Health Visitors with a Midwifery qualification

[Guest guest]

Dear Senate Members

One of my colleagues is very frustrated that in order to maintain her HV

registration with the NMC she has to find a supervisor of midwives to say she is

fulfilling her midwifery practice to maintain her registration. Will this be an

area that the NMC will look at?

My colleague sees herself as a health visitor and not a midwife and does not

intend to return to midwifery practice.Is there another way around this problem?

Helen

[Guest guest]

Dear HelenThank you for this, and thank your colleague for her interest. I think this is key problem and certainly hope we can persuade the NMC to look at this again, although it will be the third time the situation has been considered if they do. First, the Council agreed with the then SCPHN group that, if a person was practising by virtue of that qualification, it should be sufficient for them to register on that part alone. That idea went out to consultation, was widely agreed and then implemented. Then a couple of years later, the NMC were told by DH that this went against the Nursing and Midwifery Order, because the NMC can only regulate nurses and midwives, so can only regulate through the nursing or midwifery parts of the register. Since then, we are all supposed to maintain current knowledge or skills in our respective entry qualifications (nursing or midwifery) but only midwifery has a system of requiring a supervisors signature. I think many of us find the situation deeply unsatisfactory and frustrating. It was the argument that led the CPHVA to cast a 'no confidence' vote in the NMC in 2008 - a complaint that has never been rescinded as far as I know.The NMC is asking why we need to be regulated twice, in both parts. The implication is that they could close the SCPHN part (although they have denied that this is on their agenda), whereas the obvious answer (to me anyway) is that they should reverse that silly decision to insist that we all tick a box to say we are up to date in an area of practice that is no longer current. My view is that this whole issue of renewing registration demonstrates that the SCPHN part is not a true 'register,' because it does not stand alone, and shows that health visiting (or school nursing) knowledge and skills are regarded as being of secondary importance to the entry qualification. best wishesOn 17 Jan 2012, at 22:26, helen.colyer@... wrote: Dear Senate Members One of my colleagues is very frustrated that in order to maintain her HV registration with the NMC she has to find a supervisor of midwives to say she is fulfilling her midwifery practice to maintain her registration. Will this be an area that the NMC will look at? My colleague sees herself as a health visitor and not a midwife and does not intend to return to midwifery practice.Is there another way around this problem? Helen Cowleysarahcowley183@...http://myprofile.cos.com/S124021COn

[Guest guest]

Thank you for this response, I am the health visitor in question. I feel that I

am putting the supervisor of midwives in a difficult position when meeting her

to sign my registration document as she no longer works with me. I do see my PN

women as many times as I can in the first 28 days and women AN to be able to

provide some proof of midwifery type work. This then means that I practice

differently from my team and puts further pressures on my time.

I also have strong ambitions to become a family nurse, which will also cause me

problems with my midwifery registration in the future as AN contact will be

diminished with a caseload of 25.

I also believe that I should be attending midwifery study days to maintain my

registration, but I do not. I feel penalised because I have chosen a different

pathway.

I am interested to know how fellow health visitors maintain their current

registrations when they may no longer work with clients? Lecturers, managers etc

Thank you in advance

Lynn

>

> > Dear Senate Members

> >

> > One of my colleagues is very frustrated that in order to maintain

> > her HV registration with the NMC she has to find a supervisor of

> > midwives to say she is fulfilling her midwifery practice to maintain

> > her registration. Will this be an area that the NMC will look at?

> > My colleague sees herself as a health visitor and not a midwife and

> > does not intend to return to midwifery practice.Is there another way

> > around this problem?

> >

> > Helen

> >

> >

>

> Cowley

> sarahcowley183@...

> http://myprofile.cos.com/S124021COn

>