I heard from PLEA
I didn't get accepted. I won't be writing the exams in the Fall. I won't be a Registered Midwife, probably ever. I will email the CMM today and ask for clarification, because the reasons they gave me just don't add up. The main reason?
"...your midwifery education does not meet the recommended minimum of 1 year of full time equivalence of clinical experience. Please refer item 3.5.1 of the CMM PLEA Handbook; although your midwifery education meets the required length of program, you are required to complete an additional minimum of 7 ½ months of (full-time equivalent) clinical midwifery experience before being considered as a potential candidate in the Manitoba PLEA process."
So I'm not sure if they are saying that the ASM program through MCU doesn't meet their required clinical hours, or if I didn't complete the required clinical hours. In the PLEA handbook, it says "a recommended minimum of 2400 hours, equivalent to approximately one year of full time clinical study."
Ok, key word: recommended. So, it's recommended, but not required? Then why didn't I get accepted!?
And after doing 9-10 months of clinical with a local physician, 9 weeks at Casa, 6 weeks overall in Utah, and a spattering of experience with a Saskatchewan midwife...I still need 7.5 more months of full-time clinical experience!? And where the hell am I supposed to do THAT!? In the states? Move to Alaska for a year, then apply again?
Oh, right, I can't. Why? Because the CMM isn't doing the PLEA next year, or ever again. Still no clarification if the MMBP is running next year but I assume it will since the CMM says that they are transitioning to the MMBP instead of doing PLEA.
I'm just.....numb.
I feel like a fool. I chose to do my midwifery education this way and it seemed like the best decision at the time. I'm sure if I had finished my education six years ago instead of starting it six years ago, I would be fine. But now that there are more Canadian MEPs, and the Almighty Bridging Program, I'm screwed. My education isn't good enough. So what are my options?
Move to the US for a year or more. Work with an American midwife full-time for at least a year to get my required 7.5 months of clinical experience, plus get enough births to make up for my expired clinical numbers - they're only good for 5 years ya know. So next year, all of my clinical experience starts to expire and won't count for "current" experience. Awesome.
Other option? Apply to Ontario or BC's MEP, pray that I get in, go into tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt to finish a BSM in a Canadian university while living in the one of the two most expensive provinces to live in. I'd be about 43 when I graduated. None of my MCU credits would be recognized, I'm sure. MCU is shit in Canada, plain and simple.
For the past five years, I've busted my ass trying to get clinical experience. I wanted to just immerse myself in clinical work with a Registered Midwife but Alberta wouldn't take an "out of province" student, and the rest of the provinces started refusing to take "foreign" students because of liability insurance issues. And apparently doing short-term placements doesn't meet the required clinical hours, so what else is there to do but move to the US or start over with a Canadian program?
I've wasted so much time and money trying to be a midwife. I've been rejected by PLEA, twice. I can NOT leave my family again, let alone for 8 months! We're going to have a child in university in a couple of years and we certainly can't afford to fund my (repeated) midwifery education while paying for our kids to go through school at the time.
I know that education of any kind is never truly wasted, but like I told Jack, I've had my experiences as a midwife, and I've had midwives for my own births. I guess I'll have some cool memories of catching babies and feeling bellies, but that's all I've got to show for all of my hard work. And the real kicker? I won't even fucking graduate! Writing the CMRE or NARM is a grad requirement for my program and since I can't do the CMRE, I won't even graduate unless I pay to write the NARM and go to the states to do it. I won't even have a worthless piece of paper to put on my wall to show that I'm a trained midwife.
I feel sick. I hardly slept last night. I have to babysit two 5 year-olds before 8 a.m. today. My mom is here, my BIL will be back working on our house, tomorrow is the first anniversary of my Grandpa's death, and this weekend I need to bake Charlotte's birthday cake for her party on Monday. Life goes on.
Without a good paying career in my future, I'll keep trying to get a job at a local bank or lawyer's office with my outdated secretarial training, live and work here to pay for our house and our kids' education. Julia can stop asking me when we're moving. Hopefully I won't be pumping gas when I'm 40.
*tears*
Fuck.Me.
"...your midwifery education does not meet the recommended minimum of 1 year of full time equivalence of clinical experience. Please refer item 3.5.1 of the CMM PLEA Handbook; although your midwifery education meets the required length of program, you are required to complete an additional minimum of 7 ½ months of (full-time equivalent) clinical midwifery experience before being considered as a potential candidate in the Manitoba PLEA process."
So I'm not sure if they are saying that the ASM program through MCU doesn't meet their required clinical hours, or if I didn't complete the required clinical hours. In the PLEA handbook, it says "a recommended minimum of 2400 hours, equivalent to approximately one year of full time clinical study."
Ok, key word: recommended. So, it's recommended, but not required? Then why didn't I get accepted!?
And after doing 9-10 months of clinical with a local physician, 9 weeks at Casa, 6 weeks overall in Utah, and a spattering of experience with a Saskatchewan midwife...I still need 7.5 more months of full-time clinical experience!? And where the hell am I supposed to do THAT!? In the states? Move to Alaska for a year, then apply again?
Oh, right, I can't. Why? Because the CMM isn't doing the PLEA next year, or ever again. Still no clarification if the MMBP is running next year but I assume it will since the CMM says that they are transitioning to the MMBP instead of doing PLEA.
I'm just.....numb.
I feel like a fool. I chose to do my midwifery education this way and it seemed like the best decision at the time. I'm sure if I had finished my education six years ago instead of starting it six years ago, I would be fine. But now that there are more Canadian MEPs, and the Almighty Bridging Program, I'm screwed. My education isn't good enough. So what are my options?
Move to the US for a year or more. Work with an American midwife full-time for at least a year to get my required 7.5 months of clinical experience, plus get enough births to make up for my expired clinical numbers - they're only good for 5 years ya know. So next year, all of my clinical experience starts to expire and won't count for "current" experience. Awesome.
Other option? Apply to Ontario or BC's MEP, pray that I get in, go into tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt to finish a BSM in a Canadian university while living in the one of the two most expensive provinces to live in. I'd be about 43 when I graduated. None of my MCU credits would be recognized, I'm sure. MCU is shit in Canada, plain and simple.
For the past five years, I've busted my ass trying to get clinical experience. I wanted to just immerse myself in clinical work with a Registered Midwife but Alberta wouldn't take an "out of province" student, and the rest of the provinces started refusing to take "foreign" students because of liability insurance issues. And apparently doing short-term placements doesn't meet the required clinical hours, so what else is there to do but move to the US or start over with a Canadian program?
I've wasted so much time and money trying to be a midwife. I've been rejected by PLEA, twice. I can NOT leave my family again, let alone for 8 months! We're going to have a child in university in a couple of years and we certainly can't afford to fund my (repeated) midwifery education while paying for our kids to go through school at the time.
I know that education of any kind is never truly wasted, but like I told Jack, I've had my experiences as a midwife, and I've had midwives for my own births. I guess I'll have some cool memories of catching babies and feeling bellies, but that's all I've got to show for all of my hard work. And the real kicker? I won't even fucking graduate! Writing the CMRE or NARM is a grad requirement for my program and since I can't do the CMRE, I won't even graduate unless I pay to write the NARM and go to the states to do it. I won't even have a worthless piece of paper to put on my wall to show that I'm a trained midwife.
I feel sick. I hardly slept last night. I have to babysit two 5 year-olds before 8 a.m. today. My mom is here, my BIL will be back working on our house, tomorrow is the first anniversary of my Grandpa's death, and this weekend I need to bake Charlotte's birthday cake for her party on Monday. Life goes on.
Without a good paying career in my future, I'll keep trying to get a job at a local bank or lawyer's office with my outdated secretarial training, live and work here to pay for our house and our kids' education. Julia can stop asking me when we're moving. Hopefully I won't be pumping gas when I'm 40.
*tears*
Fuck.Me.