Category: organisational development

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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 ❤️

Being busy as a midwife, Birth, Compassion, Courage, culture in nhs, Giving information, Helping others, Hospital, Human kindness, Kindness, Labour , birth, Labour and birth, leadership, Midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery and birth, Motherhood, New parents, Newborn, NHS, NHS Systems and processes, Night shifts in the NHS, Obstetrics, organisational development, shift handover, Student Midwives, Working from the heart

This is the way it’s always been – Labour ward night shift to day shift handover NHS ❤️

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You may find yourself on a NHS Labour ward at approximately 7am one morning . Everyone is assembling for morning handover . Over the shoulders is being lifted up into bobbles and held back by clips. Pens, hand-creams, mints , note books , mini hand gels all squeezed into powerful pockets. The “not allowed” mobiles are hidden from plain sight “just in case my son/daughter’s school need me” or to “google something”

Some night shift midwives sit in the office desperate to get home – they look worn out and you want to hug them saying “you will go home on time” but you know it’s a lie Other midwives are out of sight – they remain “with woman” in rooms praying that the handover will go smoothly with minimal interruptions. They want the transition from one midwife to another to be compassionate, woman centred, slow and not hurried .

“Don’t forget the midwife on the birth centre – the woman she’s midwifing is in the pool and about to give birth any minute” says the maternity support worker as she leaves . “Has that Midwife had a break?” – “Not sure” comes the reply.

Drs hang around to chip in with their findings and recommendations as well as chomping on leftover unappetising snacks from the tea trolley. The wheeled aluminium “redeployed” dressing trolley cocoons several slices of curled up toast covered with re solidified butter and cups of cold tea in a hard steel exterior as if to say “this wasn’t my original job”

Seats are hard to come by and woe betide the future midwife who gets a chair before a senior Midwife . Some staff arrive late and hide just behind the door pretending they’ve been there all along – but they did go home late last night . Not one manager in sight .

There are comments circulating “I didn’t leave until 10pm last night!! ” “I’ve only had one day post nights now I’m back on days” “my son is poorly but I’ve sent him to school” “how is ***** in room 2?” “who is in theatre ?”

The labour ward lead’s face demands silence – report starts 3 minutes late – you can taste the angst .

The night staff are supposed to finish their shift approximately 15 minutes after the day shift start theirs . The night shift rarely leave on time and luckily someone has the foresight to recognise that the maternity support workers can go home as their reinforcements have arrived to take over – they like the new shift midwives and Drs smell of new freshly applied deodorant . Many perfumes and aftershaves mingle and brighten up the stale office air. The virtual RHS of the NHS in one tiny space.

Now do the math -for one lead Midwife to hand over the cases and care of 8-16 women to the other in just 5 minutes (depending on the different labour wards in the nhs ) so that the day team can split and go to their allocated families, THEN have another more detailed handover (but VERY similar in principal to the one in the handover room) is nigh on impossible- in fact it is INCROYABLE.

So many night staff leave late – some have many miles and hours to drive or travel in a post nights shift state of mind in order to reach the comfort of their own slumber stations. Some wisely choose to pay to sleep in hospital accommodation as they daren’t risk driving. Others travel as they don’t want to be away from home , they need to be up at 2.30pm to collect their children or their children’s children from school and then possibly cook dinner then prepare themselves for their third or fourth night shift .

Staff leave but not before putting their “time owing” in the designated book – it’s not paid you see – even thought leaving late is beyond their control . This is the NHS

So what’s the solution ? I’m not sure there even is one. If you compare the way office workers start their day there is a great disparity happening between humans who work.

It’s about time staff handover had a shake up – be punctual, be succinct , keep your opinions out of report , respect ALL. Allow each midwife to handover each women / family she/he is caring for with the back up of a written SBAR and encourage the lead midwife to take a step back . Someone somewhere must have an idea ??

It’s a handover state of mind .

We are all leaders

Thank you for reading

My thoughts

Jenny The M ❤️©

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 ❤️