Jessica, one of the midwives at the Rosie Hospital, shares her CUH story on International Day of the Midwife.
Watch: Jess talks about her experience at CUH and her journey into midwifery.
Link: https://youtu.be/Nalz64UjMc0
My name is Jess and I’m one of the midwives at the Rosie Hospital.
My role is clinical midwifery practice educator, which means I look after all of our students. I make sure their placements are facilitated and also provide emotional support. I try to ensure the students are having a good experience so hopefully they join us in the future.
What was your journey to this role?
I started my midwifery career in south east London following on from studying midwifery at the University of Greenwich; I completed one year at the hospital known as a preceptorship year. This included competencies to be signed off upon progressing onto a band 6 midwife such as cannulation, suturing and medicine management to help with the transition from student to qualified midwife.
I then decided to come back home, as I grew up in Cambridgeshire.
I came to Addenbrooke’s, in particular The Rosie, because the reputation here is really good.
I was really interested in looking after more high-risk cases with it being a tertiary (specialised care) unit in East Anglia.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I love that it’s different every single day. I look after lots of women from different backgrounds, and I get to experience lots of different settings and work in different clinical areas.
I particularly enjoy working with multiple students, all from different areas as well, I enjoy seeing what they can bring to the hospital. It's never the same day and it's lovely meeting new people.
How many students do you look after?
I look after about 100 students, which includes students from different universities, some who are already qualified nurses and who are training to be a midwife, student paramedics and midwifery students interested in an elective placement at The Rosie.
Can you explain a typical day to us?
I usually start at 07:45. I do my daily walk around to make sure all the students are presented correctly on shifts and answer any urgent questions. I ensure the students have been allocated correctly to the right clinical area and make sure that no one's struggling that day; in addition I also provide a bit of emotional wellbeing.
I set up student forums where we invite speakers to come and discuss topics such as pre-term deliveries, diabetes, or any other helpful subjects. We also make sure that we do one-to-one sessions with any student who particularly needs a little bit more support.
I usually work clinically as well, with midwives and to support the students.
What do you like about working at CUH?
I love the family at CUH! The Rosie Hospital has got a fantastic team; we work really closely with the multidisciplinary team which includes doctors and theatre staff. So, I always feel like I’m able to approach anyone with any questions.
It's a very open and honest environment and everyone is particularly lovely and always wants to make a difference.
Our main goal is to make sure the patients have the best outcome.
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about a career as a midwife?
Definitely do it! It's different every single day. You meet so many different people, and actually it's a career you can do for the rest of your life. There are lots of different alternative roles within midwifery, such as education or you can go into more a specialist role, but every day is different which is nice.