Working alongside study - Midwifery

Hi all! I am about to start my Midwifery degree in September and was wondering how possible it would be to work part time alongside doing this.

I don’t really want to as I want to be able to focus on my studies but for childcare reasons it may be financially impossible for me to attend university without working. So, other midwife’s - have you worked alongside your studies and if so what kind of jobs did you do? Did you feel burnt out? I have two young children - one of which has just turned 2 and one 6 months old. I’m conscious of being able to balance it all and doing well in my degree as well as having some time left for being with my family. I would really like some honest opinions from anyone who has any experience in this!

Reply 1

Emily_B

Original post by Lizzyban

Hi all! I am about to start my Midwifery degree in September and was wondering how possible it would be to work part time alongside doing this.
I don’t really want to as I want to be able to focus on my studies but for childcare reasons it may be financially impossible for me to attend university without working. So, other midwife’s - have you worked alongside your studies and if so what kind of jobs did you do? Did you feel burnt out? I have two young children - one of which has just turned 2 and one 6 months old. I’m conscious of being able to balance it all and doing well in my degree as well as having some time left for being with my family. I would really like some honest opinions from anyone who has any experience in this!

Registered nurse here.
A lot of student nurses and midwives work on "nurse bank" - 0 hour contracts - as healthcare assistants at their local hopsitals, or on 0 hour contracts in retail/pubs as this gives the flexibility to pick up shifts as able to around theory, placement, and childcare needs.

Reply 2

Tracey_W

Original post by Lizzyban

Hi all! I am about to start my Midwifery degree in September and was wondering how possible it would be to work part time alongside doing this.
I don’t really want to as I want to be able to focus on my studies but for childcare reasons it may be financially impossible for me to attend university without working. So, other midwife’s - have you worked alongside your studies and if so what kind of jobs did you do? Did you feel burnt out? I have two young children - one of which has just turned 2 and one 6 months old. I’m conscious of being able to balance it all and doing well in my degree as well as having some time left for being with my family. I would really like some honest opinions from anyone who has any experience in this!

Hi Lizzy

Congratulations on your midwifery position at university and hope you are looking forward to three years of very hard work but it is worth it when you qualify.

Yes it is possible to work alongside your midwife degree - Emily_B already explained things to you about it. You will have to make sure you have childcare in place.

When I started my midwife degree I was working full-time in a supermarket and when I finally started my midwife degree course I went down to part-time with my supermarket job ( got a transfer to a branch in the city where I did my degree about) and it was only during your university studying weeks you'll probably have to work weekends unless you can pick up a few shifts here and there during the week after finishing university. When doing your placements - depends on what you are sent out to ( whether community or hospital) will depends on what days you can work - ( community placements are generally Monday to Fridays working out of a GP surgery, you work the GP opening hours - you'll get a day of during the week plus free weekends) hospital maternity unit placements - again it depends on what the working hours are for the hospital trust you will be under are - you might be working long 12.5/13 hours shift or split shifts or even a mixture of both over the week, if it is long hours then you will hopefully be given a monthly rota and you can plan your part-time job around that but you really need a very good flexible manager who's very good with accommodating student nursing staff.

A NHS registered midwife