Community of practice

• Peer support & sharing best practice
• Regular online meetings & training days

A professional practice group for London staff supporting neonatal families and/or their colleagues

Who is this group for?

This group is for any staff providing support to families and/or their colleagues in neonatal units. 

Whilst all staff provide support to families on every shift, there are some staff whose role requires them to support families in difficulty or distress, or to spend more time with families and colleagues, supporting them through their journey. These are likely to be staff in roles such as:

• Family liaison nurses
• Bereavement nurses or midwives
• Discharge coordinators 
• FI care leads
• Lactation support staff
• Consultants with responsibility for family support or compassionate care
• AHPs running family support groups and other support roles

It may be that there is someone on your unit who informally takes on this role without a specific job title.  If you are not sure if this group is for you please get in touch.

Ideally we will have 1-3 people from each unit attending. If you would like to send more than this, please contact the lead psychologist to discuss this further.

The purpose of a CoP is to provide a way for neonatal staffwho support families to share thoughts and best practices, ask questions of their colleagues, and provide support for each other. CoP are important as a professional learning strategy, because they stimulate learning by serving as a vehicle for communication, mentoring, coaching, and self-reflection.

(This group is not for accredited psychological professionals as they already have a similar forum).

From November 2024 there is going to be:

1x COP group for the NCEL Sector (facilitated by Kirsty Abbas) and 1x COP group for the South sector (facilitated by Alanna Gallagher).
At present there is not a COP group for the NW sector but we hope this will be established soon.