WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

No national or international research was sourced in relation to the experiences of
coordinator midwives. Anectotally, the coordinator is a senior experienced practitioner
who provides decisive leadership during her shift. She is a team builder, a skilled
communicator and a teacher. The coordinator is a confident decision maker and has the
expertise to contribute life saving midwifery expertise in the management of obstetric
emergencies. She works closely with both DHB staff and allied professionals within and
outside of delivery suite inclusive of LMCs. LMCs working in this setting request
assistance, advice, meal breaks and hand over care of their clients from primary to
secondary care. All this occurs in situations of varying staffing acuity which often results
in the coordinator also taking on a caseload with responsibility for midwifery care of
women during her shift. Doctors can be absent from the unit in other locations whether
they be in the operating theatre, on the wards or attending women in the accident and
emergency unit; it is the coordinator who is ‘ever present’ on her shift.
The coordinator is working alongside the unique philosophy of every midwife and doctor
on her shift, plus the unique care plans for each woman requiring midwifery care. She
needs to keep her finger on the pulse and wants to ensure there is provision of safe care to
mothers and babies during her shift.
LMCs and DHB midwives will be focused on the care of their individual clients. The
coordinator will be focused on everyone in delivery suite and everything that is
happening ‘on her watch’. She will be anticipatory in her approach in the knowledge she
may need to transfer tertiary midwives from the care of one client to another at a
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