A Week in the Life of a Working Student Midwife!

This week I thought I would do something a little bit different. Instead of simple recording clips when I do something fun and exciting, I thought I would instead share a realistic look at a week in the life of a working student midwife. I did happen to pick a very, very busy week but nevertheless, this is exactly what I got up to in a week and I tried to record my real thoughts for each day. From the tiredness, to the happiness, to the exhaustion and to the fullness. 

Click here to watch the vlog or see it below! 

As a student midwife working in a hospital, you do 3 long shifts a week, or the equivalent of. I finished the week before on Friday and simply because of the way my shifts turned out, I ended up not having to work again until Thursday. As I had nearly a full week off, I decided to visit my dad in Wales and it was very busy but lots of fun. You can see the first half here and the second half here. 

Thursday ended up being a really busy day. I set off to work just after 6am and as I did so many night shifts on my labour suite placement, I'm still not used to the early starts. Nevertheless, my first ever shift on the postnatal ward was so much fun. I did end up finishing early as I had a social event with the Nursing and Midwifery Association in the evening. It was a shame I couldn't change the shift as I had to be at the bar crawl on time because I'd helped organise it as I'm on the committee. 

My housemates ended up joining me there and we all wore purple to fit the colour scheme which was fun. I'm really impressed that everyone made the effort. There was lots of different societies and fun games at many of the different bars. Quite honestly, I had so much fun but most of all, the last club was amazing. We got free glitter, practically unlimited drinks and a VIP booth to just the four of us. It was amazing!

Thankfully, I wasn't working the next day (obviously I wouldn't have gone to the bar crawl if I was) but I had also hoped for my first pyjama day and a lie in. 

Living in a house of excited girls and having exam results released at 9am...it was not meant to be. I woke to screams of excitement and a countdown upstairs followed by everyone exclaiming they'd all got firsts. I'm so proud of all of them. 

I tried to get back to sleep for a good half an hour but after failing miserably I decided to check my own results. I was very, VERY pleased to see that I'd got 84% overall. I even managed to get 97% on one of the questions. It's a little scary to think that you can fail from a clinical error (one tiny mistake) but other than that, I never thought I'd failed the exam and I knew I'd done well in the first question, but regardless, I was so pleased. Despite not getting my lie in, it was still a relaxing day at the house and chilling watching television. 

The next day started the shifts from hell. Okay, maybe a little exaggerated and the shifts were actually really nice but due to a change in my mentor's shifts, I ended up working Saturday and all the way through to Wednesday! It worked out well because I meant I got some bulk time off either side, so looking back I really liked it, but after a long day, I was absolutely exhausted. On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment where I had to have the worst blood test but other that that they were all pretty straight forward.

Following my final shift on Wednesday, ending with a singular night shift, I ended up having a couple of hours sleep before having to head out to a meeting for research project. Afterwards, I then nipped up to the ward to say goodbye to a family I really bonded with on the ward.I was hoping I would get to say goodbye to the partner and daughter but they hadn't arrived yet. I really wanted to say thank you, especially for the cupcakes they got me which was so sweet. Now that I've eaten them, I can also say that they were absolutely delicious!

The one good thing I did find out was that I caught the biggest baby born at the QMC in October 2018. How amazing! 

Friday was my final day as a year one student midwife. I started the day with my final caseholding appointment and it was crazy how much the baby had grown, plus it was lovely to see the family a little further down the line. Afterwards, I went straight to my community placement for my final clinical exam which I passed with a happy 78%. Much to my relief, second year here I come!

I had a pretty chilled day on Saturday. I headed to archery around lunch time to do some shooting for the first time in a long time and then everyone was going out to a pub lunch afterwards so we joined too. As I had a car, I ended up hanging back at the Sports Centre for a little while but it was nice because there was a table tennis tournament, so in the meantime I watched that to pass the time. Back at the house, we decided to have a last minute house party to celebrate our firsts in the exam!