This month we introduce Occupational Therapy Expert Witness, Alexander Heaps, who became an...
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BSc (Hons) Midwifery
Hospital midwife, antenatal, intrapartum, postnatal, community experience
Since qualifying as a midwife in 2007, I have gained substantial experience and knowledge in all areas of midwifery practice, and in various clinical settings. My areas of works and specialisms include: antenatal and postnatal care, intrapartum care, community midwifery, foetal monitoring and surveillance, care of women requiring high dependency care, newborn and infant physical examination, waterbirth and homebirth, care in a high risk setting, practice education and development, midwifery management and risk. I have extensive experience of teaching obstetric emergencies and multi-professional training courses, and hold a PGCE in practice education. When working clinically, the areas I most frequently work in are triage, labour ward, and the postnatal ward.
In 2017, following 10 years as a staff and senior midwife working in all clinical areas, I moved into a specialist midwifery role and have since worked my way up to more senior management levels within both district general hospitals and larger tertiary hospitals and have worked as a matron, deputy divisional midwifery director and head of midwifery. This has allowed me to develop leadership and management skills, plan and implement services as well as maintain my own clinical practice.
I am a flexible, understanding and dedicated member of the multi-disciplinary team. My focus and passion is working within a knowledgeable and hardworking team who under my leadership will continually strive for better and are dedicated to providing exemplary, individualised, sensitive and compassionate care to women and their families. Quality, safety and good clinical outcomes for both mothers and babies are at the heart of my practice, and something I strive hard to achieve. I believe that exceptional clinical practice, good governance and a strong risk management structure underpins safe midwifery practice, and am passionate about learning from incidents to prevent further adverse incidents in the future. I have experience in investigating serious clinical incidents and have written many reports to reflect this.
I enjoy leading by example with my own skills and knowledge. I work in a way that incorporates research and evidence into clinical practice, and am fully accountable for working within my own sphere of practice. Risk management, audit and clinical governance are things that I am very familiar with, and I encourage other staff to bring these principles into their own practice. Having worked closely with governance and risk leads, I have strengthened my knowledge in these areas and will continually strive for teams to learn from incidents and adverse outcomes. As a manager, I am able to investigate incidents and write reports which include critical analysis, action plans, areas for learning and recommendations. When conducting an investigation, I like to closely adhere to risk management pathways to identify points of good and bad practice, make recommendations for future practice and take immediate action or escalate concerns should the need arise.
I accept instructions from both claimant and defendant solicitors and insurers. I have undergone formal training in the medico-legal process and am fully aware of my responsibilities under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) pertaining to expert witnesses.