Maternity Telephone Line Midwife

Provide safe, timely, and evidencebased telephone triage and clinical assessment for clients and birthing partners contacting the maternity service with antenatal, intrapartum, or postnatal concerns. Undertake structured remote clinical assessments using BSOTS framework, including accurate historytaking, symptom analysis, risk identification, and prioritisation of care. Make autonomous clinical decisions regarding advice, reassurance, selfcare, urgent attendance, or escalation to senior clinicians in line with local and national guidelines. Deliver clear, individualised advice and safetynetting, ensuring women understand when and how to seek further help and feel confident in the guidance provided. Recognise and respond appropriately to clinical deterioration, redflag symptoms, and safeguarding concerns, escalating promptly to obstetric, senior midwifery, or emergency services as required. Maintain accurate, contemporaneous documentation of all telephone contacts, assessments, decisions, advice, and escalation in line with NMC standards and trust policy. Liaise effectively with multidisciplinary teams, including labour ward coordinators, obstetricians, day assessment units, community midwives, neonatal teams, and emergency services to ensure seamless care pathways. Support the safe flow and coordination of maternity services by directing women to the most appropriate care setting and reducing unnecessary attendances while prioritising safety. Provide emotional support, reassurance, and compassionate communication, ensuring women feel listened to, respected, and involved in decisions about their care. Act as a professional role model, supporting junior staff, students, and new team members in telephone triage practice, documentation standards, and escalation processes. Contribute to clinical governance, including incident reporting, reflective practice, audit participation, and learning from feedback, complaints, and adverse events. Participate in service development, audit, and quality improvement initiatives related to maternity triage activity, outcomes, patient experience, and safety. Ensure practice is compliant with NHS, NICE, CNST, SBLCBv3, and trustwide maternity safety standards, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement and kindness. Maintain own professional development, competency, and mandatory training relevant to maternity triage and remote clinical decisionmaking. Clinical Undertake comprehensive remote clinical assessments of women and birthing people contacting the maternity service, using structured maternity triage BSOTS frameworks Perform timely telephone risk assessment to identify urgency, clinical acuity, redflag symptoms, and safeguarding concerns, determining the appropriate level of care required. Assess a wide range of antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal presentations, including but not limited to: Reduced or altered fetal movements, Abdominal pain or contractions, Vaginal bleeding or discharge, Possible rupture of membranes, Hypertensive symptoms, Postnatal complications or concerns, Complex obstetric or medical risk factors Use advanced clinical judgement to provide appropriate advice, reassurance, selfcare guidance, or direction to attend for facetoface assessment. Deliver clear, individualised safetynetting advice, ensuring women understand symptoms requiring urgent review and how to reaccess care. Identify and respond promptly to clinical deterioration, escalating concerns to senior midwives, obstetricians, or emergency services in line with local escalation pathways. Coordinate and facilitate onward referral and admission to appropriate maternity or emergency care settings, ensuring timely and safe transfer of care. Review available clinical records and relevant history during telephone assessment to inform decisionmaking and care planning. Ensure accurate, contemporaneous documentation of all telephone contacts, assessments, advice, decisions, and escalation in line with NMC standards and trust policy. Apply national and local clinical guidelines, including NICE, SBLCBv3, CNST, and trust maternity triage policies, to all clinical decisionmaking. Provide clinically safe reassurance where appropriate, balancing reassurance with vigilance to avoid missed or delayed diagnosis. Maintain awareness of capacity and acuity across maternity services (e.g. triage, DAU, labour ward) to support safe and effective clinical flow. Contribute to the delivery of a safe, responsive, and womancentred triage service, ensuring equity of access and inclusive care. Managerial Support the daytoday coordination and safe running of the maternity telephone advice line service. Prioritise triage activity and escalate staffing, capacity, or safety concerns to senior midwifery leadership as required. Act as a clinical and operational support for staff undertaking telephone triage, providing guidance on escalation and documentation standards. Contribute to rota cover and service continuity, identifying and raising risks to safe staffing. Promote and maintain high standards of clinical documentation, accountability, and governance within telephone triage. Support incident reporting, review, and learning, contributing to service improvement and quality assurance. Participate in audit, service evaluation, and quality improvement related to telephone triage activity and outcomes. Support the implementation of policies, SOPs, and pathways relevant to maternity telephone triage. Provide leadership, supervision, and support to junior staff and students, fostering a positive and compassionate team culture. Leadership Provide visible clinical leadership within the maternity telephone advice line service, acting as a role model for safe, compassionate, and evidencebased practice. Support and mentor junior staff and students, promoting confidence and consistency in telephone triage decisionmaking. Champion high standards of communication, professionalism, and documentation across the triage service. Foster a positive culture of learning, reflection, and kindness, encouraging learning from incidents, feedback, and patient experience. Contribute to service improvement and quality initiatives, supporting changes that enhance safety, flow, and patient experience.