Last week was the Student Midwife Experience festival. Midwifery editor, Dr Jenny Hall, shares the Student Midwife trailblazer awards and reflects on the polls from the day.
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Last week the Student Midwife Experience festival took place face-to-face in London and online. It was a privilege to be there as a host for the event along with two student midwives, Sara Freedman from Middlesex university and Gemma Cromwell from the University of Bedfordshire. Talks and discussions covered aspects around education such as standards in teaching, enjoying the full student experience, working with families and in the maternity team. Different talks from the event will be shared online and can be accessed through the MATFLIX subscription.
Students indicated in the discussions that there are challenges to achieving the courses and completed polls regularly throughout the day. The results of these indicated little had changed since the last poll in January apart from an increase in assessment problems in practice settings due to the lack of midwifery qualified teaching staff. 50% had either difficulty ‘Too often’ or ‘Often’ and 25% ‘Occasionally’. This is of concern going forward and is clearly stressful for students trying to achieve.
An aspect of the event was the Student Trailblazer awards. The awards are designed to recognise those students who have made a difference during their programme. All the students were online and not at the event; and the presentation for them can be seen here:
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Four students were highly commended, and summaries of their citations follow.
Vicky Gois, third year student midwife, Anglia Ruskin University
Vicky, alike many wonderful student midwives coming up to qualification, demonstrates the provision of compassionate, empathetic, and benevolent care to all the mothers and babies she comes across. However, Vicky, unlike many student midwives has been challenged with being involved with the most devastating event that could ever happen within the Maternity services.
During her placement as a second-year student, she sadly was involved with the maternal loss of a mother post-delivery, I think it is fair to say that this, very understandably knocked her confidence, lead her to question her journey to being a Midwife and broke her heart … she has persevered incredibly through these tough times and continued to shine brightly as a fantastic Midwife.
Even with her own emotional pain following this sorrowful event, Vicky still has found time amongst her studies to attend investigations and inquests, and incredibly put her arm around her qualified and student colleagues to comfort them. I don’t know how else to say Vicky is truly an admirable and a wonderful asset to the Maternity community.
As a result of the support she provided to colleagues, Vicky has been instrumental in setting up a peer-support network for her fellow students. This student-led network provides a safe space for students to reflect on the challenges of contemporary clinical practice, with an on- call midwifery lecturer available to provide support if needed. She has worked with lecturers and colleagues in student services to ensure rapid referral for support for students attending, as required.
Talking with Vicky is so powerful, she is so modest and humble, and she sometimes does not recognise the amazing feat she is overcoming … Her humility in her admirable, resilient, and compassionate nature, more so through adversity, is why she is so worthy of recognition for such an award.
Being a Midwife means ‘being with woman,’ and Vicky illustrates the beauty of this meaning not just referring to a physical presence, but also through emotional thought and spiritual legacy.
Jessica Falk, newly qualified midwife, King’s College, London
Jess, who was already a supportive student of her peers and socially active within her cohort, took over the prestigious role of the Editor in Chief of the Student Midwife Journal in August 2022 at the beginning of her final year of her Midwifery programme. As editor in chief Jess has managed the editorial team and determined the layout and look of the journal, supported the 11 members of the editorial team, contributed editorial pieces for the publication and made final decisions as to which articles to be published.
As well as encouraging all midwifery students within the UK and Ireland to publish within the journal in her editor in chief role Jess contacted all cohorts within the midwifery programme at King’s leading to 13 publications. The majority of these students are clear that without her kind caring support they would never have considered publishing at all and certainly not as a student. Within the 13 peers mentioned above 5 have contributed 2 or more articles over the course of the last 12 months showing the impact and longevity of Jess’s support. Jess has also encouraged and supported her peers both in her cohort and others within the midwifery programme at King’s to consider taken on roles on the editorial board, resulting in 2 other KCL student midwives on the board.
Amba Morrell, newly qualified midwife, London South Bank University
During her course Amba was concerned to read about the evidence showing disparity in maternity care for Black and Asian women. As a result, she became an advocate and started speaking up with passion to challenge the inequalities currently in maternity services, particularly around racial disparity both in her work settings and online. She set up a conference to raise and discuss these issues and supported other students to become advocates. Amba was awarded the Student Nursing Times Student midwife of the year award 2023 for her work during her programme raising the issues and challenging inequalities in maternity.
Deepa Santhosh, Newly qualified Masters in Midwifery, Oxford
Deepa is a newly qualified Midwife with a Masters in Midwifery. Prior to becoming a student midwife Deepa worked in maternity care for over 10 years both in India and London. She is a certified birth educator and a lactation specialist and was an Infant Feeding Lead in a London NHS trust. Her midwifery practice is strongly rooted in advocacy both for women and staff in maternity services. She has also been recognised for speaking out about midwives and students’ experience of not being allowed to have access to drinking water when in practice. Her campaign was supported from the highest quarters, by the CQC and the previous Chief Midwifery Officer, Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, and messages were sent to all Trusts to ensure water is available. Deepa was selected for the “Aspiring Improvers Program 2019” at UCLPartners and has participated in several Quality Improvement initiatives. She has also received the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust student award to research the effect of the “optimal birth” course on student midwives’ confidence and experience in identifying and resolving labour dystocia.
WINNER:
Selena Palmer, 4th year Master in Science (MSci) Midwifery with Leadership – University of Leicester
Selena is recognised for the major contributions to university life and beyond as a student. Examples of her involvement include:
- Keen to ensure others had the optimal learning experience and became a Student Ambassador taking an active part at Open Days/Offer Holder Days, Summer Schools and Clearing events. She is also a Unibuddy where she has a blog and communicates with future students about the course.
- Volunteers as a mentor to groups of teenagers attending the Healthcare and Medicine Summer School that is part of the University’s Widening Participation Admissions Strategy to increase the uptake of students from Black, Asian and Ethnic (BAE) backgrounds. In 2022, participants voted Selena to be the Star Mentor for going above and beyond for them.
- During the pandemic collaborated with the University’s Admissions Team to produce a recruitment promotional video with her father for the virtual Open Days.
- Selected onto the School of Healthcare’s EDI Committee, representing the voice of student midwives.
- Appointed as a student member of the RCM’s Decolonising midwifery education Reference / Steering Group and contributed to the Decolonising Toolkit. Promoted this at the 2023 Royal College of Midwives Annual Education and Research Conference and the Midlands Maternity and Midwifery Festival 2023.
- During Black History Month in 2022, took part in a College-wide symposium with other students from Healthcare and Medicine to explore the issues facing BAE students in the NHS and its subsequent impact on patient experience. This contributed to the adoption of the Halo Code and the development of Race Inclusion Action Plans within the School and wider university respectively.
- Working as a Curriculum Consultant, collaborating with the School of Biological Sciences investigating the awarding gap among BAE students undertaking Biological Sciences degrees
- Selena undertook an elective leadership placement with the Leicester MBBRACE team to improve her understanding of how the maternal mortality and stillbirth data is incorporated into the reports and influences clinical practice – particularly improving outcomes for Black women and their babies.
Selena has demonstrated enthusiasm, initiative and leadership potential from commencing her midwifery studies in 2020. As a Student Ambassador, she is proactive in attracting students from BAE backgrounds to the course to ultimately influence a change in culture, attitudes and behaviours within the university and clinical settings. She consistently works above and beyond the course requirements but within her capacity, engaging in activities at local and national level, championing improving the experiences and/or outcomes of others from BAE backgrounds. She has an excellent work ethic but does not seek praise for her actions –she truly inspires others!
Congratulations to all the award winners.
Dr Jenny Hall
Midwifery Editor, Maternity and Midwifery Forum
November 2023