Staff from Maternity and Neonatal Teams across the Black Country have been sharing their career journeys and highlights ahead of an ever-growing recruitment event. #JoinUsInBC
The Black Country Local Maternity and Neonatal System (BCLMNS) recruitment event is at The Village Hotel, Walsall, tomorrow (Wednesday 22 November), from 9am-2pm and will also focus on “career aspirations” for current staff across the four NHS Trusts in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
The BCLMNS will also be promoting the Senior Healthcare Support Worker (Maternity Support) Apprenticeship programme. Birmingham City University will be attending as one of the providers that offers this apprenticeship course which may be of particular interest to current Band 2 Support Workers.
Lisa Poston is Matron on Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s Neonatal Unit (NNU).
She said: “I had a preterm baby in 1991 at 33 weeks’ gestation. My son was ventilated for one week and stayed on NNU for nearly four weeks. The experience and staff at the time had a massive impact on my life.
“In April 2015, I became the NNU manager until July 2022 when I was able to be recruited to the first ever NNU Matron. I can honestly say I am so grateful to all Neonatal Nurses caring for our very vulnerable babies as I was once a Neonatal mummy. I have loved working here on the NNU and it is great that we work within networks and LMNS systems to share information and support each other during our journey.”
Sunita Banga is Lead Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Midwife at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT). She started her career as a healthcare assistant in a nursing home in 1996.
“I then went to the University of Bradford 1999-2000 to do my Adult Nursing after which I worked as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department (Sandwell General Hospital) for three years before I went on to do my 18-month shortened course in Midwifery at The University of Wolverhampton.
“I qualified as a Registered Midwife in 2005 and applied for a Community Midwifery post at Wolverhampton. As an experienced Community Midwife of 17 years, I decided it was time to specialise in something that I was specifically passionate about and have been the EDI Lead Midwife at RWT for over a year now. I really do love my job.”
More than 90 new recruits have joined teams as a result of previous events and tomorrow’s event is open to:
- Midwives – Bands 5 and 6
- Nurses – Band 5
- Neonatal Nurses – Band 5
- Qualified in Specialty (QIS) Nurses – Band 6
- Return to practice Midwives
- Nurses interested in completing a shortened course to become Midwives
The day will also feature information about the shortened Midwifery courses available to Nurses as well as the range of roles that QIS Nurses may be interested in.