This Assistant Practitioner role has been designed to work alongside midwives at the frontline of a family’s journey through pregnancy, childbirth and into parenthood. You will be a champion for women and families – valuing them, challenging them and inspiring change. Helping women navigate across the health and social care landscape and listening to them – recognising when a woman/birthing person and/or her family is in need, or at risk. By being truly holistic and family-centred, this role will take account of the values and preferences of women/birthing people and their families and support shared decision-making for aspect of the maternity care journey within the Assistant Practitioner (Maternity) scope of practice.
We are looking for enthusiastic and innovative individuals who can share our vision for the future of our community midwifery service. You will be passionate about providing client centred one to one care and support to parents, which may often involve a variety of complex needs.
As part of this innovative team you will be involved in service development and improvement projects and have the opportunity to share these, working alongside other agencies.
If you have the drive and and passion to make a contribution to the community midwifery team as we strive to improve the services and outcomes for parents, this may be the opportunity for you.
Main duties of the role - see attached Job Description and person specification for further details.
With over 19,000 staff, we are one of the biggest employers in the city with a central role in supporting the health and wellbeing of our local population. We play a leading role in research, education and innovation.
Come and join our wonderful team at NUH. We are big believers in diversity and welcome new ideas to help develop our team in order to deliver world class healthcare to the vast patient populations we serve. With endless personal development opportunities available, at NUH we will endeavour to turn your job into a career!
We particularly welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, or Disabled, as we are striving to be better represented at NUH.
This Assistant Practitioner role has been designed to work alongside midwives at the frontline of a family’s journey through pregnancy, childbirth and into parenthood. You will be a champion for women and families – valuing them, challenging them and inspiring change. Helping women navigate across the health and social care landscape and listening to them – recognising when a woman/birthing person and/or her family is in need, or at risk. By being truly holistic and family-centred, this role will take account of the values and preferences of women/birthing people and their families and support shared decision-making for aspect of the maternity care journey within the Assistant Practitioner (Maternity) scope of practice.
This Assistant Practitioner role has been designed to work as part of our multi-disciplinary team to focus on the NHS CORE20PLUS5approach. This aims to reduce healthcare inequalities for the most deprived 20% of the national population, as identified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). The IMD has seven domains with indicators accounting for a wide range of social determinants of health. Maternity is one of the five clinical areas of focus in the CORE20PLUS5that require accelerated improvement for women/birthing people from the global majority (Black Asian and minority ethnic communities) and from the most deprived groups. These include: people experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol dependence, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, sex workers, people in contact with the justice system, victims of modern slavery and other socially excluded groups.
CORE20PLUS5also highlights that the most deprived population groups have the highest smoking rates. Smoking is the leading modifiable risk factor for poor birth outcomes including; low birth weight, heart defects, miscarriage, pre-term birth, stillbirth and sudden infant death. Latest figures for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire indicate that 13% of birthing parents were still smoking on the day their new baby was born (1,298 women annually).
You will work within a team, overseeing a caseload of women/birthing people and their babies and be delivering direct care across the antenatal and postnatal phases of care focusing on the CORE20PLUS5approach. You will be enabled to use your enhanced training and clinical skills, within the scope of practice for Assistant Practitioners (Maternity). This will include scope to manage Assistant Practitioner (Maternity) led clinics for routine observations e.g. blood pressures, urine sampling and repeat blood tests.
You will also have opportunities to share your expertise in public health prevention and promotion with families, including smoking cessation, infant feeding etc. and participate in parent education and preparation sessions. You will use appropriate mechanisms to facilitate engagement and involvement of pregnant women/people and their families in their maternity care journey. This will include providing specialist information individually and to families to make changes to achieve healthier lifestyles.
This role will be daytime only from Monday to Sunday, including bank holidays. In the future, opportunities to attend homebirths as a second attendant to a registered midwife may evolve. If this is something you would be interested in, it will require you to be flexible and able to participate in 24-hour shift patterns, contributing to the delivery of an out-of-hours, on-call rota to meet the needs of the service as required.
We aim to enable you to bring your best self to work everyday and operate at the top of your scope of practice by: supporting women/birthing people and their families; delivering public health promotion and prevention activities; using your personal and clinical skills effectively; and creating safe environments.
TYPICAL CLINICAL DUTIES FOR ASSISTANT PRACTITIONERS (MATERNITY) IN THE CARE OF WOMEN/BIRTHING PEOPLE AND NEWBORNS
· Ability to assist midwives and other registered pracititioners during obstetric emergencies and neonatal resuscitation procedures
· Can safely perform routine maternal observations including venepuncture, cannulation and capillary blood sampling in line with local policy and guidance
· Assist in the transportation of blood products and is aware of safe storage requirements
· Assist in the maintenance and understand the principles of good bladder care including; removal of catheters; disposal of equipment following infection control policies; and can accurately document fluid balance
· Ability to undertake routine Carbon Monoxide monitoring, interpret readings and discuss smoking behaviours with women/birthing people and their families using Very Brief Advice (VBA) principles
· Recognises the importance of supporting physical and emotional health and Make Every Contact Count ( by actively encouraging women/birthing people and their families to talk about their health and wellbeing e.g. developing a personalised care and support plan
· Recognise any deterioration in mental and emotional wellbeing and respond appropriately, making relevant referrals or escalating to a midwife or other appropriate registered practitioner
· Ability to support and prepare people for parenthood, including antenatal education, infant feeding, skin-to-skin, bonding with a newborn infant, discussing the principles of ICON and safe sleeping
· Ability to perform routine postnatal newborn checks and observations, escalating any deviations from the normal range in an appropriate and timely manner to a midwife or registered practitioner
· Ability to observe the overall wellbeing of the newborn and escalate any concerns to a midwife or registered practitioner
· Ability to undertake accurate newborn weight measurements, calculate weight changes, initiate and/or review infant feeding plans in line with local guidelines and escalate to a midwife or other appropriate registered practitioner in a timely manner
· Ability to perform neonatal blood sampling including tests such as newborn blood spot screening and serum bilirubin ratio (SBR)
· Ability to use a transcutaneous bilirubinometer, interpret/plot readings and escalate for further testing if an SBR is required.
· Capability to initiate routine transfer of care to Health Visitors/Public Health Nursing Service
This advert closes on Sunday 8 Sep 2024