Hi Laura,

Did you speak to Lucia Rocca about this? I’ve copied in Tracey Cooper, Kathryn Guttridge and Anita Fleming - all experts in this area who may help too!

From a personal perspective - I think the skills needed to be ‘expert’ come with time spent in an MLU, and of course training. For some, that may be a year - how confidence and skill develops is individual. 

A crucial part of that expertise is having the right philosophy to practise, as it very different as you know to a hospital setting.  

Is this what you meant? Sorry I don’t have any documents, but the others may have JDs etc….

Good luck!


With very best wishes,

Sheena 

Website: sheenabyrom.com

Twitter: @SagefemmeSB

On 5 Apr 2017, at 15:02, Laura Iannuzzi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Good afternoon
I've been asked to identify and describe what are the competencies that can qualify a midwife who is working in a MLU as a senior 'expert' midwife versus a 'junior' midwife.
Just to put things in their context, we are constantly dealing with debates on what makes a midwife expert or not in settings like MLUs and the discussion is less banal that it might seem as expertise and seniority in the context of MLU as we know might be different from criteria of seniority based on parameters such as age of service in hospital. Some professionals think that for instance 1 year of experience in a MLU can be enough to make any midwife who's been in a labour ward before an expert midwife in MLUs). 
have you got any document/ reference/ material or simply thoughts to share regarding this?
I hope it makes sense to you....
thank you very much for the insights you'll offer

wish you all a nice day 
from Florence
Laura Iannuzzi