Job responsibilities
The Advanced clinical/Nurse Practitioner has been assessed as competent in practice using their expert clinical knowledge and skills. They have the freedom and authority to act and make autonomous decisions in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients. The practitioner provides an opportunity for patients to receive timely care and negate unnecessarily delay in receiving treatment. ANPs in primary care can develop close, long-term relationships with their patients and work in partnership with them to achieve optimum health. They are autonomous in making decisions based on assessment, diagnosis and interpretation of test results.
Maryport & Cockermouth PCN continually strives to improve work processes which deliver healthcare with improved results across all areas of our service provision. We promote a culture of continuous improvement where everyone counts, and staff are permitted to make suggestions and contributions to improve our service delivery and enhance patient care.
They can independently prescribe appropriate medication, evaluate or refer to other specialists if necessary.
Quality and Continuous Improvement (CI)
To preserve and improve the quality of this organisations outputs, all personnel are required to think not only of what they do but how they achieve it. By continually re-examining our processes, we will be able to develop and improve the overall effectiveness of the way we work.
Quality & Continuous Improvement:
The responsibility for this rests with everyone working within the organisation to look for opportunities to improve quality and share good practice and to discuss, highlight and work with the team to create opportunities to improve patient care.
The following are the core responsibilities of the Advanced Nurse Practitioner. There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels:
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Develop, implement and embed health promotion and wellbeing programmes
Manage patients presenting with a range of acute and chronic medical conditions, providing subject matter expert advice
Implement and evaluate individual specialised treatment plans for chronic disease patients
Identify, manage and support patients at risk of developing long-term conditions, preventing adverse effects to the patients health
Provide advanced, specialist nursing care to patients as required in accordance with clinical based evidence
Undertake the collection of pathological specimens
Request pathology services as necessary
Process and interpret pathology and other test results as required
Delivering patient care as necessary, referring patients to secondary/specialist care as required
Maintain accurate clinical records
Prioritise health issues and intervene appropriately
Support the team in dealing with clinical emergencies
Recognise, assess and refer patients presenting with mental health needs
Be an extended and supplementary prescriber, adhering to extant guidance
Support patients in the use of their prescribed medicines or over the counter medicines (within own scope of practice), reviewing annually as required
Contribute to practice targets (QOF/IIF etc.), complying with local and regional guidance
Liaise with external services/agencies to ensure the patient is supported appropriately (vulnerable patients etc.)
Delegate clinical responsibilities appropriately (ensuring safe practice and the task is within the scope of practice of the individual
Support the clinical team with all safeguarding matters in accordance with local and national policies
Understand practice and local policies for substance abuse and addictive behaviour, referring patients appropriately
Deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate.
SECONDARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Participate in local initiatives to enhance service delivery and patient care
Support and participate in shared learning within the organisation
Continually review clinical practices, responding to national policies and initiatives where appropriate
Participate in the review of significant and near-miss events applying a structured approach i.e., root cause analysis (RCA)
Drive the development of nursing services within the organisation, liaising with external agencies and professional organisations as required
Collaborative working:
All staff are to recognise the significance of collaborative working and understand their own role and scope and identify how this may develop over time. Staff are to prioritise their own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded within the culture of the team.
Teamwork is essential in multidisciplinary environments and the post holder is to work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working and work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery
Effective communication is essential, and all staff must ensure they communicate in a manner which enables the sharing of information in an appropriate manner.
All staff should delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence.
Plans and outcomes by which to measure success should be agreed.
Managing information:
All staff should use technology and appropriate software as an aid to management in the planning, implementation and monitoring of care and presenting and communicating information.
Data should be reviewed and processed using accurate SNOMED codes to ensure easy and accurate information retrieval for monitoring and audit processes.
Service delivery:
Staff will be given detailed information during the induction process regarding policy and procedure.
The post holder must adhere to the information contained within the organisations policies and regional directives, ensuring protocols are always adhered to.
