Category: Digital

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A midwifes role in the maternity theatre – support from managers

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Here it is my blog aimed at NHS managers and fundholders of maternity services – time to explain a few home truths. MORE support is required for midwives in the operating theatre from upper NHS management in order to facilitate and maintain SkinToSkin contact between mothers , fathers and babies .

A few reasons the midwife may have for leaving theatre include : –

  • To check the placenta
  • To take blood gases
  • To obtain documentation from a printer (which is not actually in the operating theatre)
  • To complete digital or written records
  • To register the birth

Let’s look at it another way – if an operating department practitioner said to a midwife “I just need to nip out for a few minutes can you step in for me for a few minutes and help the anaesthetist? ” how would a midwife feel ? How often does this happen ? Never !!

We must respect each another’s professional competencies and abilities and not take advantage of any given situation . The operating theatre is governed by health and safety due to the highly clinical nature of its environment . Midwives are selling themselves short by trying to manage their workload instead of questioning why they need more support .

We must deal with the root cause which is midwives leaving theatre to complete routine tasks (when they should be staying with women and babies)

The symptom is the fear of other staff in theatre of caring for the dyad , the woman’s fear at being unable to speak out that she’s scared of holding her baby during her operation or procedure .

The midwife has a professional responsibility for the mother and her newborn as set out in the NMC code of conduct and The NMC Standards for Competence for Registered Midwives

I’d also like to refer to these key parts of the NMC code which seem to address care of the dyad in theatre so well .

If you are a manager support your midwives by auditing the reasons why a midwife might leave a woman in theatre for any length of time and address that issue with the multidisciplinary operating theatre team – there will be solutions and the solutions will improve care , safety , women’s and families experience of care in the operating theatre and well as giving midwives immense job satisfaction, plus enabling team cohesiveness – what more could you ask for ?

I am challenging all line managers to go into the operating theatre and watch the midwife – how can you make it better for the midwife and therefore the dyad ?

Keep on keeping on

Thank you for reading my blog

Please leave your comments as I appreciate all feedback

Jenny ❤️

Being bullied, Being busy as a midwife, Birth, Change management, Courage, culture in nhs, data colllection, Digital, Discharge planning, Giving information, Hospital, Human kindness, Kindness, Labour , birth, Labour and birth, leadership, Midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery and birth, Motherhood, New parents, NHS, NHS Systems and processes, Obstetrics, organisational development, Student Midwives, Working from the heart

Does the NHS need to rethink the way health professionals are made to approach their work ?

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It’s been a while since my last blog. This post is to help those in the NHS whatever their role or position to consider that positive individuality makes for a better NHS . In embracing positive individuality all care will improve , status quo will be rocked and the NHS will develop doing things differently within your workplace.

Predictive text steps in as you type on your phone . Wikipedia have a link about predictive text CLICK HERE and surprisingly personal data in the way we write and assemble sentences means that each device is personalised to the user . This has set my brain off thinking that actually we are all diffferent generally. Sadly NHS management would like us to work in the same way a sort of “predictive” way of working . However humans are unpredictable that’s just how we are made. Are personalities and individualism therefore disregarded ? Let’s take for example shift work – some Trusts have a better family and also life friendly approach to staff . The Kings trust have researched that staff who are cared for and well-engaged make for a more successful NHS – that in turn has a positive effect on the people being cared for .

Midwifery cannot be like predictive text eg this is the way we do it , this is the length of time you need to help a woman, new offspring & partner postnatally before transfer to the ward and so on .

It’s time for managers to realise that each woman is as individual as the midwife who is “WITH” her . An acceptance that “this is the way that Midwife B works . Each midwife’s Way of working is in fact data. The midwife who spends longer explaining to the family who are going home (eg explaining symptoms of wellness , symptoms of illness , to contact the labour ward not the emergency department for advice , self care , and current evidence) is perceived as slower but in fact this is the midwife who probably is more thorough and probably a perfectionist who raises awareness in the women and families she meets .

If you ever get told you’re too slow – don’t take it as an insult take it as a compliment

You are dedicated , perceptive, compassionate, thorough and you promote self awareness to women and families

Keep on keeping on

Sending love to all the THOROUGH midwives nurses and other health care professionals out there in the NHS

Love , as always

Jenny ❤️

Children, culture in nhs, data colllection, Digital, freedom of information, Hospital, human resources, Labour , birth, leadership, Media, Midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery and birth, Motherhood, NHS, NHS Systems and processes, Obstetrics, occupational health, organisational development, parents, Patient care, soeaking out, staff allocation, Student Midwives

Raising perceptions of midwifery ©️

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This is a current drive in the NHS so I’ve decided it’s time for me to blog about it .

We are often told as midwives that it’s not about working harder but working smarter .

I’d like to try and find out if there is data collected about individual Trusts . The data would perhaps identify times when staffing was low , what the risks were to the women and the pattern of incident reports on those occasions . I also suggest that all maternity units have a duty of care to their staff to maintain accurate , exact records on how women are allocated to midwives, midwives individual workloads and time spent on NHS computers for work and personal use – this should be reviewed on a monthly basis and as part of FOI be available to the public . Do NHS Trusts that are using their own full time maternity staff to supplement staff absence and sickness assess the wellbeing of those staff? Is there a collaboration with occupational health , organisational development and Human Resources departments to review whether or not satisfactory and timely breaks were given. When this is quantified does it identify a distinct association with lack of breaks , working unpaid overtime , poor culture and is there a correlation with staff sickness and absence ?

it’s time now to look at the bigger picture and collect data on these topics as well as birth statistics , outcomes , morbidly and mortality .

Thank you for reading

Yours in midwifery love

Jenny ❤️