What’s the Difference Between a Nurse and a Midwife?
While most people know the basic differences between midwives and nurses, things can get a little confusing when you’re considering a new career. We explore the main differences in this post.
Midwives Explained
A trained midwife works with pregnant women and helps them deliver their babies. Their training and qualifications are geared specifically towards this line of work. Typically, a midwife won’t also work in a range of other specialised medical fields like a nurse.
Midwife Training
As a general rule, the following is required when training to become a midwife:
- A degree in midwifery
- Alternatively, a general nursing course followed by a midwifery course
Nursing Work
A nurse can work in a broad range of different medical scenarios and has the training to deal with all of them. A labour and delivery nurse can help the obstetrician during a delivery, but wouldn’t typically perform the whole process.
Nurse Training
Most nurses have the following training and qualifications:
- A full nursing course
- A degree in nursing
- UK licensing exams for nursing
Final Thoughts
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