Senior Staff Nurse

Job responsibilities

Clinical Function:

To ensure the delivery of high-quality specialist palliative nursing care.

Supervise and participate in the delivery of evidence-based nursing care.

To lead in the planning, implementation and evaluation of individual care plans for the patient and their family taking into account their physical, social and spiritual needs in all care settings.

Keep accurate records, according to Hospice policy.

To use effective interpersonal skills to communicate complex and sensitive information to achieve agreement and cooperation and to overcome any barriers to understanding which may exist.

Flexible working on a 7-day rota

To support the multidisciplinary team to ensure a responsive service that meets patients needs.

To work proactively to support patients who wished to be cared for at home or until an Inpatient bed becomes available. Work closely with the ward and duty nurse to facilitate effective admission and discharge planning.

To care for allocated patients, and implement agreed actions, ensuring full communication and documentation of outcomes.

To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide advice and guidance related to complex symptom management, and physiological, social and spiritual needs referring onto the appropriate professional or service accordingly.

To act as a role model within the team to ensure the outcomes of interventions are evaluated and changes made, as appropriate.

To support the team to ensure appropriate safety alerts are cascaded across the organisation and actions taken.

To ensure incidents are investigated promptly- referring to the incident reporting pathway.

To initiate and participate in family meetings, as appropriate.

To lead in patients discharge planning, including liaison with community services, as appropriate.

To ensure fire, health and safety, infection control and security policies are implemented maintaining a clean, safe and secure environment for patients, visitors and staff.

To establish a therapeutic relationship with patients and families to enable active involvement in informed decision-making, if this is their wish.

To ensure confidentiality of information pertaining to patients, family members and staff at all times.

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes

Essential

• Ability to supervise, lead and support the work of other staff
• Confidence and skills to work autonomously
• Effective problem-solving skills
• Able judgement to know which decisions need to be referred on to a senior colleague during their absence
• Evidence of an area of special interest
• Good communication skills, including listening, negotiating skills, communication of ideas and ability to provide advice to other health professionals
• Ability to have overall vision of the ward to enable planning and prioritisation of care
• Good knowledge of palliative care or relevant specialist field
• Working towards post-registration qualification in Palliative Care
• Knowledge of local and national issues in end-of-life care
• Ability to prioritise work and to co-ordinate the department.
• Ability to assess, plan and evaluate patient care needs according to individual needs
• Demonstrates an understanding of the application of leadership skills
• Has good verbal and written communication abilities
• Ability to communicate effectively with patients and families with complex specialist palliative care needs
• Ability to work effectively with a diverse range of colleagues/individuals and demonstrate positive outcomes for patients
• Ability to maximise the use of IT in the workplace
• Demonstrate knowledge of the application of evidence-based practice
• Demonstrate an understanding of the assessment process for student nurses
• Has knowledge of conducting performance reviews

Desirable

• Advanced level communication skills or willingness to undertake this. (Desirable)
• Experience of the importance of clinical audit and evidence-based practice (Desirable)
• Experience of leading and managing a team (Desirable)

Qualifications

Essential

• At least three years post RN qualification experience within a relevant specialist field
• Working towards post registration qualification in Palliative Care
• Willingness to work towards Diploma / Degree
• Mentorship qualification or willing to work towards
• Evidence of commitment to ongoing professional development

Desirable

• Diploma or degree qualification in nursing (Desirable)

Experience

Essential

• Working in a palliative care setting
• Effective workload management
• Working as part of a team to deliver high standards of patient care
• Significant experience of productive multi and inter-disciplinary working

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).