Second Year

I really should be studying right now but I feel I should be writing on the blog more, so I’ll take a minute or two to tell you about my first three weeks. Second year is great! The schedule and the way classes are taught are very different from last year. I only have classes four days a week which means I’m done on Thursday at 12:30 pm and don’t have classes again until Monday 1:30 pm. Awesome! There is no more wasted time between classes waiting at school and unhealthy cafeteria food. The classes I have this semester are Pharmacology, Reproductive Physiology and Clinical Skills.

The schedule is as follow:

Second year – First Semester
Monday	Pharm	1:30 – 4:30
Tuesday	Repro	2:30 – 5:30
Wednesday	Clinical	8:30 – 12:30
Thursday	Clinical	8:30 – 12:30

Pharmacology reminds me a lot of life science but I find the amount of material covered in each class a lot more manageable.  Plus, Bruce (our teacher) is funny and time in class just flies. Repro… Well, I don’t know what to say. The material is kind of like A & P but it is delivered in a much different way. Actually, it is not delivered at all. They use a PBL style to teach this class. McMaster, home of the famous Problem Based Learning approach, uses this style of teaching on many Health Sciences classes. Basically we are put into small groups and are given a scenario. We then have to set our own objectives of what we need to know and learn based on that scenario and go home to research. The following week we are expected to share and teach our group what we found. Needless to say it was a disaster! This is a huge change from the 300 people auditorium type of lecture we got for A& P last year. None of us knew what we were doing and most of us left feeling overwhelmed and disoriented. I felt the panic that followed me through out first semester of first year coming back.

On a positive note, I’m having so much fun with Clinical Skills! This is what I went to school for! This class is full of excitement and I’m resuscitating my love for midwifery again. I have to say that it almost died last year. But don’t worry; it has come back with a vengeance! This course is comprised of a combination of lectures by our teachers and guest speakers, a 12-hour observation shift at labour and delivery, Neonatal Resuscitation course, CPR course (which we need to organize and do it on our own) and a inter-professional workshop called “a day in low-risk obstetrics”. We also have a pelvic teaching day (with real people to practice on) and clinical things like taking vitals, taking blood, inserting IV’s, suturing etc… I’ll keep you posted as they happen. The less exciting stuff includes a group presentation (my group will present on non-pharmacological pain relief), a small paper, a midterm exam and finals. So it is pretty packed, but I’m loving it. A good strategy is to try to do as much of the things you need to sign up early in the semester. I did my CPR before classes started, my Neonatal Resuscitation during first week of class when we were doing mostly introductions. For the inter-professional event I signed up for the first one available and I also already did my 12-hour shift. The idea was to get done as much as I could at the beginning before I’m burned out and avoid exam times.

I loved my 12-hour shift. I was following a L & D nurse and even though I saw the typical OB hospital births (which often is far from the midwifery model of care) it was a great learning opportunity. I felt so empowered by having that student ID card and how that just opened doors for me. For example I was allowed to stay in the room during the epidural administration (which as a doula I was often told to leave). I went into the OR for a vacuum delivery etc.. I witnessed a shoulder dystocia, neonatal resuscitation, epidural, episiotomy and third degree perineal repair as well as the vacuum delivery. I felt pretty confortable in all of those situations and feel I had a good grasp of what was going on and what was involved. However, the part that scared me the most is the amount of paper work that needs to be filled. OMG! It is endless! I'm having this panic moment that all this paper work is going to take me away from time with clients and being the kind of midwife I want to be. All the documentation, abbreviations, forms, requisitions etc… will be a huge learning curve for me.  Talking about paper work and learning curve, I should really get back to studying.  So back to the books…