Infection Prevention and Control Nurse (Social Care)

Job responsibilities

What you'll be doing Providing infection prevention and control support and leadership to community settings in Bexley

Act as IPC liaison between Public Health Teams in Bexley and Community based Health and Social Care providers.

Conduct training needs analysis and map quality and content of existing education provision.

Undertake IPC risk assessment and empower and support providers to develop appropriate action plans for specific issues or pathogens.

Signpost to appropriate agencies to reduce the risk of infection and control outbreaks.

Facilitate delivery of IPC training as required to care settings, multidisciplinary team members and other clinical professionals as required.

Develop, deliver and facilitate a care homes IPC leads or Champions programme.

Quality Improvement for care environments and IPC practise

Contribute to the development and implementation of local models of care, with agreed protocols, reflecting best practice and responding to local needs, within and across disciplines.

Provide quality assurance through IPC expert assessment of care homes level of IPC provision and compliance through a programme of audit, walkabouts and clinical visits; report any concerns about care through appropriate governance structures

Provide IPC expert advice and evaluation of providers IPC compliance reporting to the Bexley Public Health Governance forums.

Empower providers to develop their IPC standards and practice to strengthen and improve resident/patient outcomes, working with multi-agency system wide partners where appropriate. Sharing best practice and celebrating excellence

Work to ensure that patient/resident dignity is respected at all times, including acting as the patients advocate

Contribute to service development and evaluations as required

Supporting and coordinating outbreak response within community settings

Instigate meetings with internal and external stakeholders to investigate and manage outbreaks of infections.

Communicating

Developing positive working relations with colleagues across our system, in Social Care, Primary Healthcare, Private and not-for profit sectors as well as statutory services

Promoting and practicing excellent communication skills with colleagues and stakeholders

Contributing positively to the development of The Community Hospice as an anti-discriminatory organisation, actively promoting equality and diversity

Raise the profile of IPC in care homes and other relevant community settings and strengthen multi-disciplinary working in line with the ICB integrated care networks and the associated locally enhanced services to support care settings.

Supporting complex hospital discharges where infection is a key contributor to delays.

Collect and collate data and write reports as required to support ongoing delivery of this program of work

Participate in appropriate IPC and social care forums in order to disseminate and share good practice and ensure service development.

Keeping us safe and sharp

Documenting clearly and professionallyif its not written down, it didnt happen

Have honest conversations about what could be better

Acting within any legal and statutory rules relating to nursing, CQC, and IPC as set by the appropriate regulatory bodies.

Staying grounded and growing

Taking care of your own development attend training, reflect, ask questions, and stay curious

Join in clinical supervision, team reflections, and honest check-ins

Share what you know, and be open to learning from others especially the people we care for.

Further information

To be familiar with and adhere to all Hospice (and relevant Care Homes, Trust and Community) policies and procedures

To support the ethos of the Hospice, supporting events and promotional activities as requested.

You must at all times respect confidentiality and in particular the confidentiality of all personal data stored, in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act

You must be aware of and adhere to individual responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act and identify and report, as necessary, any untoward accident, incident or potentially hazardous environment.

You may be required to work in and from any Hospice or associated Company premises.

This job description is intended as an outline of the general areas of activity and will be amended from time to time in the light of the changing needs of the organisation. It will then be reviewed in association with the jobholder(s) About SELICS South East London integrated care system (ICS) brings together the organisations responsible for health and care services in south east London, to make the greatest possible contribution to the health and wellbeing of people living in our six boroughs.

SEL ICS have identified six overarching priorities for improving the lives of people in south east London:

1) Preventing illness and helping people to live healthier, happier lives;

2) Delivering compassionate, whole-person care, as close as possible to peoples homes

3) Ensuring rapid access to high quality specialist services when people need them

4) Joining up care across health and other services

5) Improving care for disadvantaged groups

6) Supporting the development of more resilient communities.

We believe that the best chance of delivering these priorities will be through:

Working together as a partnership

Sharing our staff and resources

Empowering staff across our system

Collaborating with people and communities

Focusing on learning, improvement, and innovation

Delivery will require the post holder to deliver interventions at Place, Borough, and at a System level.

Aptitude, Personal Characteristics

Essential

• Ability to work independently and as a member of a larger team
• Able to manage time and meet deadlines
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Excellent problemsolving skills
• Approachable and adaptable with ability to deliver development initiatives at short notice/ in different settings when required
• Motivated and enthusiastic and able to use own initiative.
• Ability to apply research findings and support evidence-based practice.
• Promotes an environment of stakeholder involvement in decision-making.
• Demonstrable commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and equal opportunities
• Ability to undertake training and direct own learning

Skills, Knowledge and abilities

Essential

• Commitment to high quality, individualised holistic care to patients and their relatives/ carers.
• Awareness of health and safety procedures and how they affect people in the workplace.
• A knowledge of the issues related to provision of IPC in the community and an understanding of some of the challenges that may arise.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Computer literacy with knowledge of Windows based applications
• Able to demonstrate effective working with members of a variety of professional groups at varying levels of seniority across a number of different organisations.

Desirable

• Knowledge and understanding of the social care environment, strategy, and policy agendas.
• Evidence of contributing to policy making and standard setting
• A valid UK driving licence

Qualifications

Essential

• RN with NMC Registration
• Educated to Masters level or equivalent knowledge, skills and experience
• Specialist IPC qualification
• Evidence of relevant Continued Professional Development

Desirable

• Teaching qualification
• Project Management qualification

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of having worked in a variety of different settings including care homes/ community bedded facilities
• Experience of working with extremely clinically vulnerable individuals
• Experience of working as part of a multi professional team/ across teams
• Experience of leading a team/ supervising staff/ students
• Experience of delivering training
• Experience of running audit from planning to delivery and evidence of quality improvement in clinical practise

Desirable

• Experience of working with multiple stakeholders
• Experience of Project Management

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).