Bliss webinars

Doctor with his hands through an incubator looking after a baby while a nurse looks on smiling

Bliss webinars provide the opportunity for healthcare professionals to explore and discuss certain topics about neonatal care and healthcare inequality.

Our next events

Multi-Disciplinary Team spotlight series

We’re delighted to be launching a webinar series that will spotlight various members of the neonatal multi-disciplinary team including Pharmacy, Psychological and Allied Healthcare Professionals.

Each session will run for an hour and will be Q&A style conversations with experts in their specialism to discuss the significance of their role and how they support the culture of partnerships with families on the unit.

Another date to be announced for Pharmacy, you can register your interest here.

The series will be recorded and can be used for training resources too.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Occupational Therapy

5th September, 10am

Occupational Therapy Webinar

Families Kept Apart: Overnight accommodation to facilitate FICare

We know that parents being parents in care is what’s best for babies. However, our new research shows that parents are being left with no choice but to leave their babies overnight.

We’re running this webinar to discuss how services can best support parents to stay overnight and advocate for improvements to their units. This session is for every unit, regardless of their current accommodation offering.

You’ll hear from parents with lived experience who have campaigned with us on this issue, and healthcare professionals from units who are paving the way in keeping families together.

Join us for this webinar on 19th September from 10am - 12pm. The recorded part of the webinar will last 1.5 hours including a break, and will be followed by a < 30-minute non-recorded opportunity for further discussion.

Families Kept Apart Webinar

Previous events

MDT Spotlight: Speech and Language Therapy

The fourth webinar in our MDT spotlight series is a discussion with Speech and Language Therapy professionals and a parent, exploring how to effectively build partnerships with parents and the impact of individualising care for babies and families.

MDT Spotlight: Dietetics

The third webinar in our MDT spotlight series features a Q&A and a discussion with Dietetics Professionals. We discussed the sensitivities surrounding this role, examples of great collaboration with wider MDT and how essential these roles are to the delivery of Family Integrated Care for every baby.

MDT Spotlight: Physiotherapy Professionals

The second in our MDT spotlight series features a Q&A and a discussion with Physiotherapy Professionals. We discussed the move towards providing a more universal offering of support to all babies and their families, how to embed these roles to support delivery of FICare and how to overcome barriers to families engaging with the service.

MDT Spotlight: Psychological Professionals

The first in our MDT spotlight series features Q&A with two Psychological Professionals. We discuss their role in delivery of FICare, how crucial ‘compassionate care’ is to neonatal unit culture and much more.

FICare: Partnerships with parents during procedures

The latest webinar explored parental partnership within Family Integrated Care delivery, specifically focusing on how partnership can be effective when the baby is undergoing procedures.

The session covered the importance of good sensory experiences, how consistent communication can improve this experience and how to maximise involvement of both parents. Ultimately, we focused on the importance of choice for families, which is highlighted expertly by parents.

We hope Bliss’ information on this topic for parents and staff will also support the development of partnership during these often frequent experiences on the neonatal unit.

Please note we had some technical sound issues on the day. This recording has been edited to remove the parts where the sound wasn't working although it is alluded to in the last 20 mins of the webinar.

The impact of the cost of living crisis in neonatal care

During this webinar we explored the impact of the financial barriers to families when their baby is in neonatal care and the impact the cost of living crisis has had on staff too.

While this can be a sensitive topic, it's vital that each family circumstance is taken into account to enable them to be with their baby as much as possible and key to provision of FICare.

We cover a range of topics including Bliss' new Info and Support Hub, which offers helpful and practical information around finances for families.

Two recommendations referenced in the webinar below refer first to the NHAS who support professionals give advice to people in housing need. Secondly, it is possible to order appropriate forms and information for families from the Department for Work & Pensions so that they are readily available.

Inequity in Neonatal Care

We held our third Bliss webinar in March 2023 on the theme of challenging inequity in neonatal care through open communication with families. You can also find some extra information, including how to contact the speakers and links to further reading about cultural safety.

Family Integrated Care

We held our second Bliss webinar in March 2023 on the theme of Family Integrated Care - the transition from parental involvement to parental partnership.

Parental partnership requires a challenging culture shift and this webinar explored some practical ways parents can be supported to be true partners in their baby’s care. The session featured perspectives from AHPs, family engagement and Care Coordinators.

Supporting diverse families with vulnerable babies

We held our first Bliss webinar in April 2022 on the theme of Supporting diverse families with vulnerable babies - learning from the 2021-22 RSV season and helping families facing health inequalities.

We were joined by friends from the Institute of Health Visiting and from neonatal units, to share their experiences of the RSV season, and to share good practice in diversity and inclusion on the neonatal unit.

AstraZeneca kindly provided a sponsorship grant towards this independent programme and made the event free of charge.

AstraZeneca is working in the field of Respiratory Syncytial Virus.