A day in the life of... a consultant midwife for infant feeding

Midwives magazine: Issue 7 :: 2011

A day in the life of consultant midwife for infant feeding Dr Val Finigan.

Name: Dr Val Finigan
Occupation: Consultant midwife for infant feeding and honorary research fellow
Lives: Middleton, Manchester

I work at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which supported 11,000 births last year. The trust holds full UNICEF Baby Friendly accreditation. I manage and lead a team of infant-feeding advisers, healthcare support workers and paid and volunteer peer supporters. My main responsibilities are leadership, change management, research, strategy and service development, education and training, and 50% of my day is clinically based with women that have infant-feeding challenges. I am also a UNICEF designation committee member and an honorary research fellow at the University of Salford.

A typical day

7.00am I read and comment on several reports from UNICEF while I eat my breakfast. My day always starts early as I find I work better earlier
in the day.
 
8.00 I arrive at work and check my emails and messages. I forward referrals for the frenulotomy (tongue-tie) clinic to the clerk who will arrange appointments for me. I run two clinics a week, taking 14 babies from across the north-west region for this procedure per week and supporting them to continue with their chosen feeding method.
 
8.30 I telephone the infant-feeding adviser at North Manchester and ask her to see a baby on the children’s ward that was admitted with faltering growth. She will provide support and formulate a plan of care to help continued breastfeeding with the parents and staff.
 
8.45 I attend a meeting at 
the local health education institute, where I contribute to the development of the core curriculum for midwifery students, ensuring that UNICEF standards are appropriately implemented.
 
10.30 I meet with the divisional management team where the challenges of reconfiguration, budgets, movement to foundation trust status, staffing, sickness and absences, and other management topics are discussed. I share the recent trust-wide audit findings; record-keeping is high on the agenda and is essential for Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts compliance. In most areas of the UNICEF standards, we continue to achieve 80% or higher compliance, but step three had a slight decline in this audit and I spend some time, sharing a strategy to address this issue and improve compliance. 
The managers agree the action plan and will take it back to the workplace and ensure practice improves. This gives them ownership of the change. It is a wonderful example of best practice when standards are sustained through a team approach.
 
12.00pm I spend lunchtime multi-tasking as usual, as I discuss a management issue with the HR department and make a referral to occupational health.
 
1.00 I deliver the region-wide frenulotomy service. Today I have seven babies booked. I take a history from the second mother and her struggles to feed her baby ring an alarm bell. I examine the baby and my concerns are realised, there is an undiagnosed cleft of the soft and hard palate. The paediatric consultant is called, a referral is made to the cleft lip and palate team and I support the parents. The rest of the clinic runs smoothly and the babies all go home tongue-tie free and feeding well.
 
5.00 I record patient details on the database, arrange for letters to be forwarded to GPs and enjoy a cup of coffee before leaving for home.