Tongue Tie Practitioner

Job overview

Band 6 Tongue Tie Practitioner

This post offers an exciting and new opportunity to join University Hospitals Plymouth Maternity Service as a Band 6 tongue tie practitioner. The practitioner will work to provide high standards of care and support to the neonate and parents when referred for tongue tie assessment. This includes providing an effective and compassionate family-centred tongue tie service and ensuring optimal care for women, their babies and their families.

The successful candidate will have a keen interest and knowledge in supporting the feeding journeys of parent infant dyads in the early days.

You will need to be a dynamic, autonomous and professional individual who has excellent communication skills and is able to work effectively in a demanding and continually evolving environment.

It is desirable that the practitioner will already be proficient in the division of tongue ties, but training can be provided upon successful recruitment.

For an informal chat or to discuss the position in more detail please contact Aimee Miller (Infant Feeding Lead) at [email protected]

Main duties of the job

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Dimensions:

1.1 Liaise with Multidisciplinary Team. Maintain contact with infant feeding team, neonatal staff, maternity staff and health visitors

1.2 Work collaboratively with all relevant agencies to influence/develop policies which will enhance health

1.3 Have a sound knowledge of the “Baby Friendly Initiative” and be able to support birth parents initiate and maximise lactation and progress to responsive oral feeds.

1.4 Recognise and encourage healthy, responsive feeding plus recognise and implement effective support for babies who are not feeding effectively.

1.5 Assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of holistic care linked to the individual service user in relation to infant feeding following frenulotomy and specialised plan of care if not undertaken to support feeding.

1.6 Identify and support babies and families who have unmet health needs, including jaundice and faltering weight providing support and targeted interventions and where necessary referring to specialist services

1.7 Maintain legible, accurate and contemporaneous records in accordance with Trust policy.

1.8 Be able to identify child protection concerns and take appropriate action as per child safeguarding guidelines.

Policy and service development:

2.1 Acting within agreed policies and following local guidelines, provide a high standard of care which meet the needs of the families and babies within our care.

2.2 Contribute to service and policy review and development of frenulotomy, protocols and guidance.

2.3 Provide statistical data to support commissioning requirements.

2.4 Lead on and participate in clinical audits

2.5 Aid with the resolution of complaints within clinical speciality

2.6 Collate and provide Tongue tie data monthly to the clinical lead.

2.7 Proposes policy changes as an integral part of the role to support the Infant feeding team.

2.8 Responsible for care and safe keeping of medical devices, organisational property and ethically manage organisations resources

2.9 Identify when equipment or disposable resources need replacing and alert clinical team lead Quality

Quality:

3.1 Ensure all record keeping is recorded accurately and promptly within the appropriate notes.

3.2 Assist colleagues with the collection of relevant data for audit/evaluation of the service.

3.3 Demonstrate a willingness to be flexible and develop new initiatives according to emerging needs within the service.

3.4 Share best practice with colleagues, present ideas and initiatives.

3.5 Supporting and making recommendations to senior managers in order to prioritise and focus efforts to drive forward and achieve business objectives, service improvement strategies and statutory requirement

Communication:

4.1 Be skilled at adapting language and professional approach to a varied client group

4.2 Be competent in writing concise accurate contemporaneous client records

4.3 Be competent at making referrals to the wider multi-disciplinary team

Learning and Development:

5.1 Maintain own professional standards and education by attending relevant study sessions, mandatory training and reporting back to team members

5.2 Be responsible for own professional development and attending annual Personal Development Review –identify own personal training needs and participate in team objectives setting, complete personal objectives and individual development plan

5.3 Participate in the appraisal process and agree personal development objectives

5.4 Participate in training of others and maintain an effective learning environment

5.5 Maintain NMC registration in line with revalidation requirements and abide with NMC Code

• f Professional Conduct.

5.6 Provide DBS documentation in line with organisational procedure

5.7 Is a member of the Association of Tongue Tie Practitioners and contributes and shares

updates on National and International research

5.8 Work under direct and indirect supervision of Infant Feeding Lead

5.9 Is guided by principles and broad occupational policies – is responsible for using highly

skilled clinical judgement in order to undertake highly specialised clinical procedure