Practice Nurse

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE - Practice Nurse

GRADE - Equivalent to AFC Band 5/6, stage subject to annual assessment.

HOURS - Three days

LOCATION - Fearnhead Cross Medical Centre and Longford Street Surgery

RESPONSIBLE TO - Clinical Pharmacist (for clinical issues) Practice Manager (for personnel issues)

ACCOUNTABLE TO -Dr E Taylor and Partners

Job Summary -

The post holder is responsible for the delivery of general practice nursing to the whole practice population. Supported by senior nurses within the practice, they will deliver care within the boundaries of their role. The post holder will make an assessment of a patients needs and act upon their assessment. They will work collaboratively with the general practice team to meet the needs of the patients by providing quality evidence based care. They will support the delivery of policy and procedures and provide nurse leadership as required. The post holder will use their own judgement, resourcefulness and common sense and show flexibility with regard to rotas and working patterns.

Principle Responsibilities -

Clinical

• Assess, plan, develop, implement and evaluate programmes to promote health and wellbeing and prevent adverse effects on health and wellbeing.

• Implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for patients with a known long term condition.

• Identify and manage as appropriate treatment plans for patients at risk of developing a long term condition.

• Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations including initiation of effective emergency care.

• Deliver opportunistic health promotion

• Provide information and advice on prescribed or OTC meds on medication regimens side effects and interactions including DRUMS

• Work with patients in order to support adherence to prescribed treatments.

• Support and advise women requesting information relating to family planning needs.

• Support and manage health needs of women presenting cytology.

• Implement and participate in vaccination and immunisation programmes for both adults and children.

• Advise, support and where appropriate administer vaccinations for patients travelling abroad.

• Promote use of PGDs.

• Promote and deliver evidence based care for patients presenting with aural conditions.

• Other tasks carried out by the Practice Nurse.

• Venepuncture

• ECG

• 24 Hour BP/ECG

• IHD/CVA/BP monitoring

• Identify skills and knowledge to address training needs through the IPA and PDP process

• Liaise with all members of the Primary Health Care Team ensuring that information is clear and concise

• Maintain accurate records utilizing the IT system

• Check and Monitor equipment, adhering to Infection Control and Medical Devises Policies

• Actively participate in practice and multi-disciplinary team meetings

• Communicate to GPs changes in patients conditions that necessitate further investigation

• Ability to work without direct supervision and to solve problems

• To participate in the health needs assessment of the practice population to identify areas of unmet need

Clinical Governance

• To contribute to the development of policies, procedures and guidelines relevant to own area of practice

• To support the clinical governance agenda by benchmarking best practice, identify any inequalities in service delivery

• In-depth knowledge of the legal, ethical, moral and accountability issues related to practice nursing

• Adhere to the NMC: Professional Code of Conduct, Scope of Professional Practice. Administrations of Medicines. Records and Record Keeping

• Promote peoples equality, diversity rights

• Support the public health agenda

• Maintain professional portfolio that demonstrates evidence of on-going professional development

• Access and promote clinical supervision within the practice

• Identify any limitations/gaps in professional or clinical knowledge and ensure continues professional development

• Act as mentor for pre and post registration nursing students

• Support the teaching, assessing and mentoring of the specialist practitioner student

• Participate in clinical supervision

• Support the education of other health professional

• Adhere to all practice policies including Information Governance

Information Processes

• Familiarity with general practice computerized clinical system to enable post holder to record information and activities undertaken with patients and carers in an accurate and timely fashion.

• Input accurate Read Codes relating to patients to ensure accurate retrieval of information for monitoring and auditing purposes.

• Take the necessary precautions when transmitting information.

• Understand the responsibility of self and others regarding the Freedom of Information Act.

• Use technology as an aid to management in planning, implementation and monitoring, presenting and communicating information.

Team Working

• Understand own role and scope and how this may develop over time.

• Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring mechanisms to develop new ways of working.

• Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principals of safe practice and assessing competence.

• Prioritise own workload and ensure effective time management strategies are embedded within the culture of the team.

• Participate in team activities to create opportunities to improve patient care.

Learning and Developing

• Assess own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate.

• Disseminate learning and information gained from courses and conferences to share good practice.

• Act as a mentor for more junior staff, assessing competence against set standards as requested.

• Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning.

Management

Report and manage sickness and other absences to the Nurse Co-coordinator

Provide accurate, timely information to the Nurse Co-coordinator regarding annual leave, expenses and study leave

Supply required activity data related to patient care

Confidentiality

Working within the Practice you may gain knowledge of confidential matters, which may include personal and medical information about patients and staff. Such information must be considered strictly confidential and must not be disclosed or discussed. Failure to observe this confidentiality could lead to disciplinary action being taken against you

Codes of Conduct and Accountability

You are expected to comply with the practice codes of conduct and accountability

Health and Safety

In accordance with the Health and Safety Act 1974, and other supplementary legislation, you are required to take reasonable care to avoid injury during the course of work and co-operate with the practice and others in meeting statutory regulations. You are also required to attend statutory training as required to fulfill your duties

• To comply with safety instructions and practice policies and procedures

• To use in a proper and safe manner the equipment and facilities provided

• To refrain from willful misuse of, or interfere with, anything provided in the interest of health and safety and any action which might endanger yourself or others

• To report, as soon as possible, accidents and untoward incidents and to ensure that incident forms are completed

Equality and Diversity

• Act in ways that recognise the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way consistent with procedures.

• Respect the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients and carer.

• Understand and apply legal policy that supports the identification of vulnerable and abused children and adults, substance abuse and addictive behaviour, follow local guidance and refer as appropriate.

• Monitor and evaluate adherence to local chaperoning policies.

• Identify patterns of discrimination, take action to overcome this, and promote diversity and quality of opportunity.

• Accept the rights of individuals to choose their care providers, participate in care and refuse care. Assist patients from marginalised groups to access quality care.

Postscript

This is not intended to be a comprehensive description of the duties of the post. The post holder may be required to undertake other related duties not specifically mentioned above. Any changes to this role specification will be made in consultation with the post holder

The Practice operates a No Smoking Policy and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered first level nurse
• Clinical skills cervical cytology, immunisation and vaccination Change -management skills and ability to support patients to change lifestyle Communication skills, both written and verbal Ability to communicate difficult messages to patients and families Negotiation and conflict management skills. IT skills

Desirable

• Diabetic management
• Family planning
• Respiratory care

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Fearnhead Cross Medical Centre

Address

25 Fearnhead Cross

Fearnhead

Warrington

Cheshire

WA2 0HD

Employer's website

https://fearnheadcrosssurgery.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)