Officially a Registered Midwife!

I'm switching up the orders of my posts a little bit because I ended up getting some incredible news on Friday and I'm still a little in shock... I can officially officially OFFICIALLY say that I am a MIDWIFE! 

At about 3pm, my degree classification officially came through. I was pretty confident I was getting a First Class Honours, but to see it on paper was wonderful. Our graduation isn't officially until August, and given the situation I'm not sure that will go ahead, so it may be even further away, but I feel very happy with my university journey and feel that chapter was closed in December, after our online celebration event. 

A couple of hours later, our NMC PIN Number came through, with a link to create an NMC Online account, to register details and pay the compulsory membership fee. Of course, I wasn't over-the-moon to part with £120, but it was an exciting next step to becoming a registered midwife. I really liked seeing the breakdown of exactly where the money was going to be spent, so it actually made it seem more reasonable. 

Once that was paid, it was a case of waiting for the university to provide a Higher Education Signature to confirm that I am a person of good character and health, and then I thought it would take 2 to 6 weeks longer to be approved. Well, I spoke to the Programme Lead via email, who said she was doing it from her end, right then and there, and literally...less than an hour later, an email came through saying I was registered! 

I still can't believe how quick the process was. I was fully prepared to wait at least 2 weeks after first hearing about my course completion from university, not just a few hours. It all happened so fast, and in fact, I worked my first shift as a registered midwife just hours later. As I still didn't really quite believe it, I made sure to triple check before heading to work; searching the register and finding my name was surreal!

I wrote down my thoughts of being a newly qualified midwife before I went in for my first shift, so that will be going live next week. It's such an exciting time for all newly qualified healthcare professionals, but that doesn't mean it's not nerve-wracking. I can't wait to share how my first few weeks go.