Nursing associates should not work in maternity services, NHS England, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the relevant royal colleges have said.
In a new position statement published this week, the bodies said since nursing associates are ‘neither trained nor prepared’ for working in maternity settings, their deployment in these services ‘risks undermining safety’.
What does the statement say?
NHS England, the NMC, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have together concluded that they ‘do not support nursing associates working in maternity services’.
They believe the ‘safest and most sustainable’ means of supporting maternity services is via the expansion of the current workforce and development of maternity support workers, who are aligned to the maternity support worker competency, education and career development framework.
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The statement outlines some challenges around the deployment of nursing associates in maternity settings, including issues with ‘profession-specific education and training, delegation of tasks, accountability, and scope of practice’.
‘The nursing associate role was not designed or intended to deliver maternity care; and as a result, nursing associates are neither trained nor prepared for working in maternity services, which presents serious concern in relation to the provision of safe care,’ the statement said.
The announcement comes as some providers are ‘exploring the deployment’ of nursing associated into maternity settings.
How have nursing associates been delegated to?
Registered midwives may already be delegating to nursing associates in trusts that have employed nursing associates in maternity wards, the position statement added.
This is despite the NMC Code not referring to delegation from registered midwives to nursing associates.
The code only refers to safe relegation from registered nurses to registered nursing associates.
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The NMC has provided published delegation and accountability guidance about the deployment of nursing associate’s in nursing environments, but not in maternity settings.
This means student nursing associates do not gain experience in maternity settings as part of their apprenticeship training.
The only task that a nursing associate can complete that a maternity support worker (who has Maternity support worker competency, education and career framework at level 3) cannot do is administer drugs, the statement notes.
‘However, nursing associate education does not cover administering drugs in maternity settings, and therefore this could place women and babies at risk,’ the bodies warned.
The statement added: ‘It may therefore be concluded that deploying nursing associates in an area of care for which their undergraduate education has not prepared them risks undermining safety.’
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The RCN first determined that it ‘does not believe there is a role for nursing associates in maternity services’ in a position statement published last September.
Last February, the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing called for ‘clear guidance’ on the ‘scope and limits’ of nursing associates amid reports of those in post running independent clinics in general practice.
