My experience as an RCN nursing cadet and a student midwife

My name is Fleur, I am 18 years old and live in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. I am studying and training in midwifery in the University of South Wales and I am currently in my first year of studying.

I chose this course as I have always taken an interest in midwifery but after attending open days and skills sessions through my college course, and experiencing skills days through the RCN Cadets Scheme, it made me instantly fall in love with the role.

My inspiration for studying midwifery came from witnessing the care my family members had during their pregnancies and wanting to both replicate and improve their care in my career. I got onto the course after taking Health and Social care level 3, and Medical Science as A-levels in Merthyr Tydfil College.

I learnt about the RCN Nursing Cadet Scheme through college, which I was selected for following application forms and interviews in front of a panel. The RCN cadet scheme helped me gain interview experience for university. It also helped me have an insight into the university and the skills I would need to gain whilst studying. During college I completed many workbooks and attended talks and presentations through the RCN Nursing Cadet Scheme.

There were also skill days based around basic life support and manual handling and such. I also completed a placement in a day centre in Keir Hardie where I observed different skills that I was later able to put into practice during my degree as a student midwife.

The scheme helped me gain insight into my course and the training I would have to do in order to work in healthcare and what my university placements would be like. At the end of the scheme, I received a certificate and a pin on results day.

I would recommend the RCN Nursing Cadets Scheme to anyone in college as it helped me gain a foundation of understanding for healthcare and the skills needed to succeed during university applications.

The qualifications I needed to get accepted onto my degree were BBB. My degree features a 50/50 split of theory and practical work out in placement in local health boards.

During my placements I have enjoyed meeting new people and experiencing maternity services in Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board while also being able to observe and practice different skills whilst looking after some incredible families. This given me more appreciation for the job role and has made me want to strive towards becoming a qualified midwife.

For the past few months, I have been working on placement in the labour ward of Prince Charles Hospital. The types of patients I look after in the Prince Charles hospital are women and their families experiencing a high-risk pregnancy/labour.

I work with a variety of people whom all work as part of a multidisciplinary team within maternity services, these people can include midwives, health care support workers, obstetric doctors, anaesthetists, nursery nurses and more.

On a typical day I work one to one with patients during labour, this includes caring for women and their families and providing support and advice during a vulnerable time in their lives. On some days I also support patients in theatre whilst undergoing surgery such as c-sections.

I would recommend this job role as I honestly don’t think there is any better job than supporting women and their families in such an important part of their lives. Being able to make such a difference to people’s care by building relationships and having the opportunity to make such a lasting impact to women both during their pregnancy and afterward.

I enjoy my role as I love witnessing such an amazing moment in people’s lives and having the opportunities to care and make such a difference during their journey. The key qualities needed for this job role are compassion, kindness, empathy, patience, maturity and good communication skills.

My hints and tips when applying and studying this role are: always strive to do your best, never compare your journey or learning to anyone’s else’s as everyone journey and experience is different, and always remember why you started.