Infectious Diseases Midwife

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

Are you looking to work in an award winning, well-supported, friendly, dynamic, culturally astute, inclusive environment that puts women/birthing people at the centre of a high standard of care? If so, come and join us.

Our latest CQC report has just been published and we have maintained our good rating since 2017 and have now been awarded as outstanding for leadership.

A fantastic opportunity has arisen for a Midwife with an interest in infectious diseases to join our multi-professional Screening Team in its deliverance of high-quality care to women/birthing people and their families.

The post-holder will be expected to work independently, undertaking tasks, whilst remaining under the supervision of the screening coordinator.

You will:

• Be expected to have knowledge of the infectious diseases screening pathways
• Need to have good IT skills including updating Microsoft excel spreadsheets
• Be required to contact women/birthing people to discuss their reactive results and making referrals to the specialist teams

The post-holder is responsible for the provision of specialist care in line with the National Screening standards and will be the lead for the HIV, Hepatitis B, and Syphilis pathways.

This post is not suitable for newly qualified or overseas midwives who are awaiting their OSCE or have not completed a preceptorship

• • You will act as a specialist in the field of screening for infectious diseases in pregnancy, assisting and advising pregnant women/birthing people in their care.
• You will work closely with the Failsafe Officer and escalate any concerns to the Screening Coordinator.
• You will ensure that all reactive results (infectious diseases) are dealt with in a timely manner and acted on appropriately.
• You will provide information, support, and counselling to women/birthing people to enable them to make informed decisions regarding further testing and the management of their pregnancy.
• You will be involved in the regular review of maternity guidelines relevant to infectious diseases screening.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Work closely with the Failsafe officer and escalate any concerns to the Antenatal and Newborn screening midwife.
• To ensure that all screen positive results (infectious diseases) are dealt with in a timely manner and acted on appropriately.
• To provide information, support and counselling to women/birthing people, where required, to enable them to make informed decisions regarding further testing and/or the management of their pregnancy.
• To assist in the delivery of the sessions on the Trust maternity mandatory training days and other educational events in relation to infectious diseases as required.
• To assist on the publication and regular review of Trust policies, procedures and guidelines relevant to antenatal and newborn screening.

Person specification

Qualification & Training

• Registered Midwife
• Education to Diploma level or equivalent portfolio evidence

• Working towards a degree

Experience, Knowledge & Skills

• Computer literacy
• Able to deliver a high standard of evidence based individual client care
• Effective communicator with good leadership and interpersonal skills
• Evidence of ability to take charge in the absence of their direct line manager
• Demonstrate midwifery skills underpinned by current evidence
• Perineal suturing and cannulation
• Demonstrate an awareness of the importance of audit and policy

• Previous experience in antenatal screening
• Understanding of the 6 national screening programmes
• Examination of the newborn
• ALSO
• NLS
• Practice assessor

Other

• In good health and evidence of a good attendance record
• Prepared to work cross-site if required

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.