Dear readers
well here I am, back in the blogging world. It has been a long time since my last post, I tried once in June but it never made it to publication. The reason? it has been hard for me to to write since coming back to Canada In March. First I think it was because everything was so raw, and then it was because I was walking through this counter culture fog and I do believe some miner depression. Basically, I have felt terribly uninspired. But I am now determined to put type to virtual paper.
Since being back in the Great North, my main goal has been to pass my entry level Midwifery exam, which I do through North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) the exam is typically know among us students therefore as The NARM. This process has not been easy. Following is the story of mine returning to The Ranch and and struggling with the "simple" task of an application.
I came back in March whereupon I celebrated my 25th birthday with my family, absolutely wonderful!! The month of April threw me right back into farm life, delivering baby lambs at all hours among other lambing activities. In May I continued to work 5-6 days a week for my brother on the ranch. The end of April our family welcomed a new baby to the family and I got to help my brother and sister-in-law for the first few days after my precious niece's birth, which I completely loved!! From there I headed straight to the States where I interned for a month under a very skilled midwife. I got to catch 10 babies while I was there thus completing my clinical training (As par a new rule by NARM I needed to catch ten babies in North America before I could apply for the exam) I learned so much in those five weeks, it was really incredible.
I returned to the Ranch in July after stopping off on the island to visit my other brother and sister in law and my two nieces there, very precious days.
I then started cleaning the B&B for my mom and studying in my spare time. I decided that I should study for awhile first before applying for the exam, and anyway I still needed to get my adult and infant CPR which I was waiting to do in August. Then I decide that to get some extra money I would try my hand at selling homemade pies at the Saturday farmers market. I wasn't sure if it was going to fly or not but I had always wanted to try it. Turned out it was pretty successful and kept me financially stable throughout the summer.
As I entered August I decided that I better start gathering my stuff together to get ready to send to National College to get approved to take my exam.(there are two application processes; one to National college for permission to take the exam and one to NARM to take the exam) so I slowly begin the process, again in no rush as I wanted to be sure I was getting enough studying done. It took me awhile to find the right checklist to look at but I seemed to finally get a proper list and then I see it, or them. I found three documents that needed to have signatures from my preceptors, two from the midwife in the states and one from the midwives in the Philippines. And Thus starts my bumpy journey to application.
So I start panicking and get extremely frustrated with myself because I missed and messed up. I somehow how was not with it enough it figure out everything I needed signed and had honestly thought I had taken care of everything up to that point. I also find out that although National college could care less if signature are photocopied NARM needs to have original signatures! which means that for two of the documents I could email the document to my preceptors but they could not scan and email back, they needed to mail it back to me the old fashioned way. which isn't that bad for the US Midwife as she only lives in Washington but for the Philippines it is quite the big deal. To top it all off one of the documents was so important that I was worried my ten births would not count in the USA! however National college helped me sort all that out, and I sent off the documents, two to the South and one to the far side of the world. For the document from the Philippines to be sent back to me it costs 100 dollars.
I wish I could give you exact dates but alas I did not write it all down. However I do know that I took my CPR and first Aid on August 17th, sometime after that the documents trickled their way back to me. My transcripts were updated and showed the completion of ten birth. But then National college pointed out that there were some items missing. This items however were academics that I knew I had completed under Georiga back in Tabuk. So I messaged to Georiga whom was equally confused by this as she was certain she had sent all information to the school, Nonetheless she scanned and emailed me the academic information which got sent to National college. Finally my transcript and documents seemed to be order.
One fine Fall Morning I went over the checklist just to be sure I had everything. I came across another checklist on the National college website which was organized seemingly well with what would get sent to the college and what (once I was approved for the test) would be sent to NARM for test application. and then I saw it.......... another document that needed my preceptors signatures!! it was the forms for five patients that I had seen through their whole care (referred to as COC forms) they needed to be filled out have my initials and my preceptors. Its hard to describe the feeling when I saw that, I felt sick. and of course it was a form that needed to be sent to NARM which needed original signatures. I called NARM. got a lovely lady and I announced my folly, and yes I do say my folly, these were all things I could have avoided if I had looked at all this five months before!! Anyway the lady on the other end of the phone explained that yes, they do need to have the original signatures on those forms but she suggested that I fill them out, initial them, send them when i send my application into NARM, meanwhile email it to my preceptors, they initial and sign and send that directly to NARM; thus resulting in less mail travel. That day I was so stressed and so mad at myself that I guess I took too many deep breaths to try and relax because i ended up with a sore Trachea. Yes you heard that right, my trachea or windpip was in pain for days after that. I suppose I hyperventilated and the windpip got inflamed or something. I never heard of it happening before but I can't think of another reason for painful windpip. Anyway I came to terms with the document thing and filled out all five forms. I messaged Georgia and explained the situation. Then I scan them onto the computer and just to be sure all my "i's" are doted and "t's" crossed I send one to the lady at NARM to be sure they look okay, she replies that it looks good except I did fill in one little section wrong. So I fill in a whole other set and scan them into the computer. Then they are sent to Georgia in the Philippines. This has all taken a few days and now I am trying to be super thorough so I read through all the lists and am reading through some instructions and see a sentence saying something about how the COC forms don't have be sent in if one sends in the client charts, (with all names and contact information blacked out of course) which I had. so another phone call to NARM and the nice lady says yes that is correct and why don't I just do that as it will save a lot of hassle. I agree. I then gather all my stuff up that I need to send to National College of Midwifery. I get that in the mail and breathed a sigh of relief. Finally I was getting somewhere. Meanwhile I get my charts ready to send to NARM. Now remember there are some things I send to NARM and some to National college and some to both. the client charts were meant to go to NARM whom I could not send anything to until I had gotten approval from my college.
A week or two later I get an email from National College stating that they had received my application but that I was missing two things. One of which was no problem, just another form that somehow didn't get sent so I scanned and emailed that to them. But take a guess what the second one was. The COC forms. the forms that I understood only NARM needed and I had decided to give client charts instead of the forms. (just a note here, I did have written permission from the women of these charts that I could send their information to people like NARM as long as their informaiton was blacked out) So I email them asking if I can send the charts but they tell me to not send charts as they do not want to be responsible for such private documents. Then I call them and say "But on the list it says NARM needs those forms not you!" the gal I talked to, who was very kind, finally responded by "Oh, you're right it does say that, I don't know why, but I so know we need those COC forms." to her credit she comforted me by encouraging that they would help me through this. So I messaged Georgia again saying that I did need those forms signed. Fortunately National college did not need original signatures so they could scan and email a copy to me and then mail the original copy to NARM. (I figured with all the work going into these COCs I might as well use them instead of the charts) It took about a week and half to get those papers signed as some of my preceptors have started jobs at other facilities. But Georgia got it done as fast as she could and mailed it for me (another 90 dollars) I sent those into National College and they quickly told me I was approved to take the exam yahoo!!!!
So I start gathering all of papers and forms to send to NARM. A few days before all this I decided on somewhat of a whim to paint my downstairs room. which was in desperate need of a paint job. On a Friday I go into the bank to get a photo taken of myself (which they need, and at the time I thought it had to be a passport photo) and get a certified cheque from my bank to pay the 1000 USD exam fee. the place where I thougtht I could get a photo was closed. Then I go to the bank and they announce that they no longer to certified cheques. But would a bank draft work. Well on the payments options they only give me three choices, Visa, Certified cheque or money order. Visa would cost me an extra 100 dollars, and I had a recent bad experience with a money order to the states. so I was stuck, and had to delay sending my applicaiton until I could talk to NARM after the weekend. On Monday I call NARM, actually I think they called me after I called and left a message. So the nice lady calls me and we discuss the situation, she listens and i ask if I can use a draft cheque, she explains she will need to talk to her supervisor and treasurer to confirm if they can receive that and will let me know in a few days. Meanwhile I continue to paint. oh yeah did I mentioned I had never painted a room before? Wednesday Night i get an email saying the draft cheque is a go. So Thursday i get the draft cheque. Meanwhile I find out the photo can just be a regular photo so I go and get one printed off at the pharmacy.
The next day I triple check everything, say a prayer and drive to the post office and express post it to Tennessee. That was on November 3rd, and then i wait...and wait...and wait.
I find out everything got there by Wednesday, including the COC forms from the Philippines. which is perfect because they review applications every Thursday. It was Remembrance weekend and family came up, which was great as it distracted me and I got some great aunty time in. Monday there is nothing. Tuesday came, I sent an email to check on the review status. Several hours later I receive an email. It was referring to one of my clinicles; my review had been delayed to check where some of clinicals had taken place, It looked as though some of my cont patients didn't count if they happened in the Philippines after 1/1/16. But all of them had happened in the Philippines! this made no sense to me as I had never been informed of such a thing, only that we needed to complete ten primaries under supervision in the US which I did in June! I replied via email and called, but no answer. then I start freaking out. I texted Ellora and showed her the email, she agreed it made no sense as we had nevor been informed of such a thing. I went for a walk to calm down and have a bit of melt down, crying yelling.....you know, melt down stuff. The ranchers across the river probably thought there was a dying animal somewhere. anyway I actually felt a lot better after that. Next day, I call three times and left a second message. A few hours later I get an email apologizing and stating that they were wrong and misunderstood the rules and that those clinicals did count, Hence my review was to commence the following day. So there was some great relief. weekend came and went, still nothing. Finally today, Tuesday I get an email, stating that everything looks good except for one tiny detail, that she hated to have to even worry about. But I guess on one page on my application I forgot to date it. and that if I wanted my application to be sent into the testing department tomorrow I needed to scan and email a dated copy of that page asap! so I got that done as fast as I could and sent it. I just got an email back stating that I got it in, in time and I should be hearing from the testing department soon. So now I am just praying that I get a test date soon and will be able to study all the right things. I am praying I will get to take the exam in Austin Texes so I can visit Ellora! My next post I will go into some details about the emotions of going and coming
P.S. I finished my room!
Until next time, over and out
thesheepishmidwife
