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Cath Burke

Cath Burke RGN, RM, BMedSci, PgDip, MA

Senior Lecturer In Midwifery


Summary

I have a passion for female empowerment and the public health remit of the midwife. I have worked locally as a midwife in hospital, community settings and as a clinical educator as well as strategically on a regional programme of change. I have extensive experience in managing change and developing services which I can share with students on a multi-disciplinary level. I was nominated for an inspirational teacher award by students in 2015.

About

I am passionate about empowering women and their families and this translates within my teaching through my experience of working in areas of multiple deprivation. The research and evidence into practice work I have been involved in reflects this passion through promoting normal birth with women from compromised communities and backgrounds.

I am course lead for PGCert Perinatal Mental Health. As Athena SWAN Champion, I led the successful Bronze Athena Swan Award for the Nursing & Midwifery Department achieved in May 2016.

I link with all midwifery areas within Doncaster & Bassetlaw District General hospital and the community midwifery teams to ensure student experience is optimal and practice partners feel supported in their assessment of students.

I continue to practice as a midwife, regularly running an Examination of the Newborn clinic.

I am also interested in these areas of practice:

  • Community midwifery, working as a multi-agency team
  • Community demographics and change management
  • Project work, previous experience in communities and University of leading implementation and continuation of new ways of working and new processes and procedures

Teaching

 

I teach across the BSc (Hons) Midwifery and Distance Learning PGCert Perinatal and Maternal Mental Health courses.  My specific areas of teaching interest are:

  • Perinatal public Health
  • Normality in pregnancy, labour and birth, normalising the birth experience
  • Clinical skills/OSCE's, assessment of fitness to practice
  • Management & Leadership, developing students towards qualification and beyond
  • IPE, working together, developing links to inter professional and disciplinary teams
  • Newborn Physical Examination/cultural competence Masters module development
  • Vulnerabilities, how this impacts on pregnancy, birth and the development of the family and community
  • Female empowerment, engagement of women from hard to reach backgrounds in public health initiatives, perinatal wellbeing and the impact this has upon families and the betterment of the community

I teach inter-professional education as part of the Enhancing Quality of Services Through Effective Collaborative Practice module. I am Module leader for the following modules:

  • Midwifery Advancing Practice (Level 5)
  • Midwifery Consolidating Practice (Level 6)
  • Midwifery Management and Leadership (Level 6)

Research

My expertise and research interest are:

• Working with vulnerable groups

• Normality in pregnancy, labour and birth

• Newborn Physical Examination

• Public health

• Female empowerment

I am currently working with the research team on the ORAMMA study, an evaluation of a peer support mechanism for refugee and asylum seeking women.

Publications

Journal articles

Fair, F., Soltani, H., Raben, L., van Streun, Y., Sioti, E., Papadakaki, M., ... Vivilaki, V. (2021). Midwives’ experiences of cultural competency training and providing perinatal care for migrant women a mixed methods study: Operational Refugee and Migrant Maternal Approach (ORAMMA) project. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 21 (1). http://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-021-03799-1

Soltani, H., Watson, H., Fair, F., Burke, C., Oshaghi, G., Vivilaki, V., & Team, O.R.A.M.M.A. (2020). Improving pregnancy and birth experiences of migrant mothers: A report from ORAMMA and continued local impact. European Journal of Midwifery, 4. http://doi.org/10.18332/ejm/130796

Baston, H., & Burke, C. (2010). The newborn physical examination step by step. 1. Eyes. The practising midwife, 13 (6), 27-28.

Conference papers

Soltani, H., Watson, H., Fair, F., van den Muijsenbergh, M., Papadakaki, M., Jokinen, M., ... Vivilaki, V. (2021). Perinatal mental health services for mothers from ethnic minority and migrant backgrounds. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, 31, 176.

Book chapters

Albertson, K., Burke, C., & Lessing-Turner, G. (2019). Mother figures behind bars: Pregnant women and mothers in prison in England and Wales. In Portier-Le Cocq, F. (Ed.) Motherhood in Contemporary International Perspectives: Continuity and Change. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Routledge Research in Gender and Society Series, (Eds) Fabienne Portier-Le Cocq. Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Motherhood-in-Contemporary-International-Perspective-Continuity-and-Change/Portier-Le-Cocq/p/book/9780367188436

Albertson, K., O'Keeffe, C., Burke, C., Lessing-Turner, G., & Renfrew, M. (2014). Addressing health inequalities for mothers and babies in prison: findings from a consultation exercise. In Todd, A., & Hirst, J. (Eds.) Health and Inequality: Applying Public Health Research to Policy and Practice. (pp. 39-47). Abingdon: Routledge

Postgraduate supervision

As well as the PGCert Perinatal Mental Health, I support MSc dissertation students who have proposals related to midwifery.

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