LSBU student shortlisted for national midwifery award
London South Bank University (LSBU) Midwifery student Lisa Cecere has been shortlisted for one of the UK's top maternity prizes, ahead of the Royal College of Midwives' (RCM) Annual Awards.Lisa, currently in the third year of her BSc Midwifery course at LSBU, hopes to return to remote parts of the Peruvian Amazon in time to coincide with their national annual awareness week for safe motherhood. A small hospital in Roman Egoavil Pando in Villa Rica, Pasco Region, has agreed to host her within its maternity services department.
The winners of the Pampers Student Award will be announced in a ceremony at The Brewery, London, on January 22 and will be presented by broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky.
The winner will receive a travel bursary to experience maternity services and midwifery services in a different setting to the one they are familiar with, either in UK or abroad. Lisa is one of three entrants short-listed for the award.
In her entry, Lisa said: "I will gain an insight into maternity services in a low-resourced rural setting, participate in the provision of care to a greatly multicultural population and explore traditional midwifery by interviewing indigenous women of Yanesha and Ashaninka ethnicity living in the communities scattered in the rainforest surrounding Villa Rica."
She added that her Masters in International Development and experience such as in a small hospital in Eritrea will help her to contextualise her amazon trip.
Cathy Warwick, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "I congratulate Lisa on being shortlisted and on her commitment to the profession.
"When student midwives are given the resources, support and freedom to develop their work and learning, the result is empowered midwives and better services, better care and better outcomes for mothers, babies and their families. They are our future."
Carla Berry, communications manager for Pampers UK and Ireland, said: "Pampers is proud to sponsor this award. Through our work with Unicef, we have seen first hand the differences across the globe in terms of midwifery practices. We thought this was a great opportunity for a student to gain experience in a totally different environment to that in which they will be practising and to share their experiences with others."
Earlier in 2013, Lisa was also shortlisted for the Outstanding Student Midwife Award, a scholarship award run by the Cavell Nurses Trust.
"Given the competitiveness that surrounds Midwifery training, I considered myself very lucky in the first place to have managed to secure a place with one of the best providers of Midwifery education in London. I feel so fortunate to be part of my cohort of students.
We are a very diverse group of women both in age and backgrounds and each one of us brings a different interesting angle to the table.
Each and every one of the tutors who have been involved in my training has been competent, friendly and approachable - but most importantly exceptionally dedicated to our learning. Having had academic experiences before, I found the academic environment here to be genuinely supportive."
Lisa Cecere, BSc Midwifery student, speaking about why she chose to study midwifery at LSBU
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