up with this clinical site, since we are a mixed program of both nurses and direct-entry students. Anyway, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with the direct-entry students. I've certainly encountered a few midwives with chips on their shoulders in my relatively short exposure to this profession, and I've also sadly encountered a few nurses who probably do hurt the outcome, or who are so burnt-out they should probably find a new job. I'm sure it's the same in every profession. I don't think there's any one right way to become a midwife, and the politically correct thing to say is that maybe if all of us just tried harder to recognize the myriad paths and backgrounds we all come from, we could unite and get a lot more work accomplished towards our common goal, i.e. the promotion of midwifery in the US, period. However, I do think that right now, all of these different paths towards midwifery, and all of the different midwifery licenses that exist, are very confusing to others who are not familiar with the profession (who am I kidding? It's confusing to those of us who ARE familiar with the profession, too!), and maybe if there *was* indeed one standard of education, such as exists for MDs, and to a lesser extent, nursing, it would be easier to explain and promote our profession to the public. But then the next question is: what should that standard of education be? BSN in nursing? Direct-entry program? It's all good food for thought. In any case, good luck with your class. I hope it gets easier for you, or at the very least, you get better at tuning out the snarkiness. There is a lot of controversy that exists in midwifery about how beholden midwifery should be to nursing: should we continue to acknowledge our nursing roots, or continue to strive for independent direct-entry midwifery education? Should we remain the American College of Nurse-Midwives, or become the American College of Midwives instead, in order to be more inclusive to direct-entry midwives? I know this has been an ongoing debate in the ACNM for decades.

For my own part, I’m not entirely sure what side of the debate I fall on. Obviously I am a nurse, and I’ve worked as an RN for the past three years, and my labor and delivery experience has been *invaluable* to me. There are many, many aspects of nursing that I really enjoy, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. However, I am definitely at a point in my education and development where I am very eager to move on to the next step, and to have *midwife* become my primary identification, rather than nurse. I also find myself becoming increasingly frustrated by the hospital system, and by some of the work that I do as a nurse which aids and abets this system, but maybe that’s just my inner homebirth midwife finally emerging in protest.

This post was written out of frustration from all of the stumbling-blocks I have encountered so far at my clinical site, but I certainly wasn’t trying to denigrate the profession of nursing. If other students from my program who are direct-entry do get assigned to this clinical site, though, and end up going through the nursing office, they may encounter even more stumbling-blocks than I did, and this is something I think my midwifery program needs to be aware of, and something they need to clear up with this clinical site, since we are a mixed program of both nurses and direct-entry students.

Anyway, I’m sorry you had such a bad experience with the direct-entry students. I’ve certainly encountered a few midwives with chips on their shoulders in my relatively short exposure to this profession, and I’ve also sadly encountered a few nurses who probably do hurt the outcome, or who are so burnt-out they should probably find a new job. I’m sure it’s the same in every profession. I don’t think there’s any one right way to become a midwife, and the politically correct thing to say is that maybe if all of us just tried harder to recognize the myriad paths and backgrounds we all come from, we could unite and get a lot more work accomplished towards our common goal, i.e. the promotion of midwifery in the US, period. However, I do think that right now, all of these different paths towards midwifery, and all of the different midwifery licenses that exist, are very confusing to others who are not familiar with the profession (who am I kidding? It’s confusing to those of us who ARE familiar with the profession, too!), and maybe if there *was* indeed one standard of education, such as exists for MDs, and to a lesser extent, nursing, it would be easier to explain and promote our profession to the public. But then the next question is: what should that standard of education be? BSN in nursing? Direct-entry program? It’s all good food for thought.

In any case, good luck with your class. I hope it gets easier for you, or at the very least, you get better at tuning out the snarkiness.

]]> By: mamasun http://www.bellytales.com/2006/02/15/clinical-snafus/comment-page-1/#comment-312 mamasun Sun, 19 Feb 2006 03:50:44 +0000 http://www.studentmidwife.org/2006/02/15/clinical-snafus/#comment-312 I am also a student midwife, yet I attend an undisclosed public university in New England, I am also an RN. I decided to become a midwife after the birth of my first child in 1995 and then actually pursued this thought in 1998. I gave birth to my second child in 1999. Since the program in my state requires a BSN and RN license I decided this was the route to take (and also the fact that I wanted to know what I was getting into). I graduated from the same public university that I am attending now, in 2002, and have been a practicing RN since Jan. 2003. I have a great respect for nurses and the profession. The midwifery program I am attending includes four RN students, each with a BSN. I went to Professional Issues I yesterday, which was hosted by the unsaid public university. It was us (the four students from the public university), 2 students from Bay State (who are also RN's, I'm not sure if BSN, students) and about 10 students from Yale (mostly non-nurses and 1 nurse). I found the entire day to be exhausting, not only from the lengthy discsussions from faculty, but also from the the endless "Yale this, Yale that" crap we had to listen to all day while the rest of us from our middle-class public university had absolultely no recognition or respect from the attendants. We were supposed to be the hosts but I felt as if we were the guests. I could not believe the negativity and snobbery from the Yale students. When I asked one Yale student how the program fit in one year of education to complete the objectives toward earning an RN license, her reply was, "they fit it in some how". It's very discouraging and disappointing that Yale gives these students the absolute minimal education and clinicals in nursing to earn the license of RN, only in order to fulfill the requirements to become midwives. Nursing IS important, whether they want to belive it or not. When this program is complete, we are Advanced Practice NURSES. I felt as if what I do as a labor and delivery nurse in a community hospital (where there are no physicians or midwives present on off hours) is completely insigificant. As a Registered Nurse who values her profession I find it really upsetting that the professors of Yale/public university in New England/ Bay State do not recognize our role in labor and delivery. I'm really tired of hearing how negative nurses are and how they hurt the outcome. This is untrue and unfounded. If we didn't have RN's to assist with birth, midwifery would be in an even worse state than it already is. I listened to Helen Varney and I still believe we need nurses, contrary to what the instructors and program directors wish to believe. They talk about the system of medicine being driven by money, try the education of midwifery. It's all about $$$$. I am also a student midwife, yet I attend an undisclosed public university in New England, I am also an RN. I decided to become a midwife after the birth of my first child in 1995 and then actually pursued this thought in 1998. I gave birth to my second child in 1999. Since the program in my state requires a BSN and RN license I decided this was the route to take (and also the fact that I wanted to know what I was getting into). I graduated from the same public university that I am attending now, in 2002, and have been a practicing RN since Jan. 2003. I have a great respect for nurses and the profession. The midwifery program I am attending includes four RN students, each with a BSN. I went to Professional Issues I yesterday, which was hosted by the unsaid public university. It was us (the four students from the public university), 2 students from Bay State (who are also RN’s, I’m not sure if BSN, students) and about 10 students from Yale (mostly non-nurses and 1 nurse). I found the entire day to be exhausting, not only from the lengthy discsussions from faculty, but also from the the endless “Yale this, Yale that” crap we had to listen to all day while the rest of us from our middle-class public university had absolultely no recognition or respect from the attendants. We were supposed to be the hosts but I felt as if we were the guests. I could not believe the negativity and snobbery from the Yale students. When I asked one Yale student how the program fit in one year of education to complete the objectives toward earning an RN license, her reply was, “they fit it in some how”. It’s very discouraging and disappointing that Yale gives these students the absolute minimal education and clinicals in nursing to earn the license of RN, only in order to fulfill the requirements to become midwives. Nursing IS important, whether they want to belive it or not. When this program is complete, we are Advanced Practice NURSES. I felt as if what I do as a labor and delivery nurse in a community hospital (where there are no physicians or midwives present on off hours) is completely insigificant. As a Registered Nurse who values her profession I find it really upsetting that the professors of Yale/public university in New England/ Bay State do not recognize our role in labor and delivery. I’m really tired of hearing how negative nurses are and how they hurt the outcome. This is untrue and unfounded. If we didn’t have RN’s to assist with birth, midwifery would be in an even worse state than it already is. I listened to Helen Varney and I still believe we need nurses, contrary to what the instructors and program directors wish to believe. They talk about the system of medicine being driven by money, try the education of midwifery. It’s all about $$$$.

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