Specialist Nurse

Job responsibilities

To manage the Hospice at Home caseload both in the office and in the patients home with assessments, reassessments and liaising with external partners and multi-disciplinary teams.

Accepting and processing referrals, ensuring appropriate and timely services are delivered.

Providing leadership, support and guidance, and working with H@H administrators, H@H care staff to ensure the provision of high quality end of life care in patients homes.

Preventing unnecessary admission to acute sector or residential care settings and enabling patients to be cared for and to die at home. Working on a rota basis to provide cover 7 days per week between the hours of 07:00 and 22:00.

Providing support to the Hospice and Home Manager and Director of Care to develop and innovate the service, with delegated operational responsibility in the absence of the Head of Hospice at Home.

Main duties and responsibilities

Line Management

Responsible for the recruitment and induction and probation of new HCAs and RNs

To Line Manage HCAs and RNs and manage employee relations issues, liaising with HR where appropriate

To undertake regular performance reviews with the HCAs and accompany them on visits to ensure performance standards are maintained.

Clinical

To work directly with H@H team members in the community setting, monitoring standards and performance and assessing competency To work towards achieving the local hospice and the National NHSE career pathway, core capabilities in practice and education framework competencies. To support the service with any additional clinical skills required to develop the service and provide a high standard of timely patient care. To provide clinical advice and support to the Administrators in the planning and booking of care, ensuring a match of clinical needs with appropriate H@H staff To liaise and communicate effectively with patients and carers, to be confident in dealing with challenging or distressing situations To liaise with GPs, District Nurses, Hospital teams, Continuing Healthcare and other providers to support the provision of high quality care To act as a clinical resource, planning, implementing and evaluating End of Life nursing care delivered to patients in their own homes Providing emotional support for family and carers and referring to Living Well if required Participate in weekly meetings with the CNS team and monthly meetings with Living Well

Administration

To work with Administrators to support the rostering of staff and allocation of care based on clinical need

To ensure effective communication between members of the H@H team and other health and social care providers so that patient care is coordinated and seamless

To maintain accurate electronic records regarding all aspects of service provision including patient records and staff documentation

Governance

To contribute to the production of policies, guidelines and protocols to ensure improvements in the quality of patient care, are safe, clinically effective and based best practice evidence

To support the governance structures within hospice at home, including the development and assessment of competencies, outcome measures, audits and surveys

To support data collection to analyse service delivery including capacity and demand

To support the timely reporting of incidents ensuring an appropriate review, documenting learning and actions

To ensure risks are minimised through identifying any potential risks and ensuring that polices and health and safety practices are adhered to

Contribute to the setting and monitoring of standards including proposing actions required to improve the quality of services

Monitoring the standards of care and professional practice delivered to H@H patients and their carers, through a structured governance and assurance framework.

Education and Training

To support the mentoring process for new staff ensuring that they have attained relevant skills and competency during their induction and probationary period

To be responisoble for your own clinical knowledge and ensure it is up to date with current guidelines and evidence based practice

To support the acquisition and development of skills of the H@H nursing team through close working relationships providing support, education and supervision

To attend internal and external meetings and conferences, where necessary

To actively promote the use of End of Life Care Initiatives by raising awareness among health care staff about the needs of clients and their families and carers

To participate and contribute to any external or internal education both formally and informally within in competence boundaries

Professional

To maintain confidentiality of information about patients, staff and other hospice business at all times and to abide by The NMC Code

To attend network / multidisciplinary team / Primary and Secondary Care meetings as requested, to represent hospice community services and disseminate and cascade information

To demonstrate a proactive, creative and problem solving approach to the planning and organisation of the service in conjunction with the Hospice at Home Manager

To work closely with the wider hospice team to ensure that there is excellent communication between the teams with regard support and care of patients in the community

To participate in the recruitment, selection, supervision and induction of new staff

To carry out regular appraisals for staff that within your line management

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Knowledge of patient services in palliative care
• Evidence of previous Line Management of staff
• Knowledge and experience of undertaking individual performance reviews
• Competent and confident user of MS office products such as Word, Outlook + Excel
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Well developed organisational skills and experience of managing clinical priorities
• Ability to work collaboratively and work with other healthcare professsionals
• Expert clinical skills

Desirable

• Desirable:
• Sound knowledge of research and audit
• Presentation and Teaching skills

Qualifications

Essential

• Essential
• Registered Nurse with NMC PIN
• Educated to or working towards degree level
• Evidence of a teaching/assessing qualification

Desirable

• Desirable
• Post graduate qualification in Palliative and End of Life Care

Experience

Essential

• Essential
• Significant Registered Nurse experience at band 5 or equivalent
• Experience of working in a community setting
• Experience of working with carers
• Evidence and experience of supervision and mentoring of students and other staff
• Experience in using Electronic patient records

Desirable

• Desirable
• Experience and knowledge of working with clinical governance processes and procedures

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).