Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families groups and communities sick and well in all settings.
The General Nursing & Midwifery (GNM) course is basically the diploma course in nursing. The GNM holders are considered as diploma holders and are hired in certain job roles in hospitals and nursing homes.
Roles and Responsibilities of a GNM Nurse
The roles and responsibilities of the nurses varies according to their qualification. The GNM qualified nurses are mainly expected to perform normal nursing functions in maternity hospitals and maternity nursing homes. The job roles are formulated according to their designations.
The GNM nurses are hired at various positions, let's discuss few of them in detail in the present article
Midwife
Midwives provide care and support to women and their families while pregnant, throughout labour and during the period after a baby’s birth. The midwives basically deal with the pregnant women requiring professional support and advice. As a midwife one is likely to be the lead professional and contact for women. She has to provide evidence-based information and help her make informed choices about the options and services available throughout her pregnancy.
As a midwife one will be an expert on child birth and roles of a midwife are:
- Provide full antenatal care, including parenting classes, clinical examinations and screening
- Identify high risk pregnancies
- Monitor women and support them during labour and birthing process
- Teach new and expectant mothers how to feed care for bathing their babies
- The midwife is responsible to support the new mother and baby throughout her stay in hospital
Midwives basically work in:
- Postnatal wards
- Labour wards
- Maternity suites
- Delivery suites
- Midwifery led units
Maternity Support Worker
The Maternity Support Workers assists midwives in caring for women and their babies through the vital stages of pregnancy, childbirth and the first few days of birth. As a maternity support worker, one will work under the supervision of a registered midwife. They are usually known as Maternity healthcare support workers or MSWs.
As a Maternity Support Worker, one is required to:
- Help the mothers and babies with care and affection
- Making routine observations (temperature, pulse, blood breathing, etc)
- Updating records and other admin tasks
- Educating parents one-to-one or in groups
- Taking blood samples for testing
- Ordering stationery and equipment
- Preparing equipment
- Promoting breastfeeding
- Reporting the observations to midwife or a nurse
Maternity Support workers typically work in:
- Postnatal wards
- Labour wards
- Maternity suites
- Delivery suites
Auxiliary Nurses (Non-maternity)
Sometimes the General Nursing & Midwifery (GNM) nurses are hired as Auxiliary Nurses in some hospitals. The Auxiliary Nurses work in both public and private hospitals and health care institutions. The role of an auxiliary nurse is to assist the qualified nurse practitioners in administering care to patients. Auxiliary nurses are often referred as health assistants.
Some of the responsibilities of an Auxiliary Nurse are:
- Ensure the patients are kept as comfortable as possible
- He/she is required to wash and dress incapacitated patients
- He/she is responsible to feed patients at meal times
- As an auxiliary nurse one is responsible to help the patients who have disability in walking
- He/she are also required to take care of elderly patients
- As an auxiliary nurse one is also required to assess patient’s health conditions by taking temperatures, measuring weight and assessing respiration levels, assess blood pressure levels
Auxiliary Nurses typically seen working in:
- Emergency Wards
- Hospital Suites
- General wards
- Post operation wards
Why are GNM Nurses hired by specific health care institutions?
The General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) nurses are typically hired in some specific positions in hospitals and nursing homes. The GNM nurses are hired for their expertise especially in maternity homes and hospitals that take care of the pregnant women and new mothers and newborn babies.
Let’s discuss some of the important topics that are studied by General Nursing and Midwifery Course students
| Topics | Description |
|---|---|
| Anatomy and Physiology |
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| Microbiology |
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| Psychology |
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| Sociology |
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| Fundamentals of Nursing |
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| First Aid |
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| Personal Hygiene |
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| Midwifery and Gynaecological Nursing |
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| Paediatric Nursing |
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As the above syllabus mentioned the General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) students will specifically study in-depth about the maternal and neonatal subjects. This makes them as specialised professionals who have in-depth knowledge of maternity and neonatal medical care.
Further Studies for General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) students
The General Nursing and Midwifery students have better options if they are interested in higher studies. The advantage of higher studies is that the GNM students will get better knowledge and also can expect good roles with good pay scales in hospitals.
Some of the courses available for General Nursing & Midwifery (GNM) students are:
- B.Sc Nursing
- Post Basic BSc Nursing
- M.Sc Nursing
- PhD Nursing
Conclusion
As a General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) one can see a varied job opportunity in hospitals. Specific knowledge enables them to work in specific sectors of the medical field, to be specific is maternity and neonatal care. There are some instances where the GNM professionals are hired for different areas apart from maternity and childcare.
The General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) professionals are required to be empathetic and compassionate towards new mothers and also pregnant mothers. The students who have the interest to treat and help the pregnant women can choose to join the GNM course.