My CUH story: International Day of the Midwife

My name is Jess and I’m one of the midwives at the Rosie Hospital.

My role is clinical midwifery practice educator, which means I look after all of our students. I make sure their placements are facilitated and also provide emotional support. I try to ensure the students are having a good experience so hopefully they join us in the future.

What was your journey to this role?

I started my midwifery career in south east London following on from studying midwifery at the University of Greenwich; I completed one year at the hospital known as a preceptorship year. This included competencies to be signed off upon progressing onto a band 6 midwife such as cannulation, suturing and medicine management to help with the transition from student to qualified midwife.

I then decided to come back home, as I grew up in Cambridgeshire.

I came to Addenbrooke’s, in particular The Rosie, because the reputation here is really good.

I was really interested in looking after more high-risk cases with it being a tertiary (specialised care) unit in East Anglia.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I love that it’s different every single day. I look after lots of women from different backgrounds, and I get to experience lots of different settings and work in different clinical areas.

I particularly enjoy working with multiple students, all from different areas as well, I enjoy seeing what they can bring to the hospital. It's never the same day and it's lovely meeting new people.

How many students do you look after?

I look after about 100 students, which includes students from different universities, some who are already qualified nurses and who are training to be a midwife, student paramedics and midwifery students interested in an elective placement at The Rosie.

Can you explain a typical day to us?

I usually start at 07:45. I do my daily walk around to make sure all the students are presented correctly on shifts and answer any urgent questions. I ensure the students have been allocated correctly to the right clinical area and make sure that no one's struggling that day; in addition I also provide a bit of emotional wellbeing.

I set up student forums where we invite speakers to come and discuss topics such as pre-term deliveries, diabetes, or any other helpful subjects. We also make sure that we do one-to-one sessions with any student who particularly needs a little bit more support.

I usually work clinically as well, with midwives and to support the students.

What do you like about working at CUH?

I love the family at CUH! The Rosie Hospital has got a fantastic team; we work really closely with the multidisciplinary team which includes doctors and theatre staff. So, I always feel like I’m able to approach anyone with any questions.

It's a very open and honest environment and everyone is particularly lovely and always wants to make a difference.

Our main goal is to make sure the patients have the best outcome.

What advice would you give to anyone thinking about a career as a midwife?

Definitely do it! It's different every single day. You meet so many different people, and actually it's a career you can do for the rest of your life. There are lots of different alternative roles within midwifery, such as education or you can go into more a specialist role, but every day is different which is nice.

Read more about Rachel Housego's story here: https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/our-people/my-cuh-story/my-cuh-story-rachel-housego/