Support staff workers doing midwife tasks and putting mothers at risk

[GiantSquirrelSpotter]

BBC report here

OK there are lots of issues here but among other things, what struck me really forcibly was this:

"New roles included breastfeeding advice and support"

So, do I take it that all these support staff have undertaken a 6 month NCT/ ABM/ Other-respected-expert-in-the-field course in supporting mothers to bf?

Or not?

LOL at her taking her own blood pressure

That's like something out of a sit-com

Notsofarnow - isn't an NVQ3 a general healthcare NVQ though, not a maternity specilised subject. I very much doubt that they will cover breastfeeding at all in such an NVQ.

Where I work some of the assistants are fantastic and have more experience than me and I will gladly go and ask one of them to come and help a lady get her baby latched on if I'm struggling. I totally agree that as a student midwife we don't get taught enough about breastfeeding support. I've read loads myself on the subject, but I need more practical tuition. But the midwives are too busy to provide this. I'm nearly qualified now and still feel crap at breastfeeding support which worries me.

But a lot of the time the assistants are bank assistants who have come over from care of the elderly ward and never seen a pregnant woman before.

They go to a breast feeding workshop, which is roughly 4/5 hours long and thats it.

not being disparaging, but an nvq isnt the same as a degree trained nurse!! often with a midwifery qualification on top of a nursing degree

OMG where is there a post that says that NVQ is equilvalent to a nursing degree on this thread!! I swear I'll go into smackdown mode.

A healthcare assistant works hard but they still cannot function as a nurse.

The medical ward that I work on has more healthcare assistants with their NVQ crap than staff nurses. Of course we are all in similiar uniforms so the public thinks we are all "nurses".

Even if the health care assistants do all of the bedbaths, take out cathetars, draw blood, do ecg's, bed making, feeding, breastfeeding support, blood sugar checks, transports, urine tests, observations...this about only 1% if what needs to be done on a hospital ward.

That means that if you have one nurse and three HCA's on a ward, and the HCA's are doing all of the above....the actual nurse is still getting overwhelmed with 99% of the work.

I am so sick and tired of the public's backward views of nursing and nurses (midwives too).

Sorry they don't do bf support

They think they're doing bf support

The NHS thinks they're doing bf support

Just as they all think HV's and midwives are.

But they're not.

Because they don't know enough about it and no-one in the NHS appears to be listening to organisations like AIMS, La Leche, the NCT the ABM etc., who do know about it and are eager, nay desperate, to impart their wisdom and expertise.

My opinion is that midwives should all be fully trained and able to give proper advise on bf etc. If you are a trainee or newly qualified you should still be assisted at births or at least watched from a quiet corner of the room. The support workers should be given the choice as to whether they train do more and take on more responsibility for the care etc of the mother and babies (in no way replacing midwives though). Those who do choose further training and qualifications should be payed more and given a slightly higher 'status' within the ward than those who choose to do the necessary but more 'basic' work.
It's all money though isn't it?

anoah nowhere does it say that nvq is equivalent to nursing degree of course it's not.

But I do disagree with your point that what you have listed is only 1% of what goes on.I would say that HCA's do the bulk of the work, apart from administering the drugs and ordering tests, writing up on patients that is.

Your list is exactly the kind of thing I think a qualified nurse should be doing tbh then they would know their patients. Too much time is spent (and not their fault btw) doing admin type work, stuck in the office writing stuff on the computer often information that the HCA's have gathered.

Sometimes trained staff are so caught up in what they are doing admin wise that come lunch time they haven't set eyes on 'their' patients.

But it does get my goat when qualified staff look down on HCA's as being the hired help.

As a staff nurse I am usually overwhelmed by IV drips that could kill my patients if I fuck them up or walk away. I have multiple patients on those things and the HCA's get all the glory for feeding the patients. I wish I could walk away from all the responsibility and feed the patients and do some bedbaths.

I was a grumbling HCA who thought that I did all of the work at one time. I didn't understand why the nurses weren't spending more time with the patients. Then I became an RN and got a reality check. RN's have more on their plates believe me.

I would highly doubt by the way that all the yug/;;;n nj mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhike the work that they do is something that they can just put aside. That could have fatal consequences for a patient. I used to work in the USA and the new thing tere now is 3or v bDistrict attorney's to go after n978es for involuntary manslaughter if a mist hrbdr an oversight is made and it is fatal. What happens there comes here ', ,7ventually.

Just interrupting a nurse while she is charting, working out the math for a drip, taking and doing the paperwork for lab results etc etc etc etc etc could cause just such an error. A lot depends on where you work and how acute the patients are....general medical and surgical wards are the worse because you can get high dependency patients with crappy nurse/patient ratios.

Sorry my 2 year old got to the keyboard after I walked away and I didn't see it before I posted.