A voice to opening doors : the place of undergraduate nursing students in midwifery

Story telling has been used for centuries as a powerful vehicle for communication, facilitating change, allowing marginal groups to have a voice and to address diversity through understanding. This paper is a personal recount of a registered nurse, with no exposure to maternity nursing delivering a baby in the hospital car park. Family, community and media portrayal of the events reflected a perception that all nurses have maternity experience. Whilst this paper recounts a personal journey it also becomes a platform to raise the issue of undergraduate nursing students in the maternity setting. In the tertiary sector there is a constant struggle to secure maternity placements for undergraduate nursing students. The literature is replete with examples where exposure to a speciality area is enough to entice the learner to want to undertake further studies in the area. The paper will pose the challenge of midwives opening their doors so that general undergraduate nursing students can be exposed to this profession. Such exposure may then allow midwifery to be seen as a postgraduate option. The paper will address the benefits, the challenges and ultimately some strategies that may enable doors to open and voices heard.