In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be starting a new job, in a new hospital far far away from where I trained. I feel this will be my first proper job as a newly qualified midwife.  There will be no previous mentors to hold my hand and no tiptoeing around me.Â
I'm quite nervous, not about doing the job (I did three years training for that) but entering into a new and well established group of doctors, midwives, HCA’s, managers, the list goes on. And most of all their unspoken rules, which can't be found on the NMC website, or in the NICE guidelines, the unwritten norms that I will just have to learn as I go along.
The thing is I know this experience will change me and although these emotions feel out of my control. Â I choose to take back this control and, if your going through anything similar, just started a new course, changing jobs or changing wards. Â Change is change, the only thing constant is change. Â So heres are a few tips I'm using to get through it.
You do not know everything; being wrong and strong helps no one, including yourself. Just like any other job there will be days when you need a little guidance, and there will be days when the demands of the case outweigh your knowledge and experience.  There are three types of knowledge, and one of them is saying ‘I don’t know’, saying ‘I don’t know’ can sometimes save a woman’s life.Â
Whatever happens, you can do this.  Some days will be bad and some days will be good. Either way you can do this, they wouldn’t have given you the job if you couldn’t, nor the degree, or the pin number. All these things say you can :)
You will not get on with everyone and that’s just life.  It is important to accept there will be some confrontations - and to remain calm during these confrontations - and most of all not taking it personally (unless it is personal!). But it’s also important to stick up for yourself when needed. There’s nothing worse than working with a bunch of midwives who think they can walk all over you.Â
Speak up when necessary and shut up when not.  It is important to teach others how you want to be treated.  But remember people always talk, they HAVE always talked and WILL always talk. Sometimes you just got to throw your hands in the air and keep it moving regardless.
The work environment will not define you because you are also mum/dad, wife/husband, sister/brother and friend. You cannot carry the world’s problems, even though you may try. There will be days where we will be challenged and over worked. It’s up to you, when you have less than a perfect day, to leave that ‘ism’ at the hospital. Work is work and home and is home.
Everything is not always going to be perfect. The grass is not always greener on the other side, half the time it looks that way because it’s fertilised with bullshit. It is important you be, the best you can be. And most of all take care of your woman, to the best of your ability. Some days will be good and some days will be not so good. All is not lost, tomorrow is another day.
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