Evaluation of an Early Labour Triage Service (HS7)

Project Summary:

It has become common for women to seek maternity care in hospital when they think labour has commenced. This may be because most women have never seen other women labour, are not sure of the signs of labour, or of differentiating between early labour and active labour. Furthermore women and their partners/ family may be afraid labouring at home. This has resulted in many women self referring to hospital in the latent phase of labour. However there is evidence that women who stay at home until labour is established are less likely to require intervention to augment labour, to manage pain, and the outcomes for both the woman and her baby are better. Conversely women who come to hospital before labour is established are more likely to have interventions, have more maternal and neonatal complications, and stay in hospital longer. Therefore professionals are advising healthy women to stay at home until labour is established. This is in keeping with the UK agenda to normalise birth.

Despite advice to stay at home until signs of active labour are present, women do not seem to have the confidence to stay at home, or think staying at home is for convenience of hospital rather than best for them. A triage system is where through face-to-face contact, telephone contact or a mixture of both, with a midwife, women can be advised and supported to stay at home, with confidence knowing professional support is available when it is needed.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Maternity Service has initiated a new service to create an early labour triage service which promotes women to be supported in early labour by facilitating their self care at home or alternatively signposting them to the right area of the maternity service in a timely way. The programme so far has gathered the views of women and the staff and made multiple recommendations for the creation of a robust, systematic and consistent triage service. This service will go live in the summer of 2013; it will be key to supporting women’s choice and timely access to maternity care alongside normalising birth and once established the intention is to focus on researching the impact of the service in these areas. A midwifery clinical academic fellow will have the opportunity to lead this research and make a valuable contribution to the service and wider midwifery evidence base.

The research approach is likely to use mixed methods to enable evaluation of both the outcomes for women and their neonates, include safety data and normal birth rates, as well as data on maternal experience.

Project Details:

The Fellowship is for 4 years will begin in September 2013. You will be supported by an annual £14,000 stipend and an additional sum of £800 to support additional training and development costs during the Fellowship.

The Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton working in partnership with Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is offering a Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellowship for a qualified midwife.

The successful candidate will spend two days per week as a Band 5 Registered Midwife in the maternity service, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and 3 days per week working on the PhD research study. You will join a thriving and expanding group of Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellows based at the Clinical Academic Facility, Southampton General Hospital for the academic component of the Fellowship.

The Fellowship is for 4 years will begin in September 2013. You will be supported by an annual £14,000 stipend and an additional sum of £800 to support additional training and development costs during the Fellowship.

This is an exciting opportunity and will enable aspiring individuals to combine clinical practice with a research role, working across the University and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. The successful candidate will work with their nominated clinical mentor and a Faculty of Health Sciences academic mentor in a tri-partite arrangement to develop their clinical academic role in both practice and University settings.

It is essential that you have successfully achieved a 2:1. It would be desirable if you have achieved a 1st class honours degree.

Further information can be found in our FAQ document by clicking "Apply Online" below.

Interviews will be held in Southampton on 10th June 2013 .