This work includes liaising with midwives from across England regarding their specific needs around electronic patient records, the importance of NHS numbers and other areas of the NHS national IT infrastructure.

"I am very keen to find out the real concerns and experiences that midwives are encountering with IT and in turn to represent these concerns at the highest level. I shall make certain that midwives are informed, involved and represented."

Find out more about how Julie and NHS Connecting for Health are working with midwives by downloading Julie's leaflet (PDF, 262Kb).

Julie Tindale, National Clinical Lead for Midwives

Julie says:

"I am focused on real concerns and experiences that midwives are encountering with IT and in turn representing these concerns at the highest level. I shall make certain that midwives are informed, involved and represented".

Julie is seconded from her role as maternity information system manager at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust for 3 days a week as national clinical lead (NCL) for midwifery.

She has worked for 30 years as a midwife and is a registered general nurse and has been a NCL for midwifery since February 2008.

Julie's previous roles have included being a member of the Clinical Engagement Team for the National Care Records Service (NHS CRS) in the Birmingham and Black Country areas, NN4B implementation boards and local/ national maternity clinical system content workshops for Lorenzo.

In addition to her NHS role, she has worked in the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service as a commissioned officer, with experience of working in Germany and also in the Middle East with the Saudi Arabian National Guard, in a large tertiary referral hospital.

Priority projects for 2011

• The Clinical Division works as a team of senior experience clinical informaticians led by Dr Charles Gutteridge, National Clinical Director of Informatics, Dr Susan Hamer as Director for Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Care Professionals and Dr Simon Eccles, Medical Director.  For a regular update, sign up for Clinical Connections
• Julie is a Member of the Clinical Division National Clinical Leads Forum
• Julie is chair of the NHS Number Programme Board and national clinical lead for the NHS Number  
• Julie sits on the Maternity and Childrens Dataset Implementation Group
• Creating a communications network with and for midwives 
• Raising the profile of informatics within the nursing and midwifery community for both undergraduate skills and post graduate knowledge and application, with clinical systems wherever nurses and midwives practice their Art and Science of Healthcare Studies. To this aim, Julie is involved with projects such as the Health Informatics Unit at  the Royal College of Physicians, Clinical Documentation & Generic Record Standards Project                                                                                                       

Clinical engagement

The team of national clinical leads provide expertise across a variety of specialties and consult on the planning and preparation of national services. Julie works as a part of the team as well as specialising and consulting on maternity care and midwifery. This means communications and consultations between Department of Health directorates and NHS Connecting for Health, which is managing national ‘informatics products and services' such as:
Choose  and Book
                                                                                                             
NHS Choices

Picture Archiving and Communication System

Summary Care Record
                               
Electronic Prescription Service                

Interoperability toolkit
                         
Clinical Safety                               

Informatics Capability        

For Julie, this work is liaising with midwives from across England regarding their specific needs around electronic patient records, the importance of NHS numbers and other areas of the NHS national IT infrastructure
She links with the Chief Nursing Officer's Directorate at the Department of Health and with the Nursing Midwifery Council.

Julie also sits on the National Nursing Informatics Strategic Taskforce which is maintained by the Clinical Division, Directorate of Nursing and Midwifery and Allied Health Care Professionals.

Other projects include establishing communications with maternity service user representative groups, such as the National Childbirth Trust. Tangible benefits are being achieved by representing the concerns and views and experiences of midwives from front line to national supervisory bodies.

Events

Julie will be speaking at the Transforming Technologies Conference 29th June 2011. The presentation will be available here after the event.

RCM Annual Conference November 2011               

Historical publications and presentations

• What makes the NHS Number the ten most important digits within healthcare
• Midwives and NHS Connecting for Health (PDF, 262Kb)  
• Recently, Julie was amongst those invited to engage with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on the launch of new national standards. Find out more about the standards from Julie's report on the event.
• NHS CFH Nurses and Midwives Conference 2008
• NHS Connecting for Health maternity systems workshop (17 April 2008) - Take a look at what was presented and discussed on the day and read Julie's evaluation of the workshop.
• NHS CFH Nurses and Midwives Conference 2009
• 'Making a difference', a joint article by Julie Tindale and Barbara Stuttle on engagement with nurses, midwives and AHPs.

Julie welcomes your views

How ready is your organisation to implement these technologies locally and get maximum benefit from them for your patients and staff? What barriers are in your way, and how can we help you overcome them? Julie welcomes your views and opinions. Contact Julie at: midwifelead@nhs.net.