Midwifery brings to mind old-fashioned home-attended births, but today nurse midwife training opens a door to a mixed bag of childbirth types for females and even includes quite a few job options for nurse midwives. Midwife career choices include:
Autonomous nursing for childbirth and well women. Team-based practice for healthcare. Nurses associated with childbirth centers. Health department-based nursing.
First, let's have a look at the education for how to become a certified nurse midwife. The role of midwife is considered a master role, which means that the study required for certification is far more arduous than that required of an RN. It's extremely important to find the best fit and location for this relatively challenging nurse midwife program.
When training to become a midwife, there are many of the same prerequisites as becoming a master's-level nurse of any kind. However the midwife training programs include information on labor, delivery, birthing, and women's care prenatal through postnatal. In addition, there will be sessions in women's health as well as pharmacology.
The function of a midwife is varied, so that an average day could possibly involve checking a new baby, delivering a baby, gynecological exams, or even writing a prescription.
There are numerous programs that are available, like online study, as well as degree programs that allow individuals with a 4-year college degree in something other than nursing. In these programs, there will still be some demanding science specifications needed before you apply.
Be aware that you'll probably be asked for a year's experience in a delivery and labor setting. A midway step you might consider is training as a doula. A doula is a qualified companion employed by the mother to be to lead her through a birth and labor without medication. However, this isn't a medical position, but a coaching one; a doula doesn't perform nursing functions. If you are looking into becoming a midwife, the doula route may be 12 months well spent so that you can be sure this is what you want to do.
Newborns arrive at all hours of night and day, so it helps to know ahead if your degree of energy is up to the challenge for this stress filled career. The student will also have an extensive practicum prior to finishing a degree within this field. The practicum will be based experientially on attending at the very least forty births in addition to the rest of the visits leading up to and also following the births.
Another area of the practicum is training and exposure to peri- and post- menopausal visits as well as gynecological visits. This practicum will let you practice these types of skills while under the direction of an expert for 24 months.
The American Midwifery Certification Board provides the guidelines for certification and requires recertification every 5 years, and requiring evidence of continuing education credit. These certification exams are given at testing centers all across the nation and it's a computer-based test. While you can take the examination more than once, you will want to make sure you are all set to pass the examination on the very first attempt since it costs $500 to take the exam.
Although there are plenty of masters-level nursing programs, the certified nurse midwife program demands the broadest skill set from the nursing student, because you are active in the processes from birth to death and quite often asked to do very basic surgical procedures too. Deciding upon midwifery as a nursing career carries with it both financial as well as spiritual advantages beyond other nursing options.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.world-class-articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
