Hi all!

I am a registered midwife and I currently work in an incredibly busy and large teaching hospital in Birmingham, UK. The hospital I work in is constantly short staffed and so work can be incredibly stressful.

I would love to hear of any midwifes who have emigrated to Australia and their opinions of work in Oz. I am particularly considering applying to the Mater Mothers hospital, Brisbane due to their generous relocation allowances but I am concerned that such a large hospital will mean my job will prove as stressful as my job here. Does anybody have any advice on what I should do???

Thanks for the help...

 

hello fellow midwife

I worked in a busy NHS hospital in Manchester before emigrating to Brisbane to a private hospital, its completely different in the private setting, its not mad busy , but it is run on lots of agency and casual pool staff, most have a contract, obviously the dr does the delivery and at first I was a bit miffed and felt I was becoming deskilled but now I enjoy the fact that the obstetrician has the responsibility, he deals with the problems and I provide other sorts of care, emotional etc.
I have friends in the public system, Royal womens , and mater in bris. Its just like uk, busy and stressful, but that is balanced out by keeping your autonomy as a midwife, depends what you want I suppose. The good thing is here you can come over on your visa at the Mater and go casual or agency at the other hospitals in bris and try before you buy! theres loads of work ,its definately a job seekers market, you can choose your hours and days because they will want you so much especially having all that experience in the Uk.
I feel oz has a lot of updating to do in terms of best practise guidelines, so with your experience, you are able to initiate change where you work.
women who deliver in private hospitals don't get any community midwife visits so are basically discharged without any follow up, so there is a real thirst for postnatal support, breastfeeding, anything basically to get women and babies together, its a great opportunity to start your own business if you are that way inclined!
Good luck and will help you any way I can, theres lots of jobs at Sunnybank Private Hospital, about 120 deliverys a month, great obs and paeds to work with!!:biggrin:

 

Thanks for the reply fellow midwife, very informative

Regards x