Specialist Midwife for Smoking in Pregnancy

Specialist Midwife for Smoking in Pregnancy

Specialist Midwife for Smoking in Pregnancy

Care Group: Women's Care

Band: 7

Interview Date: 14th March 2025

We are recruiting for a Specialist Midwife for Smoking in Pregnancy who shares our ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People and has the drive to take us forward, by ensuring that the Trust continues to be the first choice for patients and our staff.

The purpose of the post is to reduce rates of smoking in pregnancy and thus the harm caused by tobacco addiction. The NHS Long Term Plan stipulates the implementation of a service model for expectant mothers and their partners, with a smoke-free pregnancy pathway including focused sessions and treatments. This is a continuously developing service which is being rolled out nationally and locally in Kent and Medway.

Main Duties of the Job

Element 1 of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle (v3) is to reduce smoking in pregnancy by identifying smokers with the assistance of carbon monoxide (CO) testing and ensuring the in-house treatment from a trained tobacco dependency adviser is offered to all pregnant women who smoke, using an opt-out referral process.

Our values are Bold, Every Person Counts, Sharing and Open and Together. It is important that you understand and refer to our values when completing your application and always reflect our values throughout your employment with the Trust.

We are committed to endorsing diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion; our policies and procedures ensure that all applicants are treated fairly at every stage of the recruitment process.

To contribute to our exciting future and become part of our team, apply today.

About Us

Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver our mission of the Best of Care by the Best of People providing excellent care, every time?

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision is achieved for our patients.

As a key partner in the healthcare of our local population, we are keen to deliver this as an outcome of our Trust-wide strategy - Patient First. Using an Operational Excellence approach to align our priorities and operational management structures, we are just over a year and a half into our Patient First deployment. We are looking for creative, skilled people to join our Transformation Team and further support us on this journey.

Our culture and values define us here at Medway NHS Foundation Trust and are the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation.

Our BEST values underpin Patient First and are at the core of the care we give to our patients, the support we offer to our staff, and our overall leadership approach:

B - Bold
E - Every person counts
S - Sharing and open
T - Together

Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust.

Job Responsibilities

The post holder will work to reduce smoking prevalence among pregnant women by:

• Working with all maternity service staff to inform, train, motivate and energise them with regard to the smoking in pregnancy agenda.
• Ensuring that obstetricians, midwives, maternity support workers and maternity care staff maximise opportunities to address the issue of smoking in pregnancy by providing women with consistent messages, information and support.
• Supporting midwives to:
• Identify pregnant women who smoke by undertaking CO monitoring and discussion.
• Provide women and their partners with clear, accurate information on the harms caused by smoking in pregnancy (Very Brief Advice).
• Refer pregnant smokers and those who blow a CO reading of 4ppm or higher to the in-house maternity smoking cessation service.
• Follow up smoking at every contact with women, taking account of feedback received from the in-house service in response to referrals made.
• Line management of the maternity Tobacco Dependency Advisors and ensure training and standards are met.
• Undertake service evaluation, development and quality improvement initiatives as part of the continued roll out of the in-house service.
• Submit service data and supporting evidence as per national requirements and for Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle submissions.
• Work in collaboration with the ICB, Public Health, external Stop Smoking Services and other relevant external organisations, facilitating participation in research projects where appropriate.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Midwife with current NMC registration.
• Commitment to professional development.
• Evidence of further education related to the SiP role.

Knowledge

• Experience of taking forth service developments.
• Ability to coach and motivate staff to accept change and service development.
• Willingness to professionally develop.
• Can demonstrate an enthusiastic, approachable and friendly manner.

Experience

• Significant understanding of the SiP midwife role.
• Articulate and able to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
• A minimum of three years as a midwife.
• Current knowledge of National guidelines, standards and recommendations impacting on maternity services including Saving Babies Lives.

Skills

• Excellent IT skills, specifically Excel.
• Confidence in communication and escalation.
• Able to lead, develop and motivate staff.
• Innovative and creative in the development of new approaches to care and systems of working.
• Excellent time management skills.

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.