Patient Safety and Clinical Governance Midwife (Band 7, 37.5 hours, Permanent)

Ashford & St Peters NHS Foundation Trust are seeking an experienced midwife, with demonstrable knowledge of the clinical governance and patient safety agenda, to join their established and experienced Quality & Safety Team within the Women’s Health & Paediatrics Division. You will take the lead on aspects of the maternity safety improvement plan, support the Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead to ensure robust investigations are undertaken following clinical incidents and take a lead role in ensuring the dissemination and embedding of the learning from such cases. You will be actively involved in the clinical audit programme and guideline work streams as well as taking the lead on the PMRT reporting process across the division.
You will need to be adaptable, able to manage your own workload, responsive to events as they occur and enjoy working as part of a busy team with a passion for quality improvement and a strong desire to improve safety and patient experience.

You will be joining ASPH Maternity Department at a time of exciting change as we embark upon a journey to implement the new national Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) designed to support teams to learn from incidents and support the families and staff involved.

Visits for prospective employees are welcomed.

Please contact Emma Bradley via email to emma.bradley9@nhs.net for an informal chat about the role.

The post holder will support the management and co-ordination of all aspects of Patient Safety, Quality and Governance within Maternity & Gynaecology, ensuring the effective application of the Divisional Quality and Safety Risk Management Strategy and Clinical Governance processes.

As an experienced clinical practitioner, they will be expected to

create an environment of continuous quality improvement and put systems in place to minimise risk in response to clinical incidents.

support the Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead in ensuring that clinical risks are robustly and effectively managed in the interest of safety.

assist in the resolution of patient complaints through investigation, clinical advice and written response in accordance with the Trust’s Complaints and Concerns Policy.

assist with the development and compliance of local and national clinical audit plans, and NICE guidance compliance, ensuring a robust programme of clinical audit and clinical guideline review

The post holder will:

• Deputise for the Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead in their absence.
• In the absence of the Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead, attend and contribute to relevant Divisional and Board level meetings as required
• Work closely with the Head of Midwifery and Clinical Governance Lead Consultant Obs & Gynae in the delivery of the maternity agenda for Clinical Governance.
• Support the wider division on risk and governance matters within the realms of own knowledge base as required.

Ashford and St. Peters Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of more than 410,000 people living in North-West Surrey, parts of Hounslow and beyond.

Over 3,700 highly trained doctors, nurses, midwives, therapists, healthcare scientists and other support staff make up our workforce, providing a wide range of services across our two hospital sites, Ashford, Surrey and St Peter’s, Chertsey, Surrey.

We also run many specialist clinics in the community and local community hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Our vision is to be one of the best healthcare Trusts in the country. There has never been a better time to join us in the NHS at ASPH. We are committed to providing continuous professional development, staff benefits and flexibility to shape our workforce around our patient care.

This is an exciting time to join our Trust, as we work on the expansion of our theatres at Ashford Hospital and move towards this becoming our dedicated elective centre. We want to create a state-of-the-art centre for excellence for planned surgical procedures; with care delivered by dedicated, specialist teams in a modern and well-equipped environment.

We hope to use this centre to create an environment of learning and to facilitate training of the next generation of our skilled NHS workforce. Our plans are ambitious – why not, come and be a part of our journey.

Adverts may close early, so applicants are encouraged to submit an application as soon as possible.

Knowledge, training and experience

• Demonstrate a professional approach to work.
• Have specific knowledge/expertise within the practice area underpinned by theory and practical experience.
• Be able to provide expert advice in midwifery matters for clinical risk management issues and have the ability to reach an advanced training level for this.
• Provide detailed advice specific to risk management across maternity and gynaecology and able to apply the same principles to other specialties across the division (paediatrics and neonatal) as required, seeking expert opinion from the relevant professional.
• Provide regular updating for all staff and ensure new staff are trained in local risk management procedures within one month of commencing employment.
• Analysis, planning and organising
• Support the Perinatal Quality & Safety Lead to formulate and initiate the action plan of response following risk incidents and in partnership with the senior clinical team and medical leads. Ensures that all personnel adopt and adhere to recommendations. This may be a range of professionals e.g. Paediatricians, Nurses, Midwives and Obstetricians.
• Work in liaison with Trust’s legal team providing alerts / information relating to cases likely to lead to litigation, ensuring appropriate action is taken and documentation in place prior to legal action.
• Maintain a database of incidents for statistical analysis and prepare a monthly patient safety report to present at local Governance Meetings, identifying exceptions, recurrent areas or trends related to incidents and develop means of reducing or eliminating identified risks.
• Support the Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead to meet requirements of the Serious Incident Framework (and PSIRF when implemented).
• Using incident trend analysis, identify and ensure the audit of areas where clinical practice falls outside expected norms alongside the clinical matrons for each area and other specialists.
• Initiate strategies to ensure departmental and clinical governance requirements are met
• Report clinical and professional matters to the appropriate departmental/clinical lead.
• With the Perinatal Quality and Safety Lead ensure that Risk Management is integrated across the service.
• Liaise effectively with the department/medical leads in the division on any risk event that may have significant repercussions for clients, the Trust or any member of staff involved.
• Promote collaborative multidisciplinary working and communication within paediatric and neonatal services and allied divisions.
• Actively involve others in communications between clients/patients, their relatives and the multi-professional team within the organisation, and ensure excellent communication.
• Ensure patients who have suffered harm are communicated with and managed in line with the statutory Duty of Candour.
• Ensure systems are in place to proactively disseminate information and learning from incidents.
• Be approachable/available to staff to support and direct them following clinical incidents or during difficult/sensitive situations such as during litigation. Participates in debriefing for staff/clients as appropriate.
• As the Clinical Lead Midwife for Patient Safety and Governance, identify and coordinate service developments and improvements needed to achieve the highest standard of accreditation.
• Lead on the receipt, review and grading of all clinical incidents and near misses, including the review of patient records as required and ensure that action is taken where appropriate.
• Provide effective clinical leadership and support to all midwives and support staff based on the best available evidence to promote the optimum level of safe and effective care
• Actively contribute to the planning of maternity services.
• Ensure evidence based innovative practice in the delivery of care and supports others in the implementation of changes identified to improve care
• Identify and undertake risk assessments in the neonatal departments as required. Take appropriate actions to minimise risk and keep the Perinatal Quality & Safety Lead and Head of Midwifery informed of any area of risk that cannot be resolved.
• Create an environment within the service that is conducive to education and learning, encouraging peer review, positive feedback and providing learning opportunities.
• Assist on the collaborative work relating to clinical guidelines to develop guidelines and policies. Identify any area where new policies or guidelines should be developed as a result of reported clinical incidents. Ensure there are robust process in place for review and update of all clinical guidelines in accordance with the Trust’s Governance Process.
• Develop and lead on the implementation of action plans arising from relevant government recommendations, guidance, standards and reports
• Co-ordinate and leads regular Incident review meetings.
• In the absence of the Perinatal Quality & Safety Lead, represent the service at relevant Governance Meetings both within the Division and the wider Trust.
• Contribute to the Perinatal Mortality meetings.
• Undertake clinical duties as feasible to both update midwifery skills and to ensure high standards of clinical excellence/leadership.
• Co-ordinate and contribute to the resolution of complaints
• Participate in on call arrangements as required.

Educational

• Raise awareness of Patient Safety issues throughout the Service
• Rake part in the presentation of cases reviewed and themes identified at multidisciplinary meetings
• Participate in the maintenance of a learning environment within the service for the benefit of all members of the multidisciplinary team
• Develop own knowledge, experience and abilities
• Identify staff training, development and service needs in relation to risk management and work to ensure these are met through liaison with the Clinical Practice Educators

Professional

• Create and maintain effective working relationships with clinical areas promoting patient safety.
• Ensure personal and professional development is maintained and clinical skills are renewed/updated in order to provide high quality clinical care, supporting clients, nurses and doctors in accordance with the NMC guidelines/revalidation
• Demonstrate professional conduct at all times, acting as a role model for junior staff and as an expert nursing resource
• Keep up to date with national and local and national developments in maternity and NHS policy and practice
• Work within the statutory framework laid down by the NMC at all times
• Maintain confidentiality

Human Resource Management

• Have managerial responsibility for junior members of the team, to include appraisals, sickness management, capability and disciplinary procedures according to Trust policies
• Participate in workforce development through the recruitment and selection of staff
• Participate in orientation and induction programmes for staff
• Deputise and act-up as required

Physical/mental/emotional effort

• Ensure the privacy, dignity and confidentiality of clients/patients, relatives and colleagues is respected at all times. Support equality and values diversity.
• Communicate complex and sensitive information and facilitate subsequent support of clients/patients, relatives, carers and colleagues as appropriate. Consequently, there is occasional exposure to highly distressing/emotional circumstances.
• Support staff during difficult situations related to litigation/police investigations or when involved in highly sensitive processes. Occasionally convey unwelcome news.
• There is a frequent requirement for concentration (e.g. incident/data analysis), working to meet deadlines with frequent interruptions and unpredictability of work.

Freedom to act

• Is guided by broad policies and regulations from the Trust and the Governing bodies e.g. NMC
• In collaboration with the Perinatal Quality & Safety Lead, support Clinical Risk and Clinical Governance within the Division (WHP)

Working conditions

• Assist in the preparation for any external audits or inspections, e.g. CQC
• Ensure that the experience of clients / patients, relatives and carers is optimised.
• Primarily office conditions, however there may be an exposure to unpleasant working conditions when undertaking clinical duties.
• Identify poor performance as a result of incident investigation working closely with the department leads to formulate and contribute to plans for personal development. Ensure that any disciplinary issue identified as a result of incident investigation is appropriately escalated in line with Trust Policies.
• Arrange and facilitate Governance Meetings, read professional / managerial information as required.
• Work as part of the divisional team participating in management activities as required or appropriate.
• Actively promote legislation and responsibilities under the Health & Safety at Work Act. Be aware of and follows policies and procedures with regard to clients / patients, themselves, other members of staff, equipment and the general public.
• Represent team and organisation at professional meetings as requested and feed back information appropriately.
• Be Customer Aware and deals at all times appropriately i.e. professionally and politely with all ‘customers’ whether patients, their relatives, carers, other members of staff or the general public. Upholds the Trust Values.
• Have an awareness of resource management: Human, material and financial.
• Liaise with the Perinatal Quality & Safety Lead/divisional leads to bring to their attention to any problems identified.
• Promote the principles of Improving Working Lives amongst team ensuring fairness and equity.

General responsibilities

• Support the department and organisation by carrying out any other duties as qualified and able as required.