Breathing New Life into Maternity Care 2010 - Alice Springs

At last my marking is finished all but for 10 papers, they will go into my suitcase.....yeah....Marks are just about uploaded for Board of Examiners.... and its time for another Conference...talk about working to a time table....and so life goes on.... I have to say I am looking forward to Alice Springs...also meeting up with friends, colleagues and networking, i always enjoy conferences for many varied reasons....most of all the networking.
I have downloaded the program and on the plane will decide which presentations I shall attend.... there are lots to choose from.

Wednesday is our day trip to Kata Tjuta National Park: 280 miles (450km) southwest of Alice Springs. Ayers Rock/ Uluru, the world's largest monolith and an Aboriginal sacred site is Australia's most famous natural landmark. I am looking forward to maybe climbing the rock....however there seems to be conflicting advice as to whether you can climb it or not.... so you will have to wait and see the outcome....one website suggests that...."Visitors may wish to make the tough 1.6km ascent to the top or take a walking tour around the rock with an aboriginal guide , learning about its fascinating with the Uluru people and its importance in dreamtime legend."
I do know that it will be a long day for us, starting at 0600 and finishing at midnight..... wow....

On Thursday there are workshops and then there is the Beanie and ball dress party...now that should be fun...in the freezing cold...I have to remember to take my Ugg boots....now thats a great site....beanie, ball dress and Ugg boots....

The Conference begins on Friday - Saturday....watch this space for the update and review of the conference....
Breathing New Life into Maternity Care 2010

Infomidwife in the top 10 Pregnancy and Childbirth blogs

My ego got a boost when I looked in my inbox and saw an email that said

Congratulations! Your blog, InfoMidwife, has just won the 2010 Top Medical Blog award in the Midwife category!

Have a look at the top 10 Pregnancy and Childbirth blogs..... congratulations to the other recipients......2010 Pregnancy and Chidbirth blogs.....it is nice to get recognised for our work...

Medical Billing and Coding Certification

Women of the 21st Centrury

Today I attended the Women's Advisory Council symposium: "Women of the 21st Century"
Unfortunately I found out and only late last week so was unable to prepare well for the day.... I had no expectations.... in fact I had no idea of what was in store for me.


The Women's Advisory Council was appointed by the Minister for Women's Interests, the Hon Robyn McSweeney MLC in January 2010. The Council comprises 13 interesting and inspiring women who want to make a difference and improve Western Australian women's lives.

The Council has chosen, as one of its priority areas, women and their economic security. An important objective is to discuss and develop recommendations relating to key issues, including access to superannuation benefits, independent source of income (self-reliance), increased education levels not corresponding with higher incomes, impact of stereotyping of women in the media and the ongoing effects of that stereotyping, and the under-representation of women in leadership and decision-making roles.

There were approximately 120 women....although that is a guess on my part. The day for me commenced at 0830 as I did not go to the breakfast at 7am.
The key note speaker for the first plenary session was Anne Riches, Leadership and Challenge Management Consultant: Australia's top speaker 2010 (National Speakers Association). I was truly inspired by this woman.... Anne spoke about women being judged on face value.... there was a case of a top executive who looked to sexy dressed in a business suit...therefore was distracting her male counterparts.....so she was dismissed...(tragedy)she took them to court for unfair dismissal. Also that women are not supported by other women they are threatened..... and I thought it was only the midwifery & nursing professions that did this, but no, it is a broader issue... I was enlightened when Anne spoke about her experiences with the AMA, to find that it's not just midwives that have a problem with them but it's women in general. The points that were most useful for me where those of having to change mindsets...and mindsets do not change easily (a bit like old habits die hard). We have changed legislation, regulations to help women and we still have equality problems, why is this? because mindsets have to be changed and as women we need to focus on changing our language and mindset as well. Women battle with mindsets.... expectations of what women should be doing a mixture of motherhood and working life.... How do we support other women to ask for more money...to ask for what we are worth???? We need to lead by example.... watching our own mindset in order to bring about change..an example of this would be when you hear someone say "what I need is a good wife".. we need to understand the language of men to bring about change.... logic will not do it in order to change mindset we also need male mentors to support the notion of change....how do we do this?.... we need to consult with the stakeholders...hard wired mindsets come from fear and lack of self confidence.....we need successful role models to change mindsets.... we need research to support us.... I am going to suggest that as Midwives we need to get obstetricians on side so that mindsets will change.. this takes time and effort.....

Ms Anne Riches


The afternoon was concurrent sessions.. it was really hard for me to decide which sessions to go to as I wanted to go to them all....

First session: Employment - I was hoping to get answers for our midwifery issues regarding employers and Midwifery Group Practice....no such luck....the session covered superannuation (GESB), Woodside mining (engineers) and Brightwater (Health): interesting session: Woodside - issues of retaining graduates - that 40% of graduates where women of which they lose half after 20 yrs so they are not going into middle or high management therefore leaving a gap...and half do not re enter the workforce. GESB - is a company that is predominately female executives and a successful company - issues of inequality of superannuation for women and most women are not adequately covered as they work part-time or take time out for children. Brightwater - discussed the low pay of carers and not having enough staff to cover the aging population.

Second session: Stereotyping of Women in Media;this was truly a surprise: the presenters were all dynamic women as expected...however the figures they presented are staggering in terms of how few women influence the media; Sue Taylor spoke of the making of her movie "The Tree" and how hard as a women it was to finance; as it is a male dominated industry....she also spoke about setting up a kids corner on the set for childcare for her children and the other women on the production....

Some interesting facts that have come from American research... girls watch lead men and women in movies.... boys however only watch lead men not lead girls..girls choose a mixture of sexes....but boys only choose boys....there is only 3-7% of female directors; there are 2.5 male actors to 1 female actor..and after the age of 40 females drop dramatically.

Celia Tait - SBS- Who do you think you are? what an amazing woman.... Celia said women leave the industry because it is a tough business.... women in TV - 5000 women left the industry compared to 750 men... wow.. and 63% of the women choose not to have children..they choose their career....Celia's focus has been on women's issues such as fertility etc....

Ruth Callaghan: Journalist. Academic at ECU; Ruth explains that for every story males are more representative of women, men are reported as the expert as opposed to women....women over 50 just don't make it ....women are also portrayed as victims and passive, they have not been recognised for there achievements or intelligence. She did say there is some good news that 75% of the journalist students are female.
You need more women in top position in order for things to change....this will take a long time because it is a male dominated industry.....

This session really highlighted for me how difficult it is to get a fair go in the media...it is predominately a private industry dominated by men with a mindset not willing to change at this time...and much work is required....no wonder we do not get anywhere with the press.....and putting women in these positions will not be easy as child care and family life are equally as important to women in current positions that work part-time.

The closing keynote speaker was Ms June Oscar; CEO Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre (Fitzroy Crossing. June spoke eloquently about community life and the role that women play within that community..... June also compared the indigenous plight to that of the recent movie Avatar... the special role of spirituality and women as related in Avatar....she was truly inspiring..... it was food for thought....

The day ended with some recommendations being presented to Robyn McSweeny MLC; the Hon Minister for Child Protection; Community Services; Seniors and Volunteering; Women's Interest, which will be on the website for comment www.communities.wa.gov.au if you would like to add a comment or recommendation you can do so....

I have gained many things from today..... mostly as women we have come a long way but there is still a long way to go...and I did not realise the impact of the mindset until today..it was like I had an epiphany...we must work together remember our passion, spirituality and led by example. A special thank you to all those who presented today......

Eligible Midwife Australia.....this is what it looks like

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia has submitted to the Ministerial Council for approval: the Registration Standard for Eligible Midwife and Registration for Endorsement for Scheduled Medicines for Eligible Midwives.

What does this mean for the average midwife in Australia?
Requirements
To be entitled to be identified as an eligible midwife, a midwife must be able to demonstrate, at a minimum, all the following:

Current general registration as a midwife in Australia with no restrictions on practice;

Midwifery experience that constitutes the equivalent of 3 years full time post initial registration as a midwife;

Current competence to provide pregnancy, labour, birth and post natal care to women and their infants;

Successful completion of an approved professional practice review program for midwives working across the continuum of midwifery care;

20 additional hours per year of continuing professional development relating to the continuum of midwifery care;

Formal undertaking to complete within 18 months of recognition as an eligible midwife; or the successful completion of:

an accredited and approved program of study determined by the Board to develop midwives’ knowledge and skills in prescribing, or

a program that is substantially equivalent to such an approved program of study, as determined by the Board.

My understanding of the above is that you can be deemed an eligible midwife and give the undertaking that you will complete within 18 months further study for prescribing and diagnostics.

Now we have to wait for the realise of the courses that we are to do...those from WA who have already completed the Eligible Midwife program which was four units...should get some RPL (recognition for prior learning).....
Until these units are established it seems that midwives are required yet again to jump through hoops to give continuity of care.....

the bottom line is that you will have to have three years experience across the continuum of midwifery before you can become an eligible midwife..... complete your Midwifery Practice Review and do further study.....oh and don't forget you need to be insured.....
We are the midwives paving the way for the future.... don't give up....lets beat the bastards and prove this can be done.....

Nursing Graduating Class of 2010

Brian the Master of Ceremonies and organiser:

 

The end of semester signals many things....from a lecturers point of view it is a busy time with winding up the semester, making sure the students have handed in all their work and then there's the marking, a mountain of marking...this is where you find out if the students have applied what you have taught them...getting all the marks in for the Board of Examiners..there is a quick turn around before the next semester.... then of course there are those students who have come to the end of their course...for nursing it is a the culmination of three and half years....this group of students is a particularly special group for me... as I have seen them over several semesters throughout the last two years...which can be rewarding because you see them grow and gain more confidence and you began to feel the excitement as they are coming to the end of their course.....I don't always teach in the last semester of the nursing unit, however I have done it a couple of times now and really enjoy seeing the students go out into there 10 week clinical practice and blossom over the weeks. There are off course the trials and tribulations that go with clinical practice.... the good and the bad of the nursing professions preceptors, bullying, the usual coping with being a student and time management.

Which one of these nurses will become a "midwife"?

 

As a lecture you also have the ability to see which students are going to succeed and those that will struggle...I am proud to say we have a large number of very gifted students in the class of 2010 and I would love to see where they are in 5 years time.

 

This celebration was organised by one of the students Brian a talented man who will be a brilliant nurse...there were about 90 people...students, partners and academics.. it was really nice to see the partners there supportive and proud.... and rightly so....it was like the red carpet at the logies.... the girls were gorgeous and the guys handsome...I have to say there were some great shoes and dresses around....there was a buffet dinner again brilliant and off course desert was great.... drinking and dancing was had by all and I had a fantastic time...

 

Now at every celebration there are the traditional speeches: yes the academics as they like to hear there own voice... had something to say... Brenton whom I greatly admire (now retired) gave a heartfelt impromptu speech...and as expected it was brilliant, great words of wisdom....Lorraine wrote a poem "Ode to the new Curtin Grads"...which was excellent... Fiona...stunning wooed the audience and again thanked Brian for the enormous job he had done...and off course I had a few words to say....
The students had there own set of awards which was brilliant: "the nurse best not to upset because she has access to a variety of theatre instruments"
"The nurse most recognisable from far away"
"the nurse most likely to achieve her PhD"
"the nurse with the quietest voice and softest touch"
"the nurse most likely to hear there voice talking over the chaos in ED"
"the nurse who organised the best Xmas party"
there were a couple more that I can not remember.......

 

There are a large number of male nurses in this group...in which area will they be in 5 years?

 

For me I am passionate about teaching, I just love it.... and my message is to always trust yourself and your gut feeling...have integrity, honesty and cover yourself... that means always documenting everything despite time constraints.....you are armed with all the skills it is now time for you to fly..... fly high and be passionate about your work...when you have passion...success follows; and think about doing a postgraduate course after your graduate year.....Well done and good luck......

Amazing what you can do with photos......Holiday

 

Taking a week off to take our relative from the UK on holiday to see some of the top end of WA....although I took a week off work.... I still managed to take my laptop to get some personal work completed...this being some writing and my Midwifery Practice Review (MPR), my aim was also to do some marking, but it was hard when in a car to give feedback as your writing ends up being eligible....so alas no marking got done.....We started from Perth, first stop was the Pinnacles are two-hundred and forty-five kilometres north of Perth on the way to Geraldton. Closest main town is Cervantes. The Pinnacles are seventeen kilometres south east of the town.

The Pinnacles are limestone formations. The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands which were carried inland to form high mobile dunes. The Pinnacles were formed from lime leaching from the sand and by rain cementing the lower levels of the dune into a soft limestone. The area has changed over the years and is becoming more tourist orientated....with jarrah paths and lookouts being new features... since I was last here....

Next was Jurien Bay....beautiful spot...where we stopped for a cuppa and some chocolate...followed by.... Dongara... just before Geraldton... Ian had to have a meat pie from the Dongara bakery.... we went through Geraldton to Northampton where we were stopping for a few days...to enjoy the region...
The Shire of Northampton encompasses the popular tourist destinations of Horrocks, Port Gregory, Kalbarri and Northampton. The area is extremely diverse from the coastal lifestyle of Kalbarri to the heritage trails through Northampton and tourism is a growing industry.....

The problem with travelling around Australia, particularly WA, is that the roads are very long, and the towns are long and far between.... its a dream to have my laptop so that I can write, do some filing, those menial tasks that you never have time to do.... it's a case of have laptop will travel... three of us where travelling and as our guest gets car sick unless she is in the front or driving...I elected to have the back seat... I was actually happy to get some work done with my laptop, listening to some music and just enjoying going with the flow...so for me it was a good compromise...

Kalbarri..nestled where the Murchison River flows into the Indian Ocean, two hours' drive north from Geraldton, is the ideally situated town of Kalbarri. This is one of Western Australia's most popular holiday resorts.
Nature provides visitors to Kalbarri with once in a lifetime experiences. The climate is warm and sunny for most of the year. It was an interesting climb to natures window....so beautiful but the flies were an absolute pest.....
We spent the night at some wonderful chalets in Denham Oceanside Village, opposite the beach... couldn't believe how windy it was....Denham is only 20mins from Monkey Mia... we needed to be at Monkey Mia at 7am to see the dolphins.. so we saw the sunrise.. beautiful but cold.....it was worth every moment when we saw the dolphins... Monkey Mia has also changed over the years....the first time I came here over 20 yrs ago, there were no rangers... the dolphins came up and you could swim with them.... slowly each trip to the area...I have noticed changes... some good and some not so good....now its very restricted when seeing the dolphins....there was a mother dolphin with two babies... I must admit when you first see the dolphin swimming towards you and you first spot the fin.... the word shark does come to mind.....
Next stop was Carnarvon....a bustling town with a wonderful Aboriginal Arts centre...well worth stopping there for meal.... fantastic....we also visited; the blowholes, beautiful coastline, banana and mango plantations (unfortunately for us it was not fruit season), walked the old wooden jetty (2mile)..... we had a great dinner at the Old Post Office... Canarvon is a town with so much potential....again well worth the visit....


My favourite stop was Shell Beach....... a secluded beach with thousands of white shells.....Formed from billions of tiny shells, aptly named Shell Beach in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Shell Beach is one of only a handful of places on earth where shells replace beach sand in such a dramatic and picturesque way.
The beach stretches for more than 100 kilometres with shells between seven and ten metres deep.
I walked on Shell Beach it is like no other beach. Incredibly, the beach is made up of shells from just one type of animal, making it truly unique. I could of stayed there all day......
It was back to Northampton.... then the 6hr drive home the next day.... all in all we covered about 3,000kilometers......and we didn't hit one kangaroo......

I made a photo collage of some of the places our guest visited whilst here.... amazing what you can do with Picasa from google.... I am learning all the time... fantastic program.....

The road to eligibility for the Midwife:

The question is how long will it take to become an eligible midwife? Gone are the days of qualifying as a midwife and practicing autonomously, now we have to jump through hoops. As you may be aware the laws in Australia are changing from the 1st July we go to National Registration, which in itself is not a bad thing. There will be four categories to the register for nurses and midwives: Registered Nurse (RN): Midwife: Non Practicing Midwife: Student nurse / midwife.

You can register as a RN & Midwife, if you are both you can choose to drop one or the other of your qualifications, that means you can register only as an RN or a Midwife should you choose to….. One thing I urge all RN / Midwives before dropping one or the other of your qualifications you will need to check your employment contract to ensure you have not signed a contract to be both…….
If you do maintain both professions you will have to complete the required ongoing professional development for both professions, and ensure you practice in both within a 5 year period otherwise you will not be able to register. There will be two registers, one for the RN and the Midwife.... there will also be a non-practicing Midwife register, and a student register for more information see the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.
The other major change is that for midwives you need to declare your indemnity insurance, if you work for a hospital this will be easy you will need to contact your employer and ask them who you are insured with and provide this information to the Board.
The Australian College of Midwives is securing indemnity insurance for midwives, antenatal and postnatal care…..currently there will be no insurance for intrapartum (Homebirth).

One of the requirements for “the eligible” midwife will undoubtedly be Midwifery Practice Review (MPR), however the final requirements for eligibility have not been released yet. I have started this process because I want to be “an eligible midwife” even though I consider myself one….. I do not meet the government requirements. As from the 1st November midwives will be able to claim a Medicare number, (by the way midwife is not on the list until after the 1st November) now this is also no easy feat…… there are online courses that need to be completed first…..but you cannot do them until November…..do you feel like we are being screwed…. YES.

What I can do now is get my MPR review out the way…… what does this mean….. it means that you need to give yourself some time to complete this process and you need more than a few hours. I am traditionally one who keeps a portfolio, sets annual and 5 year plans as a rule, so none of this is new to me…. However if you have not done this before then allow yourself more time.

I have just completed the first stage of the MPR, that is; a synopsis of my CV, qualifications, current position, previous positions, professional development and key achievements; this takes about 2 pages. Followed by my Midwifery Philosophy half a page; clear current job description; you are half way now; next, reflect on your practice using the ANMC Competency Standards for the Midwife; you will use the four sub headings; Legal and Professional Practice; Midwifery Knowledge and Practice; Midwifery as Primary Health Care and finally; Reflective and Ethical Practice: you will use examples from your clinical practice to address each competency (we do it every day, we just do not necessarily recognize it or relate our work to our competences) this makes us write done what we do ; Now the bulk of the work is completed…all that is left is your short (12 mths) and long term goals (5yrs), you have to make your goals achievable…… that’s it all done… it took me all in all about 6-8 hours…. a few hours each day. Your synopsis should be submitted to the ACM fours week before your interview….. so that they can review your work to ensure it is all compete and meet the requirements…..then all that is left to do is the hour interview…..the interview will be with two reviewers a consumer and a midwife; Watch this space….
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