From Coder . . . To Midwife

The Age

Saturday October 20, 2007

Victoria Gurvich

Eti Tamir, 44, is not afraid of change. The former computer programmer has moved countries and loves her role helping new mothers.

Born in Israel, Eti Tamir's two years of army service included being a commander of men who were in their initial army training, and she was an education and female affairs officer.

Her army service kept her fit, exposed her to management and she "had this very important sense of being involved completely in a project".

Ms Tamir then pursued an interest in computer technology by completing a software engineering diploma in the 1980s and became a programmer.

She stayed in the software development industry, on and off, for 13 years and says the field is different to how it is often perceived - it is not just "sitting with your computer".

"It's a lot about working in teams, with people, designing things together," she says, and she found it to be great fun. In 1999, Ms Tamir and her family moved to Melbourne after she was offered an IT contract here.

After going through her own pregnancies and deliveries - her daughters are now aged nine and seven - Ms Tamir considered this to be such an exciting time that it was to act as a trigger for her career change. In 2003 and 2004, she studied nursing at La Trobe University, with a view to becoming a midwife.

Her biggest challenge in studying nursing was attending an English-speaking university, but having completed a degree in philosophy and psychology in Israel in the 1990s, she felt quite accustomed to study.

Ms Tamir has worked as a nurse in a small private hospital, at the Austin Hospital and is now working in the maternity ward at the Box Hill Hospital. She is also undertaking a graduate diploma midwifery course at RMIT University and is due to become a qualified midwife in December.

Ms Tamir says the only thing she might have done differently was to move into nursing sooner.

"People keep saying what a big (career) change, but it's (still) about working with people," she says. "As a nurse and a midwife, you work as a team. You educate people. You interact with people at a time that's crucial in their life. It's more meaningful to me than computers, when I felt I was playing with something. I miss the computer industry, but I still use computers in my work."

And Ms Tamir is relishing the chances to help make a difference. "And I am happy to educate my daughters about change and not to fear change," she says.

"It's not always easy but if you are not afraid to face difficulties, you know that you can do anything." -- VICTORIA GURVICH

© 2007 The Age

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