Midwifery students praised for completing pilot Internship at Wexford Maternity Unit

Two Midwifery students have completed a 36 week internship as part of a pilot midwifery internship practice placement at Wexford Maternity Unit in conjunction with the UCD School of Nursing and Midwifery.

January 2025 saw the commencement of the two midwifery internship placements for Sarah Hayden and Marta Bustamante and the pair marked the completion of their 36 week internships at Wexford General Hospital recently.

Historically, all midwifery students at UCD completed their internship at the National Maternity Hospital. But, through collaborative efforts and foresight between the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems UCD and Wexford Maternity Unit, both Sarah and Marta were afforded the opportunity to complete this 36 week internship in Wexford Maternity Unit.

Both midwives were delighted to have been able to complete this internship in Wexford Maternity Unit. They said: “Staying locally enabled us to engage with our families and social support systems, which supported us during this intense period of training while promoting learning and reducing the need for long commutes to and from the hospital.

Laura Egan, Maternity Clinical Placement Co-ordinator, said: “We are encouraging people in the South East region who are considering Midwifery to go ahead with their studies, as this internship affords them the opportunity to undertake part of their training more locally.”

“This internship allowed both Sarah and Marta to live with their families and helped lessen the costly fees associated with commuting and/or renting while staying close to their support network. It also had a significant positive impact on them both during this intensive 36 week period”.

Dr Paula Cornally, Programme Director, Midwifery BSc, UCD said: “The UCD Midwifery team were delighted to be able to commence an internship with Wexford General Hospital (WGH) this year. Wexford Maternity unit and UCD Midwifery have an established relationship for students practice placements in year one, two, and three of their midwifery programme. The development of this internship site means that WGH now provides placement opportunities at all stages of the programme. We look forward to continuing to work with Wexford Maternity unit and would like to thank all the staff who continue to support the students to complete their programme”.

It is hoped to further expand and offer more practice placements to midwifery students in Wexford Maternity Unit and support UCD to increase undergraduate midwifery student placements, with continued funding provided for intern midwife posts at Wexford Maternity Unit from the Department of Health.