Job summary
Due to the existing post holder retiring, we have a vacancy for an experienced midwife to undertake the role of Antenatal and New born Screening Specialist Midwife. This is a Band 7 post and is 18.75 hours per week (worked over minimum of three days).
This is a pivotal role in ensuring that the maternity service meets the Public Health England standards and Key Performance Indicators in relation to antenatal and new born screening. The post involves working closely with the national team, to ensure that we are offering safe, high quality screening choices and diagnostics to the women of Torbay and South Devon.
Therefore, we are seeking a midwife who has extensive knowledge of all areas of the maternity service, in particular antenatal care, antenatal screening and diagnostics, and new born screening. The successful candidate needs to be educated to Degree level and have good levels of computer literacy, being able to use Excel databases and write reports to a high standard.
Main duties of the job
Co-ordinate and implement processes/systems/fail safes to reduce risk in antenatal and new born screening and to monitor meeting required National Screening standards.
Provide expert clinical leadership in providing support and specialist advice to the multidisciplinary team regarding women with increased screening risk/fetal anomaly. To ensure health professionals are adequately trained to support women undergoing screening.
Empower midwives and MSW by acting as a professional role model, demonstrating best practice and providing support, advice and guidance when required.
Ensure staff are appropriately trained to provide screening information, enable women to make an informed choice and to implement screening tests.
Manage provision of and report on maternity vaccination service
About us
Why Work With Us
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust is a District General Hospital that provides health and social care to patients, service users and their families across South Devon and covers a large geographical area including parts of Dartmoor, Torquay, Brixham and Dartmouth.
The maternity service provides care to approximately 2000 pregnant people and their families each year. Care is provided through 6 fully integrated midwifery teams, with each pregnant person having a named midwife responsible for co-ordinating their care. The midwifery teams are supported by the wider multi-disciplinary team based at Torbay Hospital.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Communication and working relationships
- Engage and lead in clinical meetings for screening services and participate in relevant local, regional and national meetings
- Communicate with people in a form and manner consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating that meets their individual needs. Anticipate barriers to effective communication and take action to improve
- Support the provision of comprehensive information in different formats to ensure women and their families are supported in making an informed decision
- Review and adapt information available to women and ensure that literature is based on nationally accepted standards
- Develop and maintain communication with people about complex matters or difficult situations
- Communicate appropriately with members of the multi-disciplinary team in relation to the care of individual women
- Keep accurate and complete records of all activities and communication consistent with legislation, policies and procedures
- Maintain confidentiality at all times as required by legislation and trust policy
- Actively try to resolve issues and complaints at local level, or ensure clear and concise advice is given to people on the complaints procedures in place (PALS, names and addresses of the senior team etc). In the event of failing to resolve issues and complaints at a local level, report to the appropriate person
- Contribute to the cascade of information to team members e.g. attending team Meetings/ Briefings
- Be an advocate on behalf of others
Planning and organisation
- Lead the implementation and evaluation of systems to ensure that every pregnant woman/ person and newborn baby is offered all appropriate NHS funded screening programmes offered by the Trust within a programme that meets national standards; linking with regionally agreed quality assurance mechanisms
- Lead in the co-ordination of all disciplines within the unit and community setting in all issues relating to antenatal screening provision in the delivery of a recognised standard of care across all areas of maternity services
- Reviewing quarterly maternity screening incident figures and key quality indicators and where necessary formulating remedial plan
- Be aware of national and local policies and initiatives which impact on client and midwifery care e.g. the Trusts Clinical Governance Strategies, for example NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines, and be able to demonstrate their application in practice
- Work closely with public health midwife to ensure provision of maternity vaccinations service
Analytical and judgement
- Take an active part in carrying out Quality Assurance programmes, set by PHE, covering all aspects of quality to ensure that the highest standards are set, monitored and maintained, keeping such records are required
- Manage risk assessment and take appropriate action to minimise risks, in relation to legislation, policies and procedures
- Support others to manage risks effectively
- Draft relevant reports for submission to Public Health England for sign off by Head of Midwifery (or deputy in her absence). This will include an annual report.
Responsibility for patients and client care
- Act as a specialist resource in the field of antenatal & newborn screening and diagnosis, assisting and advising other health professionals in the care of women undergoing testing
- Ensuring the smooth and effective handling of positive screening results in line with current protocols and practices
- Assist in the provision and support of the antenatal screening at a service level, based within the maternity unit and community, having direct responsibility for overseeing the programme at a local level; counselling women and their partners with high chance and positive infection results
- Fulfil the role of the Midwife as described in the Midwives Rules and Code of practice
- Maintain and develop personal competencies and knowledge of relevant issues
- Work clinically in times of need to support the service
Report all accidents and incidents via incident reporting locally and Screening incidents (SIAF) as required if meeting the threshold to Quality Assurance ( QA)
Policy and service responsibility
- Ensure clear policies in place for informing patients of their screening results
- Actively participate in clinical research and audit and encourage others to do the same
- Provide leadership and training to junior staff and will support service development
- Lead in the production and dissemination of standard multidisciplinary guidelines and policies which are evidence based in relation to antenatal and newborn screening
- Lead in the implementation of standards for the screening programmes and lead the local development of the programme in the light of new research and guidance
- Lead in the evaluation of programmes of care through development of audit/monitoring tools to assess efficiency of service provision and quality standards in relation to antenatal and newborn screening
- Participate in the multidisciplinary antenatal and newborn screening governance group
- Report any possible risks or critical adverse incidents arising from the screening programme to the relevant Maternity Governance and Screening Governance Groups and to act and manage them accordingly
- Promote an informal as well as formal process with regard to risk management to ensure that risk assessment is a continuous process and is embedded as part of the normal daily role for all staff
- Promote a blame free culture in reporting incidents and where appropriate initiating a local investigation in a timely manner
Responsibility for finance, equipment and other resources
- Ensure the safe custody and administration of drugs and controlled stationery
- Organise, prioritise and adjust own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality, taking into consideration acceptable staffing levels
- Report any equipment faults appropriately
- Contribute to the implementation and monitoring of quality systems, e.g. national and local benchmarking data
- Work within the limits of own and others competence, levels of responsibility and accountability in the team
- Have budgetary awareness and ensure that resources are used effectively
Responsibility for supervision, leadership and management
- Provide a programme of education, information and support for midwives and other health care professionals involved with antenatal & newborn screening, including effective induction of staff according to the Trusts policies and procedures.
- Undertake mandatory training as per trust policy
- Contribute to the development of others enabling them to make realistic self-assessments and apply their knowledge and skills in practice
- Work in collaboration with the institutes of higher education to enhance learning experiences of students
Information technology and administrative duties
- Ensure the maintenance of accurate records, having due regard for confidentiality, management of information and data protection
- Ensure that data is collated in the most efficient and effective manner to enable the relevant screening Key Performance Indicators to be evidenced
Job description
Job responsibilities
Communication and working relationships
- Engage and lead in clinical meetings for screening services and participate in relevant local, regional and national meetings
- Communicate with people in a form and manner consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating that meets their individual needs. Anticipate barriers to effective communication and take action to improve
- Support the provision of comprehensive information in different formats to ensure women and their families are supported in making an informed decision
- Review and adapt information available to women and ensure that literature is based on nationally accepted standards
- Develop and maintain communication with people about complex matters or difficult situations
- Communicate appropriately with members of the multi-disciplinary team in relation to the care of individual women
- Keep accurate and complete records of all activities and communication consistent with legislation, policies and procedures
- Maintain confidentiality at all times as required by legislation and trust policy
- Actively try to resolve issues and complaints at local level, or ensure clear and concise advice is given to people on the complaints procedures in place (PALS, names and addresses of the senior team etc). In the event of failing to resolve issues and complaints at a local level, report to the appropriate person
- Contribute to the cascade of information to team members e.g. attending team Meetings/ Briefings
- Be an advocate on behalf of others
Planning and organisation
- Lead the implementation and evaluation of systems to ensure that every pregnant woman/ person and newborn baby is offered all appropriate NHS funded screening programmes offered by the Trust within a programme that meets national standards; linking with regionally agreed quality assurance mechanisms
- Lead in the co-ordination of all disciplines within the unit and community setting in all issues relating to antenatal screening provision in the delivery of a recognised standard of care across all areas of maternity services
- Reviewing quarterly maternity screening incident figures and key quality indicators and where necessary formulating remedial plan
- Be aware of national and local policies and initiatives which impact on client and midwifery care e.g. the Trusts Clinical Governance Strategies, for example NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines, and be able to demonstrate their application in practice
- Work closely with public health midwife to ensure provision of maternity vaccinations service
Analytical and judgement
- Take an active part in carrying out Quality Assurance programmes, set by PHE, covering all aspects of quality to ensure that the highest standards are set, monitored and maintained, keeping such records are required
- Manage risk assessment and take appropriate action to minimise risks, in relation to legislation, policies and procedures
- Support others to manage risks effectively
- Draft relevant reports for submission to Public Health England for sign off by Head of Midwifery (or deputy in her absence). This will include an annual report.
Responsibility for patients and client care
- Act as a specialist resource in the field of antenatal & newborn screening and diagnosis, assisting and advising other health professionals in the care of women undergoing testing
- Ensuring the smooth and effective handling of positive screening results in line with current protocols and practices
- Assist in the provision and support of the antenatal screening at a service level, based within the maternity unit and community, having direct responsibility for overseeing the programme at a local level; counselling women and their partners with high chance and positive infection results
- Fulfil the role of the Midwife as described in the Midwives Rules and Code of practice
- Maintain and develop personal competencies and knowledge of relevant issues
- Work clinically in times of need to support the service
Report all accidents and incidents via incident reporting locally and Screening incidents (SIAF) as required if meeting the threshold to Quality Assurance ( QA)
Policy and service responsibility
- Ensure clear policies in place for informing patients of their screening results
- Actively participate in clinical research and audit and encourage others to do the same
- Provide leadership and training to junior staff and will support service development
- Lead in the production and dissemination of standard multidisciplinary guidelines and policies which are evidence based in relation to antenatal and newborn screening
- Lead in the implementation of standards for the screening programmes and lead the local development of the programme in the light of new research and guidance
- Lead in the evaluation of programmes of care through development of audit/monitoring tools to assess efficiency of service provision and quality standards in relation to antenatal and newborn screening
- Participate in the multidisciplinary antenatal and newborn screening governance group
- Report any possible risks or critical adverse incidents arising from the screening programme to the relevant Maternity Governance and Screening Governance Groups and to act and manage them accordingly
- Promote an informal as well as formal process with regard to risk management to ensure that risk assessment is a continuous process and is embedded as part of the normal daily role for all staff
- Promote a blame free culture in reporting incidents and where appropriate initiating a local investigation in a timely manner
Responsibility for finance, equipment and other resources
- Ensure the safe custody and administration of drugs and controlled stationery
- Organise, prioritise and adjust own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality, taking into consideration acceptable staffing levels
- Report any equipment faults appropriately
- Contribute to the implementation and monitoring of quality systems, e.g. national and local benchmarking data
- Work within the limits of own and others competence, levels of responsibility and accountability in the team
- Have budgetary awareness and ensure that resources are used effectively
Responsibility for supervision, leadership and management
- Provide a programme of education, information and support for midwives and other health care professionals involved with antenatal & newborn screening, including effective induction of staff according to the Trusts policies and procedures.
- Undertake mandatory training as per trust policy
- Contribute to the development of others enabling them to make realistic self-assessments and apply their knowledge and skills in practice
- Work in collaboration with the institutes of higher education to enhance learning experiences of students
Information technology and administrative duties
- Ensure the maintenance of accurate records, having due regard for confidentiality, management of information and data protection
- Ensure that data is collated in the most efficient and effective manner to enable the relevant screening Key Performance Indicators to be evidenced
Person Specification
essential
Essential
- Registered Midwife
- Relevant 1st level Degree
- Teaching/mentorship qualification
- Evidence of minimum of 3 years CPD
- Extensive knowledge of all areas of maternity services developed through continuing professional development Extensive knowledge of antenatal care, antenatal screening/diagnostics and newborn screening in the maternity service Excellent presentation, teaching, verbal and written skills. Computer literacy, including experience of working with Excel databases Budget awareness Ability to set and monitor standards
Desirable
- NIPE practitioner
- Extensive knowledge/experience of working with IT data bases. Knowledge/experience of writing reports and business cases
- Experience of working in a high risk Antenatal Clinic and working within a Maternity Assessment Unit Complaints handling experience Vaccination training
Person Specification
essential
Essential
- Registered Midwife
- Relevant 1st level Degree
- Teaching/mentorship qualification
- Evidence of minimum of 3 years CPD
- Extensive knowledge of all areas of maternity services developed through continuing professional development Extensive knowledge of antenatal care, antenatal screening/diagnostics and newborn screening in the maternity service Excellent presentation, teaching, verbal and written skills. Computer literacy, including experience of working with Excel databases Budget awareness Ability to set and monitor standards
Desirable
- NIPE practitioner
- Extensive knowledge/experience of working with IT data bases. Knowledge/experience of writing reports and business cases
- Experience of working in a high risk Antenatal Clinic and working within a Maternity Assessment Unit Complaints handling experience Vaccination training
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
