WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

environment is well described by Campbell (cited by Isa et al., 2002) as “walking on a
tightrope” (p.6). Jane and her colleagues are trying to balance on that tightrope with
potential for disaster with the amount that has to be achieved with the staffing and time
constraints in the delivery suite arena. She goes on to explain:
Other times it’s an appalling board and you think “I’m hardly going to get
through the night, let alone have time to teach a more junior midwife how to be
the coordinator. You just don’t have time, so learning opportunities go out the
window. Other midwives are not going to learn and grow because it’s too busy
and too short staffed.
Jane is multi tasking as the coordinator, as she constantly juggles with ‘what is’ and looks
forward to ‘what might be’. She is anticipating how to fit real and potential scenarios
which constantly reveal themselves into the achievable time frames according to staffing
availability. Time passes on its continuum, never still, with Jane responding accordingly.
She is ‘leaping in’, she is ‘leaping ahead’ and in the midst of this is her knowing that she
needs to ‘make time’ to teach. The concepts of ‘leaping in’ and ‘leaping ahead’ are terms
Heidegger (1927-1962) uses to describe the way a person shows concern for another.
Jane knows the advantages of teaching and the difficulties for colleagues who are put in
positions where they are unprepared, however time will not allow her to teach because
she is constantly encountering new situations she has to manage whilst simultaneously
planning in anticipation of what may lie ahead.
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