View report page

35
Training
The training of midwives includes a period of three months
with local authority midwives who have been approved as teachers.
There were 7 midwives who had been so approved in the borough’s
service and during the year 24 pupil midwives received their three
months training.
The obstetric student nurses from Kingston Hospital each
spend a morning with one of the approved midwife teachers as part
of their obstetric course.
Negotiations were initiated with the Central Midwives
Board with a view to commencing Part 2 midwifery training in Kingston
Hospital. The pupils would then complete their training with the
Borough Council's midwives.
Group Attachment to General Practitioners
A liaison arrangement by a midwife with a group of general
practitioners was started as a pilot scheme in January.
Some of the patients who are registered with the general
practitioners are not resident within the borough boundary, so the
midwife could not be fully attached to this practice.
Also, the work involved was not sufficient to warrant a
full time midwife solely working within this group. The midwife
therefore attends all the general practitioners ante-natal sessions
and their home confinements as well as acting as relief midwife in
the vicinity.
Both patients and staff have expressed great satisfaction
from this arrangement.
It is planned to extend this type of attachment scheme to
other suitable group practices within the borough in the future.
HOME NURSING
At the end of December 1966 the staff of the home nursing
service consisted of the superintendent and her deputy, who also acted
as non-medical supervisors of the midwifery service, 15 full time and
17 part time home nurses, 5 full time and 4 part time persons who
shared their time between the home nursing and midwifery services,
and 2 part time nursing auxiliaries.
The appointment of nursing auxiliaries was a new venture.
These persons, who have had some experience, either in hospital or