The weekend that was, enrollment and onwards, and what have I gotten myself in for??

First of all, it’s only a few days until my birthday:

and we will be having a housewarming that weekend as well… invites soon.

I’ll work backwards here as today is freshest in my mind. I got up today and toddled off to uni to organise my student ID which I’ll need for Friday (eep!). I then took an hour or two to tour around the various buildings and see how they’re numbered/named, and where most of my classes are going to be. I also peeked into the bookstore and was thrilled at the books available but overwhelmed with the cost. I found three 2nd years so that was nice - they seemed friendly enough though mentioned the whole "it’s a lot like nursing" thing that I’m not entirely sure about. I mean yes, I want to be with women through a medically-type thing but I don’t want to be a nurse so I’m not sure what to expect from that. They didn’t expand and I was struck shy by the whole overwhelming process.

Oh and let me make something clear on paper here - I’m confident and calm in myself about the process but it’s all new and different to what I’ve done before. COMPLETELY new and different. As alien as I can get without leaving the country. So please don’t tell me that I’ll be fine and it’ll be fun - I know this! It’s more that I’m feeling REALLY overwhelmed at the moment.

Anyway, over the weekend I was lucky enough to go away with a bunch of student midwives for BMID Camp 2007. Everyone was invited but I was the only 1st year UniSA student to go, and there was one 3rd year as well… so it was a little strange to hear all this chatter about a course that isn’t mine! It’ll be fascinating to see how different my course is to theirs, too.

One thing that I did take comfort in was that the 2nd years who had JUST finished their first year were confident about births and seemed to know what they were doing. That’ll be me in a year. It’s a new set of skills to learn but I’ll learn it. I did also notice that:

  • A physiological 3rd stage was practically unheard of
  • The treatment for sticky shoulders or the more urgent true shoulder dystocia was to stick hands in and pull baby out, rather than the all fours manouver
  • I have been pronouncing things correctly

A special HI!! to Sam who knew of my blog - hi Sam! Good luck next week!!

Photos:

 

Following on from my last post about textbooks, I have whittled the list down to:

  • Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council 2005, National Competency Standards for the Midwife, Dickson ACT.
  • Marieb, E. and Hoehn, K. 2007, Human Anatomy and Physiology, 7th, Pearson/Benjamin Cummings, New York.
  • Strube, P 2003, Body works: Physics and Chemistry for Nurses, 2nd, Prentice Hall Health, Frenchs Forest, N.S.W..
  • Johnson R and Taylor W 2004, Skills for Midwifery Practice, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
  • Pairman, S. Pincombe, J. Thorogood, C. and Tracy, S. 2006, Midwifery, Preparation for Practice, Churchill Livingstone..
  • Sullivan, A. Kean, L. Cryer, A. 2006, Midwives Guide To Antenatal Investigations, Churchill, Livingstone, Elsevier, Sydney.

two of which I can get 2nd hand already, and one that is available online. We’ll see about the others.

Posted: February 19, 2007 Tellings! (3)