Clinical Nurse Specialist

Job responsibilities

Role Summary

We are seeking a compassionate and motivated professional to join our team in delivering a responsive, flexible, and high-quality community specialist palliative care service. This role focuses on supporting patients with complex palliative care needs and their families, ensuring care is person-centred and aligned with our strategy and Care Quality Commission standards.

The post holder will work autonomously within the community, undertaking specialist assessments, developing and reviewing individualised care plans, and providing expert guidance to others involved in the patients care. Working closely with Clinical Nurse Specialists and the wider multidisciplinary team, you will respond to changing patient needs and contribute to maintaining excellence in service delivery.

In addition, this role involves collaborating with colleagues and external organisations, supporting education and training initiatives, and contributing to the ongoing development and improvement of palliative care services.

Primary Responsibilities

Clinical duties

• Perform comprehensive, holistic assessment of patients with sensitive and complex palliative care needs, identifying urgent needs and raising these appropriately with members of the multidisciplinary team.
• Assess family member/carer needs.
• Develop and implement a plan of care, including investigations, admission to hospice/hospital, out-patient appointments, referral to other disciplines or services asappropriate.
• Work in partnership with patients and carers to prepare them for end of life issues and enable them to make informed choices, set goals and toidentifyand promote strategies to adapt to life-threatening and life-limiting situations.
• Facilitate discussions around advance care planning and resuscitation, providing information andassistingwith completion of documentationrequired.
• Undertake regular medication reviews, in relation to palliative care.
• Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the options for achieving symptom control and ability to advise the primary health care team.
• Work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies to ensure patient needs are met, especially in relation to on-going care needs and discharge planning
• Collect, collate,evaluateand report information,maintainingaccuratepatient records both written documentation and the electronic database.

Managerial / Leadership duties

• With support from the Senior Clinical Nurses Specialists, manage a complex caseload from admittance to discharge from case load
• Work as an expert practitioner and act as a role model within the multi-disciplinary team and Primary Health Care Team (PHCT),demonstratinghighly developed specialist knowledge and skills through theory, nursingpracticeand experience.
• Work with the wider team to ensure expert knowledge is disseminated appropriately
• Take ownership of using of non-clinical time beneficially
• Identifyservice users views,needsand shortfalls in the service and ensure they are fed back via the relevant channels.
• Toparticipateopenly and honestly in any investigation when care falls below expected standards.
• Promote patient and public involvement in activities as much as possible.

Education

• Identify,generateandutiliseappropriate learningopportunities in practice.
• Support the Senior Clinical Nurse Specialists with the delivery of education and training provided to a variety of groups including care home staff, hospice staff, communitynursesand General Practitioners.
• Mentor students, newstartersand a variety of people on short-term placements.
• Represent palliative careservices positivelyto thegeneral public.
• Develop and sustain networks with other experts at local and nationallevel
• Conduct and document risk assessments in respect of clinical care or self and takeappropriate action.

Clinical Governance / Quality

• Work within national and local requirements, ensuring care is evidence based and within policies, procedure, guidelines and professional body guidance.
• Bring any near-misses and incidents to the attention of the Senior Clinical Nurse Specialists and document and address these ina timelyway, ensuringappropriate actionand communication is taken.
• Identifyneedfor, and contribute to, research, clinicalauditand benchmarking,in order toimproveeffectivenessof patient care.

Other Responsibilities

To work in accordance with the values of The Kirkwood. Patients, Families and Carers are the focus of everything we do. Our values are what we live and work by.

We are:

Respectful and Inclusive

Passionate and Determined

Open and Honest

Kind and Compassionate

Forward-thinking

We strive for Quality and Excellence

To participate in The Kirkwoods performance and development review process.

To undertake any other duties required by The Kirkwoods Management team commensurate with the post.

To undertake annual mandatory training provided by The Kirkwood.

To maintain complete confidentiality as a condition of employment. Information relating to patients, other members of staff and volunteers or which is acquired for the purposes of employment may only be disclosed with the express permission of the appropriate manager.

To respect the ethos and values of The Kirkwood and its services and comply with its policies, procedures and regulations.

This job description is not exhaustive therefore the employer and employee share responsibility to review and amend this job description in order to reflect any changes in role/development.

Qualifications

Essential

• First level Registered Nurse with recent clinical experience
• Nurse prescriber or willingness to undertake non-medical prescribing V300
• Full UK driving license with access to own car for work purposes

Desirable

• Post-registration palliative care qualification ENB 931, 285 certificates in palliative care
• Community nursing qualification
• Teaching qualification

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Understanding of loss and grief and its impact on individuals and families
• Computer literacy with ability to use e-mail, internet, Word, electronic records and literature searching
• Clear and advanced communication skills with ability to communicate effectively with patients, family / carers and colleagues
• Ability to facilitate change, motivating and influencing staff over whom no management relationship exists
• Able to establish and maintain credibility with a diverse range of professionals and lay people
• Proven teaching skills
• Excellent planning and organisation skills
• Ability to supervise students and other staff
• Ability to assess risk regarding self and others and take appropriate action
• Able to advocate for others, representing their views in an objective manner
• Able to access information from different sources and use critical appraisal skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Motivated and enthusiastic
• Ability to manage the emotional impact of working within palliative care

Experience

Essential

• Post-registration experience in a variety of settings, including community
• Significant experience at minimum of Band 5 level, or equivalent, in specialist palliative care or caring for palliative care patients in a community or hospital setting.
• Experience and knowledge of symptom management.
• Experience managing and prioritizing a caseload including complex and sensitive issues
• Experience in teaching and/or training others
• Experience of multi-disciplinary and agency working
• Experience of participating in service development
• Knowledge of advance care planning

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).