Dear Bonitta,
I am one of the Lecturers in Middlesex University - North LONDON.
>From last August, I ran a 17 weeks Return to Midwifery
Programme for staff who have been out of Practice in UK for more
than five years.
Students in this Programme are from different parts of the world.
Some were practitioners from Australia, some had practiced in
Saudi-Araibia, South Africa. Inffact I have inquiries from Canada.
One of the problems was being able to organise the programme to
meet the specific needs of each student. As our philosophy is that
our students are adults with previous experience, knowledge and
skills to help them adapt to the new environment. Another problem,
is getting the clinical staff to understand the needs of these
students. May be, they only need to know what the local policies
are, the whys of specific approachs, which may be different from
where they came from. Some times the equipment in use is new
to them, different or out of date etc.
I feel that all concerned need to exercise more patience during the
preliminary interviews, in order to find out where the applicants are
coming from, what they know, their level of the knowledge base,
skills, expertise. This will help educationist to plan effectively. The
effective use of link lecturers, clinical co-ordinators for quality
experience goes a long way, to make new commers to a different
culture feel welcome!
I shall be visiting America this weekend for Chrismas and New
Year period. If you want further conversation on this, respond to
this message by tomorrow morning and I will give you an EMail in
Huston Texas to contact me on.
All the best with you work ,
Cheers,
Bridget I. Okereke
Bridget.I.Okereke,
Midwifery Education Department,(Sen.Lecturer).
Middlesex University,
10 Highgate Hill,
London N19 5NF
0181 362 6020
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