Delivery Suite Co-ordinator | The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

A Band 7 Delivery Suite Coordinator opportunity now available for a highly motivated and experienced Midwife. The practitioner should be an expert in the assessment, planning, and implementation of all areas of Midwifery care for specific groups of women throughout the childbirth continuum, which facilitates clinical practice development. They will co-ordinate, on a shift-by-shift basis, the delivery suite, including appraisal, rotas, recruitment and selection and the supervision of learners.

The Delivery Suite Co-ordinator will support and lead a team of Midwifery staff in the delivery of evidence-based, woman-centred care in labour which is of a high standard. They are responsible for ensuring all care is delivered according to Trust policies and procedures maintaining associated records. Utilising clinical audit, research, supervision of practice and teaching, they will monitor and improve standards of care by efficient and effective use of resources.

Clinical

• Demonstrate advanced skills in areas such as fetal surveillance; maternal care pathways; maternal and neonatal life support and assessment; management of clinical risk and escalation.
• Provide specialist midwifery expertise as required, drawing on experience, research and evidence-based skills.
• Fully conversant in dealing with complex midwifery problems such as safeguarding issues, in-utero transfers, baby abduction procedures, etc.
• Use leadership skills to ensure the assessment, development and evaluation of care plans in order to co-ordinate the holistic needs of the patients.
• Provide care and support to bereaved patients and their loved ones, midwives will be involved in sensitively supporting bereaved families, supporting their choice and wishes, and supporting other staff undergoing this process.
• Regularly lead shifts and maintain competence to do so and possess the Midwifery skills/competence to undertake labour care, which includes perineal suturing, emergency interventions, timely escalation, referral and review.
• Maintain accurate management records at all times, ensuring appropriate reporting mechanisms are used.

Digital

• Ensure the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation is applied when patient records are accessed.
• Critically examine patient records to identify risks that could impact care and support the team to undertake continual holistic risk assessments.
• Retrieve information from digital systems such as the Maternity Dashboard, to provide safe care, and for audit purposes.
• Ensure digital skills are to a high standard, having the ability to support other staff members.

Technical

• Use technical skills to operate, maintain and elevate faults in medical devices needed to provide safe and effective care.
• Lead/support the team to identify appropriate local medical devices to support safe practice.

Operational Management

• Take measures to ensure the safety of patients, which includes delegation of patient care to midwives with the appropriate levels of skills at all times, adjusting as workload and caseload alters, using developed decision-making skills.
• Ensure that duty rota for the staff will provide effective cover to meet with the requirements of a 24-hour service, leading and effectively implementing the escalation policy for the Maternity Unit.
• Be responsible for the organisation of midwifery care of the patients who have been assigned to the area.
• Escalate concerns to the Maternity Unit Manager and keep them informed of service, staffing, escalation, customer satisfaction, equipment problems, incidents and risk events in a timely manner to enable the cascading of information, elevate it as appropriate or gain assistance from the correct source or give support if required.
• Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the local escalation plan and take personal action to collaborate to make improvements as needed.
• Lead, develop and support collaboratively the development of Health and Safety standards and the monitoring of these standards, ensuring the Trust policies are adhered to, in accordance with The Health and Safety at Work Act.
• Actively promote and implement local equality, diversity, inclusion and social justice (EDISJ) legislation, policies, and processes.
• Assist with staff performance/development/wellbeing/attendance and annual appraisal for Midwifery/Maternity Support Workers/Maternity Care Assistants.
• Deputise for the Ward Manager as requested/required.
• Manage oversight and assurance of equipment checks to ensure a safe and effective birthing environment.
• Support effective financial management by efficient use of equipment and resources to ensure a safe and well-resourced birthing environment.
• Work collaboratively with other Band 7 Midwives to ensure staff allocation is equitable and allows for continuity of care.

Knowledge

• Create a learning culture within the birthing environment so that members of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) can address gaps in practice that impacts safe service delivery.
• Take every opportunity to maintain and improve your professional knowledge and competence.
• Exercise professional judgement and clinical credibility gained from a range of experience obtained within the birthing environment.
• Identify areas for development of skills in line with the local and national guidance to support the provision of safe service.
• Participate in the development and implementation of education and training programmes within maternity, ensuring equity of provision and consistency.
• Develop the role of midwifery within the area, providing training and assessment to extend clinical skills, as appropriate to the area.
• Establish and develop a dynamic and interactive learning environment organising preceptorship and mentorship, which meets the needs of all learners and staff in the ward/department environment.
• Assess, identify and evaluate own knowledge and practice needs in relation to knowledge and skills required to meet the demands of the role.
• Act as a role model by ensuring own actions promote quality and identify and manage any risks.
• Attend all mandatory training to ensure practice is safe and credible.
• Actively seek out opportunities to acquire any additional skills that develop as a result of enhanced practice.
• Work in partnership with women and birthing people whose personalised care plans sit outside of agreed guidelines, supporting the MDT to facilitate choice.
• Critically reflect on individual preparedness for the demands of the role and your impact on others.
• Demonstrate and share knowledge of how local and regional maternity and neonatal systems operate.
• Assess knowledge and gain understanding of how operational delivery networks (ODNs), integrated care systems (ICSs), Local Maternity Neonatal Systems (LMNSs) and regional teams support intrapartum and neonatal care.
• Appraise and implement the principles of human factors when leading the MDT.
• Evaluate knowledge of policies, procedures and processes which influence decision-making and impact safe service delivery.
• Be responsible for the maintenance and improvement of own professional knowledge and competence in keeping with the practice and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) standards laid down by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to ensure continued professional registration and fulfilling revalidation requirements.

Leadership

• Co-ordinate the responsibilities, capabilities and workload of team members, making recommendations on improvements in service as appropriate.
• Provide effective leadership, direction and support to the midwives and support staff within the multi-disciplinary team by effective communication and maintenance of good morale, which includes maximisation of the team contribution to the maternity directorate objectives.
• Evaluate leadership behaviours that affect colleagues’ experiences and well-being fostering a critical awareness of influence on others.
• Support staff to acquire and maintain skills and competencies necessary for their job role.
• Manage hot debriefs immediately after an emergency, ensuring any identified safety actions are implemented and escalated in a timely manner.
• Develop a culture that is flexible and positive to change, where staff feel valued, psychologically safe and where opportunities are actively created for individuals to maximise their potential and excel.
• Act as a resource for staff, advising on national, local and Trust policy and procedures/guidelines, ensuring that clinical governance is embedded in practice.
• Maintain a high clinical profile and facilitate application of theory to practice.
• Be a senior mentor and preceptor to learners, preceptors and all staff groups working closely with education providers.
• Develop the role of midwifery within the area, providing training and assessment to extend clinical skills, as appropriate to the area.
• Lead the resolution of challenging conversations with compassion, integrity, and confidence for service users and colleagues.
• Take action to manage staff performance and behaviour and escalating if needed.
• Positively promote the role of the Labour Ward Coordinator (LWC) and inspire others.

Quality, Governance & Safe Service

• Facilitate a high-quality, cost-effective specialist service through monitoring and audit and other quality initiatives agreed by the Trust and implement recommendations from government, professional bodies, national maternity and neonatal reports, such as Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), Early Notification Scheme, Perinatal Mortality Reporting Tool (PMRT) and Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations in relation to Maternity care.
• Ensure that Clinical Risk Management and clinical audit are an integral part of the role.
• Support quality improvement projects to provide safe and personalised care that reflect the findings of local and national reports.
• Use local data, for example from the Maternity Dashboard and data intelligence to identify risks and inform continuous service improvements.
• Ensure that women and birthing people receive high quality clinical care and have a positive experience, with regard to their customs, religious beliefs and doctrines.
• Actively engage service users through the facilitation of feedback, proactively managing the birthing environment and interaction with patients and visitors dealing with complaints and dissatisfaction in a timely manner.
• Identify and intervene where circumstances contribute to an unsafe environment for women and staff and elevate as appropriate.
• Be fully conversant with and follow the Trust Policy for handling complaints and participate in the investigation of complaints and clinical incidents in line with Trust polices and timescales as requested.
• Adopt and promote a systematic, evidence‑based, outcome focused approach and promote a blame free culture in reporting incidents and where appropriate initiating a local investigation in a timely manner.
• Manage risk management processes within ward/department, which includes undertaking risk assessments and participating in the development of associated action plans.