day 1 and day 2
It's past my bedtime but thanks to some late-afternoon coffee I'm still quite awake and I need to brain dump about yesterday and today.
* nervous yesterday morning going to school, but excited too
* there are a few MCU students doing the program. M is one of them, and she is staying about 1 km from where Bola and I are staying. M has been walking down to meet up with us and walk to the streetcar together in the mornings.
* we walk past an elementary school on our way down the hill and when I see the moms taking their kids to school and standing around visiting outside the doors, I feel quite sad (and it makes me miss my at-home peeps)
* our classroom is also the simulation lab. The tables are set up in an arrow or T-shape in the center of the room for the 17 students and the instructor, with the simulation lab stations behind us
* yesterday, what did we cover? General housekeeping issues (cell phones, food and drinks in the sim lab, computer use), expectations, exams, where to get food and drinks on or near campus, program information and statistics, observational placements, passing grades and much more.
* there is a "fast track" option and we will be assessed almost constantly to determine if we will qualify. We'll know for sure on October 19th. If we are in the fast track stream, we could start clerkship placements as early as Nov, Dec, or January 1st.
My head was spinning by the time we left for home, and I had to take several shots of Rescue Remedy that first day. The normal level of anxiety would have been manageable, but PMS has taken my anxiety to crazy levels this week.
I volunteered to take notes for the instructor and I had to type them up and submit them to the program director (they'll be approved and then distributed to the class) by 10 o'clock last night and again tonight. I won't be doing this all the time; I find it hard to weed through my scribbled notes to pull out what is relevant for everyone, what the instructor would want us all to know, and pass over notes to myself about certain things.
This morning I woke up feeling very anxious. I tried going back to sleep, tried Rescue Remedy, deep breathing, had a shower and some breakfast, nothing seemed to help. I finally took half an Ativan and no longer felt like I was going to fall apart. I was still nervous on the bus, worried about how much more we'd cover in today's class, but once we got started it was totally fine and I didn't have any of the anxiety I had yesterday.
On the afternoon of the first day we were divided into 3 groups and had to come up with all of the midwifery care components for the 3 trimesters of pregnancy, the birth, and postpartum. My group had the first two trimesters and we brainstormed quite a good long list, but didn't have it in sequential order but then we were asked to present it to the class that way! It was ok though - as we went through the list a topic would come up (ie: smoking cessation in pregnancy, current research on cervical cancer screening, or genetic screening) and we'd spend 15 - 30 minutes discussing that before moving on. We finished our presentation today, and the other groups will have to present next week. I really like the discussions and as things come up, I add to my growing list of things to look up/study/review.
There are quite a few clinical DVD's we are expected to watch on our own time in the simulation lab and there will be questions on our Big Exam from these videos, so....more note-taking. We watched one on breastfeeding this afternoon that was very interesting. Our class for tomorrow has been cancelled but 3 of us are going to go to school anyway, watch some of the videos, settle into the student lounge with our computers and do some review together. This weekend there will also be a walk along the beach, probably a movie at the quirky little theater down the street, and a LOT of time with our books too.
This afternoon, we did class introductions. There are several of us who have only recently graduated but have very limited clinical practice outside of our education programs, as well as experienced midwives (and one physician!) from Chicago, Russia, Jordan, the UK, Germany, Iran, India, and the Philippines.
The director of the program has a wealth of knowledge and experience for us to draw from and she's very kind. She is clear about how demanding this program is but is willing to help us however she can in order for us to be successful. In the 11 (?) years that the program has been running, 136 women have successfully completed the program (about 72% success rate), and 120 of those women are working in Canada as Registered Midwives. Of the 53 women who didn't successfully complete the program, 1/2 of them left the program due to personal or lifestyle issues, not because they didn't have the ability to pass the courses or clerkship.
We all had a bit of a chuckle when the director said, "And this is my No Whining Clause: For this program, the students pay only about $5,000 tuition for a 6-9 month program and 92% of those who complete the program will have a job within 3 months in Ontario that has a starting wage of about $82,000, all without a graduate degree." Not too shabby.
Yesterday, when Bola and I were looking over the schedule we saw a window of time when we would be able to go home for a few days and then the director announced that she would be meeting with all of us on one of those days :-/ We talked with her and she was very willing to see us before or after our trip so that we could go home as planned. I appreciated that so much, and I booked my flight tonight! Three weeks from right now I should be sleeping in my own bed for a few nights. When I texted Jack to tell him he replied, 'and my countdown begins'.
Now, I will certainly turn into a pumpkin soon if I don't get to bed, sleepy or not!
* nervous yesterday morning going to school, but excited too
* there are a few MCU students doing the program. M is one of them, and she is staying about 1 km from where Bola and I are staying. M has been walking down to meet up with us and walk to the streetcar together in the mornings.
* we walk past an elementary school on our way down the hill and when I see the moms taking their kids to school and standing around visiting outside the doors, I feel quite sad (and it makes me miss my at-home peeps)
* our classroom is also the simulation lab. The tables are set up in an arrow or T-shape in the center of the room for the 17 students and the instructor, with the simulation lab stations behind us
* yesterday, what did we cover? General housekeeping issues (cell phones, food and drinks in the sim lab, computer use), expectations, exams, where to get food and drinks on or near campus, program information and statistics, observational placements, passing grades and much more.
* there is a "fast track" option and we will be assessed almost constantly to determine if we will qualify. We'll know for sure on October 19th. If we are in the fast track stream, we could start clerkship placements as early as Nov, Dec, or January 1st.
My head was spinning by the time we left for home, and I had to take several shots of Rescue Remedy that first day. The normal level of anxiety would have been manageable, but PMS has taken my anxiety to crazy levels this week.
I volunteered to take notes for the instructor and I had to type them up and submit them to the program director (they'll be approved and then distributed to the class) by 10 o'clock last night and again tonight. I won't be doing this all the time; I find it hard to weed through my scribbled notes to pull out what is relevant for everyone, what the instructor would want us all to know, and pass over notes to myself about certain things.
This morning I woke up feeling very anxious. I tried going back to sleep, tried Rescue Remedy, deep breathing, had a shower and some breakfast, nothing seemed to help. I finally took half an Ativan and no longer felt like I was going to fall apart. I was still nervous on the bus, worried about how much more we'd cover in today's class, but once we got started it was totally fine and I didn't have any of the anxiety I had yesterday.
On the afternoon of the first day we were divided into 3 groups and had to come up with all of the midwifery care components for the 3 trimesters of pregnancy, the birth, and postpartum. My group had the first two trimesters and we brainstormed quite a good long list, but didn't have it in sequential order but then we were asked to present it to the class that way! It was ok though - as we went through the list a topic would come up (ie: smoking cessation in pregnancy, current research on cervical cancer screening, or genetic screening) and we'd spend 15 - 30 minutes discussing that before moving on. We finished our presentation today, and the other groups will have to present next week. I really like the discussions and as things come up, I add to my growing list of things to look up/study/review.
There are quite a few clinical DVD's we are expected to watch on our own time in the simulation lab and there will be questions on our Big Exam from these videos, so....more note-taking. We watched one on breastfeeding this afternoon that was very interesting. Our class for tomorrow has been cancelled but 3 of us are going to go to school anyway, watch some of the videos, settle into the student lounge with our computers and do some review together. This weekend there will also be a walk along the beach, probably a movie at the quirky little theater down the street, and a LOT of time with our books too.
This afternoon, we did class introductions. There are several of us who have only recently graduated but have very limited clinical practice outside of our education programs, as well as experienced midwives (and one physician!) from Chicago, Russia, Jordan, the UK, Germany, Iran, India, and the Philippines.
The director of the program has a wealth of knowledge and experience for us to draw from and she's very kind. She is clear about how demanding this program is but is willing to help us however she can in order for us to be successful. In the 11 (?) years that the program has been running, 136 women have successfully completed the program (about 72% success rate), and 120 of those women are working in Canada as Registered Midwives. Of the 53 women who didn't successfully complete the program, 1/2 of them left the program due to personal or lifestyle issues, not because they didn't have the ability to pass the courses or clerkship.
We all had a bit of a chuckle when the director said, "And this is my No Whining Clause: For this program, the students pay only about $5,000 tuition for a 6-9 month program and 92% of those who complete the program will have a job within 3 months in Ontario that has a starting wage of about $82,000, all without a graduate degree." Not too shabby.
Yesterday, when Bola and I were looking over the schedule we saw a window of time when we would be able to go home for a few days and then the director announced that she would be meeting with all of us on one of those days :-/ We talked with her and she was very willing to see us before or after our trip so that we could go home as planned. I appreciated that so much, and I booked my flight tonight! Three weeks from right now I should be sleeping in my own bed for a few nights. When I texted Jack to tell him he replied, 'and my countdown begins'.
Now, I will certainly turn into a pumpkin soon if I don't get to bed, sleepy or not!