So this past week has been another one with lots of self-study time – I really wanted to get the bulk of my Safeguarding module finished this week and had four days to do it in.
On Monday, I set myself up at the desk and was cracking on with finishing “Part Two”, when I was reminded by some of my girls on the course that it was Dissertation Results Day!
I immediately felt quite sick – after all that work I just hoped I had passed it! I logged on to the results site and found that not only had I passed – I got a FIRST!!!
Can’t believe it – so pleased! 🙂
So now I’ve only got to get my Safeguarding module submitted (and pass!), get a few shorter written pieces done, and finish out ten weeks of placement and I’ll be a midwife! Eek!
Hot on that positive news I spent the bulk of the rest of the week sitting at my desk trying to work my way through my safeguarding work. For me, this module has been quite tough to find the motivation – it’s interesting and important topics, such as Mental Health, Substance Misuse and Domestic Abuse, however the way that the module is structured feels as though you can only scratch the surface on each topic and not go into too much detail…which, after the detail of my dissertation is quite hard!
So, on Monday I managed to finish my first draft of Part Two for my safeguarding – woop! Then Tuesday I moved onto Part three and managed to get my first draft completely done for that by the end of the day, leaving just part four. By this point I was hitting the same kind of determination to just get it done that I had in this week of my dissertation writing when I hit something like 12,000 words in one week, so I managed to get my draft of part four done on Wednesday, leaving Thursday for a bit of prep on other work as well as packing a bag as after Uni on Friday we were going away for the weekend.
Uni on Friday was a unique one; we had to be in a little earlier than normal and had to do a proper sign in ahead of our SANDS course in bereavement in maternity care.
The course itself was very humbling as I’m sure you can imagine. It taught us the kind of things to expect when caring for someone undergoing bereavement, and the little things that we as midwives can do to try to make things that little bit better. My logic is, if you can make a positive difference to the worst day in someone’s life, that is when you know you are doing your job right!
Midwifery is so often a really exciting and positive job, but there are always going to be cases that don’t have such positive outcomes, and it’s really important that we are prepared to look after those women too. I haven’t been exposed to cases of real bereavement yet and it’s something that up until this course I felt really under-prepared for, but now I do feel more equipped to care for these women and their families, and to do the very best I can for them; which is very reassuring.
Once we were all finished up, I headed to the car and zipped up the motorway to Shropshire for the weekend. M’s family are up there and so we spent the weekend going for walks or catching up over coffee – just lovely to spend time with family and friends, and raise another few glasses to our engagement!!
Image by Cody ChanTo read more Midwife Mondays posts, click here:
No Comments