New neonatal psychology programme available for staff

September 12, 2023

A new first-of-its-kind e-learning programme on neonatal psychology has been developed to support better outcomes for babies, families, and staff.

Psychologically-informed care takes into account the needs of everyone in the unit and considers how best to support them for better outcomes. For families, this can include managing better while on the unit and being well post-discharge. For staff, psychologically informed care sustains us too.

Developed by NHS England, the Association of Clinical Psychologists, and neonatal networks, this e-learning has been developed to encourage the workforce to think more psychologically – a key area highlighted by patients, advisory groups, and the Ockenden report, the Kirkup report and aligns with the new three-year plan for joint working across maternity and neonatal settings. No other training like this currently exists for neonatal staff.

Each of the four modules in the programme takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and cover the following topics:

• Psychologically-informed neonatal care
• Infant wellbeing on the neonatal unit
• Family wellbeing on the neonatal unit
• Staff wellbeing on the neonatal unit

Once completed learners will know more about psychologically informed care and have ideas about the ways they can implement this into their daily work. They will also have a better sense of the impact of the work on themselves and what can help them to manage.

For more information and to access the modules, please visit the Neonatal Psychology programme page.