Moving on to my third and final year...

This week I received my final placement allocations for my BMidwifery course.
My map of third year.
My last year all planned out in front of me in 2/3/4/7 week blocks.

Honestly moving into third year and practising independently is daunting. I remember first opening my placement book and looking at all of the competencies I needed signed off, the skills clusters I needed to pass and the grades I needed to achieve to move onto my second year.
Confidently I thought I would be fine practising supervised, and even sometimes supported, but independently definitely brings the nerves of applying right back to me.

My tutors and mentors were not lying when they said to all of us at the beginning of the course that the three years passes quickly. I can't believe in a short number of weeks I will be introducing myself to new first year cohort as a third year midwifery student.

My last two years have been wonderful. Yes, I have had times when I thought the job might be a bit too emotionally tiring for me, especially with my depression and anxiety, but overall every single placement has made me grow in confidence and made me recognise how much passion I have for midwifery and learning.

As I mentioned in one of my tweets I have grown to have a passion for certain areas of midwifery care and I definitely feel my third year will be used to develop these passions amongst new student midwives, the midwife community in my trust and the amazing midwifery community I have found on twitter. I am getting myself involved in more midwifery community events, chats and conferences. I plan to develop and build the student midwifery society at my university (@RGUMidSoc) and practice as independently as possible. Keep proving to myself everyday that I deserve this positive change in my career.

Making the decision to do midwifery wasn't difficult and honestly neither was the process. The challenges I've faced have all been around believing in myself and my skills to make decisions at the right time and speaking up in the right situations.

Bring on third year and the end of my training / beginning of my new career.

Ruth

twitter: @ruth_stmw