Midwifery question?

Hi , asking on behalf of my sister who is going to be doing an access to health this September and wants to go on to be a Midwife, she was lucky enough to gain experience on a maternity unit and before this was a health care assistant for just over a year.

I wanted to ask a question on her behalf

She has been told by family members that she would be best getting a car but she has no real interest in having a car as shes happy to go to uni placements by puplic transport or taxi.

She has got a driving licence but she wont be able to afford a car after bills ect based on a band 5 salary and doesnt really want a car she is happy to once qualified stay hospital based and go by puplic transport.

But family ( who have no knowledge of midwifery) have said you wont qualify as a midwife without being able to drive?

I find that hard to believe surley there has been students who qualified without driving and managed to get to community placements

Just looking for advice on this

Having a driving licence and a car is not a prerequisite for entry to the NMC register. Whoever says she does is talking rubbish - she can qualify without, and yes she can get to placements without.
Affording a car on band 5 is doable - I can afford one fine alongside all rest of my bills. Unsocial hours enhancements certainly help towards paying for it.

Thank you so much , she said she'd rather wait till shes higher up in her career as she would rather save money for a deposit for a house then buy a car and then afford it monthly ( insurance, petrol ect)

And she was told nurse's get jobs quicker after graduating were midwifes are waiting months for a jobs some a year before they get a job but i dont believe this either surley midwifes can find jobs just as well as nurses? ( this did not make her want to be a nurse though she researched both jobs very well and midwifiry is were her passion and interest lies)

So like nurses and Doctors midwifes get extra pay for doing night shifts, weekends, holidays ect?

Saving for a deposit for a house is sensible.

Yes, it's just as easy for midwives to get jobs.
Newly qualified midwives get paid the exact same as newly qualified nurses do - bottom band 5 and antisocial hours enhancements. If she starts in a hospital, doing weekends and nights, then after adding on enhancements and taking off tax/pension etc, it currently works out at £1400-£1900 a month

Hi , asking on behalf of my sister who is going to be doing an access to health this September and wants to go on to be a Midwife, she was lucky enough to gain experience on a maternity unit and before this was a health care assistant for just over a year.

I wanted to ask a question on her behalf

She has been told by family members that she would be best getting a car but she has no real interest in having a car as shes happy to go to uni placements by puplic transport or taxi.

She has got a driving licence but she wont be able to afford a car after bills ect based on a band 5 salary and doesnt really want a car she is happy to once qualified stay hospital based and go by puplic transport.

But family ( who have no knowledge of midwifery) have said you wont qualify as a midwife without being able to drive?

I find that hard to believe surley there has been students who qualified without driving and managed to get to community placements

Just looking for advice on this

I would suggest if she got her license then only hire a car if and only if it's necessary if she on a community placement working out of a GP practice because at moment the staff been going in separate cars to patients.

She don't need car otherwise if she can get to university plus all her placements using public transport okay.
I can drive but not got car as I'm under 10 minutes walk to my hospital I work in, I did my midwifing top-up course and I hired a car for the community placement and also to attend a placement at another hospital about 18 miles from my house which was impossible to get to by bus as it takes about hour and half to get there then same back home whereas car it was 20 minutes roughly.
I'm a registered adult nurse & midwife.
Like what Emily said you don't need car, not part of regulations of NMC for one.
There's more a need for a car or sometime local NHS heathboard provides staff with a car for community placement or even when she qualified as midwife as she'll decide whether to work in community or hospital once she's finally qualified.
Family can be awkward ok.

Did you find a job as a midwife as quick as a nurse? Some say nurses find jobs quicker than midwifes?

Hi

I'm actually working still on wards as adult nurse as I'm a band 7 senior charge nurse on transplant/ICU.
I only completed the course for midwifing last year, I was told if I want to be midwife full-time I would have to drop back down to bottom of band 5 and eventually re-climb the career ladder which is at present is stilly to do as big drop in pay.
I do have at least 3 years to comply with NMC rules on hours I need to complete or I would need to drop my midwifing registration for time being.
There's jobs available at band 5 for newly qualified staff which your sister will start applying for about last 4/6 months of final year so that there is job in place if successful depending on her outcome of final exams and NMC.

Thank you , i read they only take on the amount of students based on how many midwifes they think they'll need in 3yrs time so that everyone gets a job and no one is left unemployed

I will have to sort of disagree about amount they only take in at each university because the course is so intense and the training is lot more difficult to say adult nursing course, if you can imagine as a student adult nurse they can have as many students they want around a patient bed as it wouldn't affect any of there training compared to midwifing they can only have for example 4 students round the bed due to what they getting taught as complex and complications could arise.

Perhaps the amount taken in each year is manageable more for the training at both university and on placements.

At the end of the day it is upto the student when qualified to find a job once they qualify but you do get some not applying straight away for jobs as rather take time out, every hospital who have a maternity unit can obviously only take xxxx newly qualified nurses/midwifes and some goes into community settings and other areas.

What happens if for example 100 students midwifes throughout UK failed to qualify after there 3 years training and maybe have to repeat there final year again , those aren't accounted for as a qualified midwife as those jobs aren't filled.

Thank you for clearing that up. But their are enough jobs for newly qualified midwifes? Ive never heard of a midwife ending up on benefits because of lack of jobs?

You read all the time how their are plenty of jobs for nursing especially adult nurses and how nurses dont have to worry about jobs after qualifying as their in demand

No problems ok.
Obviously there's jobs available at all levels of nursing so there shouldn't be no newly qualified nurses / midwives without a job.

Only way a nurse / midwife would be on benefits is if they lose there job through disciplinary issue's.

Just tell your sister to go and do her training and look around for jobs around her last four months so she has something in place, sometimes it may take few attempts but hopefully she'll do well and become a qualified midwife.

Thank you so much for your help

The advise ive had here has definitely helped her. She just cant wait to be a student and start learning shes super excited

Hi , asking on behalf of my sister who is going to be doing an access to health this September and wants to go on to be a Midwife, she was lucky enough to gain experience on a maternity unit and before this was a health care assistant for just over a year.

I wanted to ask a question on her behalf

She has been told by family members that she would be best getting a car but she has no real interest in having a car as shes happy to go to uni placements by puplic transport or taxi.

She has got a driving licence but she wont be able to afford a car after bills ect based on a band 5 salary and doesnt really want a car she is happy to once qualified stay hospital based and go by puplic transport.

But family ( who have no knowledge of midwifery) have said you wont qualify as a midwife without being able to drive?

I find that hard to believe surley there has been students who qualified without driving and managed to get to community placements

Just looking for advice on this