Six weeks into the placement and I’m still loving it. I was
going to write a post during my first week, but then I thought I should wait
until I had a more realistic perception of this placement. During my first week
I did mostly observation and there was nothing expected of me so it is very
easy to enjoy. Now that I have completed one quarter of this placement I feel I
have a better feeling of what the rest might be. I have to say that I hit the
jackpot as far as preceptors are concerned. I love both my preceptors and I’m
really enjoying the experience of working in a midwifery clinic. I’m finding
the perfect balance between clinic work and births. I love how my schedule can
change without any notice, like the other day I was heading to the clinic for a
day full of prenatal appointments when we got called to a birth. My day turned
out completely different than I had planed with a slimy baby sliding into my
hands at the end of the day. How can I not love that? My preceptors are very
rigorous about me taking time off to spend with my family as well as taking
time to study. They have no problems challenging me to try new skills,
but at the same time being very accepting and understanding of common beginners
mistakes. I feel I’m in a safe learning space where I can ask questions and be
honest. For the first time in this program I feel I’m experiencing a learning
style that I can really learn from.
The one part that I have to confess that I’m
not enjoying that much is the tutorial component of the course. I have a great
tutor and great colleagues in the group but the format of online conference
type of thing is awful. You get to do scenario discussion with a whole group of
women through just sound. I have to wear a headphone with a microphone for 3
hours and every time you want to speak I have to press a microphone button.
There is no body language to read so often we end up interrupting somebody else
who started taking at the same time as you. It’s talking into space and it
sounds so unnatural. I really dislike this format but I understand that there
isn’t another way to do it with us in our placement in clinics all over
Ontario. However, my suggestion would be to not have tutorial run congruent to
placement and maybe as a subject on its own during the semester before
placement starts. I find it is extremely busy as it is during placement and we
are constantly looking up things anyways, I don’t feel I have the time or the
energy to write an essay on top of the learning we are already doing during
placement.
