The Research Midwifery team at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust have won the Midwifery Practice Team Trailblazer Award at the recent Northern Maternity and Midwifery Festival Trailblazer Awards 2024.
The Research Midwifery team demonstrate incredible commitment to improving care for women and babies through successful clinical research delivery. They have successfully embedded clinical research into routine practice at Liverpool Women’s. Through positive role modelling and leadership, the team engage midwives with their research role from the earliest timepoint in clinical training.
The team consistently and successfully recruit to research across the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) portfolio, this has recently been demonstrated by the team’s hard work on the Genomics England “Baby and Mum Sample Study”. By engaging with maternity support workers and community midwives across the organisation, clinical staff were encouraged to complete Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training and join the delegation log.
The research midwifery team went above and beyond to ensure successful recruitment to this important study, undertaking a significant proportion of clinical “day 5” midwifery home visits to ensure all eligible women were approached to take part, demonstrating the ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of the clinical service and research studies.
Clinical staff who completed GCP training and assisted with recruitment for Baby and Mum Sample Study (BAMSS) reported that they had an increased understanding of clinical research procedures and had more confidence in integrating research into their future practice.
Louise Hardman, Head of RD&I at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust said ““I am delighted for our research midwifery team in winning the Trailblazer Award. It is a credit to our fabulous team of research midwives and practitioners who work tirelessly for both pregnant women and also their colleagues. They are an asset to the organisation.”
Several team members hold dual research and clinical roles, enhancing relationships in the clinical setting and allowing opportunities for positive role modelling. Staff are more confident to seek support from the Research Midwives, going some way to facilitate the ‘conceptual leap’ to embedding research into clinical practice.
To further embed research into clinical practice from the ground up, the team have developed a one-day placement for every 3rd year student midwife at LWH, increasing knowledge of delivery and conduct of clinical research and providing the opportunity to hold GCP certification upon qualification. They have also developed a bespoke elective placement for student midwives which has received very positive feedback.