As student midwives, we all come across a real variety of cases. It is, arguably, the sole purpose of our large number of Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)-stipulated placement hours; to experience as much as possible and learn from it. However, I firmly believe that what you get from each placement is not so heavily based on the cases you come across, but is rather affected by the mentors you work with.
A good mentoring experience can make a placement. Not just from the enjoyment of it, but also from how much you get out of the experience and how much you learn from it. My first-ever placement as a student midwife was six weeks on community and I absolutely loved it! Yes, I enjoyed the clinics themselves, and even managed to witness a home birth, but I'm convinced that my enjoyment and the amount I learnt in such a relatively short time on that placement was down to my mentors.
Although I had a named mentor that I worked with for the majority of the time (something which will be changing over the next couple of years with the new NMC student supervision guidelines), I also worked with each member of the six-person team individually throughout my placement, experiencing the unique ways that each person works and learning how individualised midwifery practice can be.
This team went above and beyond for me on this placement; talking me through each aspect of my brand new and slightly intimidating paperwork, encouraging me to start getting things signed off straight away and helping me recruit for my student caseload from my very first day. Each member of that team was hugely positive and proactive as mentors, making sure I learnt as much as I possibly could, without getting overwhelmed by the huge amount that there was to take in. It was such a positive start to my training and I learnt a huge amount from every experience; something which I credit to being so well supported throughout.
I wouldn't say I ever had one truly ‘bad’ mentor, but I did experience mentors who were less supportive than others. I'm sure every midwife reading this can remember a time as a student that a mentor made them feel small, like a bit of a nuisance or like they didn't know enough, and the effect that this feeling had on their own learning. As a student, you need to feel comfortable to ask to do things, to speak up and to show what you are capable of.
Thankfully, any slightly negative learning experiences were a minority for me, and I was able to brush most of these off, but I was still aware of the effect these less enthusiastic mentors had on the potential of my placement—and I made a promise to myself to try my hardest never to make another student feel that way once I qualified. They say that you end up as a ‘soup’ of all your mentors (or ‘assessors’ and ‘supervisors’ as they are now to be known); their techniques, practice and manner—and after some of the incredible and supportive mentors I had while training, I would be truly honoured if that was the case.
‘As a student, you need to feel comfortable to ask to do things, to speak up and to show what you are capable of’
But in addition to taking on their manner in clinical practice, I also hope to take forward some of the positive learning experiences I had from my mentors, and add these healthy and productive student-mentor working relationships into this ‘soup’. In the few experiences I have had of supporting students since qualifying, I have tried my best to bring in aspects of all the brilliant mentors I had throughout my training and to be as supportive and positive towards these students as these mentors were to me.
It's not even necessarily about going above and beyond; as we all know, some shifts just don't go that way, but even the small things make a huge difference. Learning names, for example, can go such a long way to making students feel respected and feel like a valued part of the team. Being referred to as ‘the student’ has happened to everyone, but that doesn't make it ok—and it is something we can easily change with a little effort.
As we head into 2020, I'm making it my own resolution to better support the next generation of midwives. After all, even just a few months after qualifying, I can see how badly we need them. The NMC is making huge changes in how students are graded and supported in practice this year, and I believe that this change in national practice is a huge opportunity for us as midwives to look at our own practice when supporting students.
The World Health Organization naming 2020 the year of the nurse and midwife is a huge nod of respect to the hard work each of us is doing for our incredible healthcare system, so let's extend that respect to all the student midwives out there too. Let's make 2020 the year we all make that bit of extra effort and make each hour that student midwives spend in placement as productive and positive as they can be. They are the next generation of our workforce of the not-too-distant future!