Fiona Morgan is the Lead Digital Midwife at Walsall Manor Hospital, and she has been working as a qualified midwife since 2013. After completing her rotation period, she has worked predominantly on the delivery suite.

She then moved into a role within the Fetal Assessment Unit before becoming the Digital Midwife at Walsall Manor Hospital, and for 3 years Fiona has managed the BadgerNet system at the hospital. Walsall was the very first trust in England to implement BadgerNet. Fiona describes the transition from being a clinician to a digital midwife as an interesting change. Fiona is still working clinically across inpatient areas, which allows her to see how BadgerNet is being used day-to-day.

Day-to-Day Role

Fiona’s day-to-day role involves managing and working with a variety of different midwives and specialist midwives who use the BadgerNet Maternity system. This includes collaborating with various teams to develop the system to suit their specific needs.

An example Fiona shared was that one day she may be working with the mental health midwife to help improve functionality for their service, and she could spend another day with the community team to support them in tailoring the system for their needs. BadgerNet is editable and can be customised per trust; within Fiona’s role, she ensures that it suits both patients and staff. The team is always tweaking, suggesting, and changing elements to better serve their service users.

Empowerment Within the Role

Fiona said that the best part of her job is making changes that address frustrations for users. With a particular focus on improving processes and removing duplication.

Her favourite part is eliminating duplication for staff. As she works clinically, Fiona understands how time-consuming duplication of information can be. She thoroughly enjoys removing paper processes and digitising them, as she knows that it allows clinicians to spend more time with patients.

Fiona’s Favourite Project

Fiona’s favourite project has been implementing self-referrals. This process allowed patients to access the maternity service more quickly, enabling earlier care and reducing the need for GP appointments, which can then be used for other needs.

Fiona’s Advice for Future Digital Midwives

Fiona’s advice for others who want to become digital midwives is not to be afraid; she truly believes that a midwife’s clinical skills are completely transferable to a digital midwife role. As a clinician, you understand what is needed from a clinical perspective, and in a digital role, you also learn the limitations of systems. You get the best of both worlds.

Future Plans

Fiona’s future plans for BadgerNet include making it more user-friendly. It is currently very field-heavy, and she aims to reduce the time clinicians spend documenting, allowing more time with patients. Her overall goal is to ensure documentation is concise, correct, and not time-consuming.

As a trust, Walsall is working to improve patient access to apps like BadgerNotes and the NHS app, and to support digital competence among patients. Walsall are also offering free SIM cards to help patients access their maternal records and use the app.

For herself, Fiona aims to continue developing the relationship between IT and clinicians, improving communication across the board, whether through the IT service desk or with System C.

Next Steps

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