Training offered during work hours in United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust
Midwives are able to complete online learning during working hours, which only a third of NHS bodies offer
This week we've been investigating the impact of stillbirth, miscarriage and neonatal death on our communities.
Nationally, three quarters of NHS bodies offer midwives lessons on how to support families, but only a third do it during work hours.
The United Lincolnshire NHS Trust, is one that does offer this training in those hours to complete the compulsory training.
Specialist Bereavement Midwife, Rachel Bond says it's vital learning:
"Every one of our midwives has a mandatory training session on bereavement. We're quite fortunate that we've got the, sort of support from our senior staff and the management team.
"So every midwife has a compulsory session, once a year within their mandatory training. Every midwife, gynaecological nurse, and the neonatal nurse also have to do e-learning from the National Bereavement Care pathway and they get time to do that. Which is good because I know that a lot of other trusts. They have to do that within their own time.
"So we give support to them, to to be able to carry out that, because it's so important and we've also recently started implementing the post-mortem consent training for doctors, to be able to stay up to date with their training."
Rachel says that she trained for a long time through exposure to different scenarios, which then grew to a passion and now looks to share her knowledge and experience with other colleagues:
"Training that I deliver is more on the practical side of things, so with regards to paperwork and what legal documentation needs to be done, because midwives as as a profession, is a very, very caring role and the feedback that we receive from the women that we care for, and women in general, and bereaved families, is that you know, we've provided good care.
"But what I aim to achieve is actually to ensure that the midwives feel confident in providing that practical care, because they're amazing at giving the emotional support. So the training aims to sort of look at that and give them the tools to be able to to complete the paperwork and have an understanding because that's important too.
"One little word that we say or even possibly don't say, can have a massive impact on someone, we could deliver amazing care, but if one word is said, somebody will remember that one word or that phrase instead. So, it's important that people have an understanding of grief, because grief effects people's perceptions and the way people process things."
The Trust is part of the National Bereavement Care Pathway, designed by the charity Sands. They are also looking to progress doctors e-learning to involve bereavement subjects.