Day12 when I decided to become a nurse
Those who know me will more than likely know this storey already. In truth I never wanted to be a nurse. It was never a career I ever considered at school. This may have been because I was rebelling and did not want to do any careers associated with women's jobs. Yes I'm a bit of a feminist and I was very naive back then.
What set me on the road to nursing was an incident which occurred on the 16th April 2000. This was the day I gave birth to my first child Charlotte. I was 21 at the time, 1 week before my 22nd birthday. All the experience I'd ever had with birth was from my sister and let's say she didn't have great labours. I was scared and didn't know what to expect. I was also doing this without a partner, very scary.
So the day came and I ended up having my waters break around 9am. Unfortunately they were a horrible green colour. I hadn't a clue what was going on but knew it wasn't right. At this time my pains were constant. Mum is telling me not to be daft, it'll be hours and hours before anything happens. I phone up triage and explain what's happening. When they ask how often the pains are and I said all the time, I could hear them scoffing. It's another one of those, having their first baby and thinking they are ready to give birth. When I mentioned the green discharge though they said better come up to be assessed.
During this time, my father had gone on a shopping trip and also to pick up my sister who was going to be my burthingnpartner alongside my mum. I was in agony but my mum couldn't understand why I was so anxious. She was adamant it would be hours and hours.
Eventually I made it to the midwifery unit and met the triage midwife. Now it's important to point out I had a baby face. I looked about 16 rather than 21. That midwife treateed me appallingly. Once again she asked how often the pains were and I stated they were constant. Oh don't be silly it can't be that bad. She treated me like a kid and talked down to me. She then went, I suppose I'd better examine you then. Unfortunately for her not all my waters had gone, so rather deliciously she ended up being soaked cus she had perched herself on the edge of the bed.
Suddenly after the examination everything changed. There was a flurry of activity and the midwife started to talk to me with a reprised respect. Erm so sorry your about 6-8cm and almost ready to push. We will get you straight through to delivery.
I could hear the midwives all talking outside my room, saying in disbelief how far I was. They really thought I was just another kid overestimating my pain. The green colour meant my daughter had opened her bowels and was distressed. I ended up with a packed room and a paediatrician in case of problems.
Luckily everything went ok, but I never ever forgot the attitude of that first midwife. There was no excuse to treat someone like that and I remembered thinking I could do a better job.
This got me thinking about going into midwifery. I already had a science degree so I discovered I could do my nurse training over 2 years then do a shortened course of 18 months in midwifery. The direct route into midwifery was 3 years. I thought for an extra 6 months it was worth being dual qualified.
I still had reservations though. How would I cope with placements? Would I be able to do hands on care work? This was something I had no experience in what so ever. My friend happened to be 2 years into her nursing so I asked her. She told me it was tough but I would be able to do it. What did I have to loose?
I got a place straight away, and yes I found the practice side difficult but I persevered. There were several moments when I considered converting to the midwifery course but i carried on knowing I could apply for my midwifery in the September of qualifying in April.
Unfortunately my graduation year was also the year they decided to only have one intake of midwifery students and this was in the March before I qualified. I was devastated. This meant I'd have to work a whole year before I could start. I'd enjoyed my nurse training but it wasn't something I wanted to do.
As all things that are predestined though, I started to enjoy my role as a nurse and also enjoyed the money. After a year I decided to stay where I was and consider midwifery later. 15 years later I am still a nurse. 6 years ago I found my true profession in research nursing. I really believe if I'd known about research nursing all those years ago, midwifery would never have entered my head.
I think even as a student nurse all those years ago I didn't grasp how varied my career could be. We had placements on wards so rarely saw all these other career pathways such as research nursing, genetics nurses, cruise ship nursing, school nursing etc. To think I thought nursing was a daft career when I was at school! How wrong I was. I'm so glad an obnoxious midwife annoyed me so much that I thought I could do a better job than she could.
Funny how things happen.
What set me on the road to nursing was an incident which occurred on the 16th April 2000. This was the day I gave birth to my first child Charlotte. I was 21 at the time, 1 week before my 22nd birthday. All the experience I'd ever had with birth was from my sister and let's say she didn't have great labours. I was scared and didn't know what to expect. I was also doing this without a partner, very scary.
So the day came and I ended up having my waters break around 9am. Unfortunately they were a horrible green colour. I hadn't a clue what was going on but knew it wasn't right. At this time my pains were constant. Mum is telling me not to be daft, it'll be hours and hours before anything happens. I phone up triage and explain what's happening. When they ask how often the pains are and I said all the time, I could hear them scoffing. It's another one of those, having their first baby and thinking they are ready to give birth. When I mentioned the green discharge though they said better come up to be assessed.
During this time, my father had gone on a shopping trip and also to pick up my sister who was going to be my burthingnpartner alongside my mum. I was in agony but my mum couldn't understand why I was so anxious. She was adamant it would be hours and hours.
Eventually I made it to the midwifery unit and met the triage midwife. Now it's important to point out I had a baby face. I looked about 16 rather than 21. That midwife treateed me appallingly. Once again she asked how often the pains were and I stated they were constant. Oh don't be silly it can't be that bad. She treated me like a kid and talked down to me. She then went, I suppose I'd better examine you then. Unfortunately for her not all my waters had gone, so rather deliciously she ended up being soaked cus she had perched herself on the edge of the bed.
Suddenly after the examination everything changed. There was a flurry of activity and the midwife started to talk to me with a reprised respect. Erm so sorry your about 6-8cm and almost ready to push. We will get you straight through to delivery.
I could hear the midwives all talking outside my room, saying in disbelief how far I was. They really thought I was just another kid overestimating my pain. The green colour meant my daughter had opened her bowels and was distressed. I ended up with a packed room and a paediatrician in case of problems.
Luckily everything went ok, but I never ever forgot the attitude of that first midwife. There was no excuse to treat someone like that and I remembered thinking I could do a better job.
This got me thinking about going into midwifery. I already had a science degree so I discovered I could do my nurse training over 2 years then do a shortened course of 18 months in midwifery. The direct route into midwifery was 3 years. I thought for an extra 6 months it was worth being dual qualified.
I still had reservations though. How would I cope with placements? Would I be able to do hands on care work? This was something I had no experience in what so ever. My friend happened to be 2 years into her nursing so I asked her. She told me it was tough but I would be able to do it. What did I have to loose?
I got a place straight away, and yes I found the practice side difficult but I persevered. There were several moments when I considered converting to the midwifery course but i carried on knowing I could apply for my midwifery in the September of qualifying in April.
Unfortunately my graduation year was also the year they decided to only have one intake of midwifery students and this was in the March before I qualified. I was devastated. This meant I'd have to work a whole year before I could start. I'd enjoyed my nurse training but it wasn't something I wanted to do.
As all things that are predestined though, I started to enjoy my role as a nurse and also enjoyed the money. After a year I decided to stay where I was and consider midwifery later. 15 years later I am still a nurse. 6 years ago I found my true profession in research nursing. I really believe if I'd known about research nursing all those years ago, midwifery would never have entered my head.
I think even as a student nurse all those years ago I didn't grasp how varied my career could be. We had placements on wards so rarely saw all these other career pathways such as research nursing, genetics nurses, cruise ship nursing, school nursing etc. To think I thought nursing was a daft career when I was at school! How wrong I was. I'm so glad an obnoxious midwife annoyed me so much that I thought I could do a better job than she could.
Funny how things happen.
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