Senior Palliative Care Nurse (Children's)

Job responsibilities

To assess, plan, implement, deliver and evaluate holistic family centred care taking into account the child and familys physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs. This may take place in a range of settings Completion of clinical care plans to support efficient delivery of care and contribute to the development of individualised Symptom Management Plans. To use clinical judgement and autonomous decision making about nursing care requirements to address the needs of children and young people, which are complex and have potential to change.

To be involved in and support all staff in providing high quality palliative and end of life care, and bereavement support, ensuring safe delivery where care is delegated

To manage and prioritise own workload, constantly reassessing to accommodate demands for crisis intervention and ensure ongoing continuity of the service

To work within designated locality team and the wider childrens service to establish and maintain effective communication processes with children, young people and their families, colleagues and the broader multi disciplinary team, internally and externally.

Ensure timely and appropriate referral to relevant services to enhance the care of the child and family

To be actively involved in the sharing of knowledge with families and all those who care for the child in a range of settings.

To encourage parental participation in care and to demonstrate, instruct and supervise parents/carers in nursing procedures, which may be safely delegated to them.

Enabling families to reach their maximum potential for health and well being To be able to act as an advocate, promoting empowerment as opposed to dependence, for children and families as appropriate, facilitating informed choice and opportunity.

This includes initiating and actively supporting the child/young person/family with Advance Care Planning and decisions regarding care To be able to respond to the demands of the family in a flexible way; workload is delegated within the team to maintain a healthy work/life balance in accordance with the working time directive.

Take a lead role in planning discharges from hospice or hospital to the community or hospice settings so that plans are comprehensive and effective, ensuring that parallel planning takes place if a child is deemed to be nearing end of life.

Ensure all statutory processes following a childs death are completed efficiently and participate in the Child Death Review process

Provide professional and managerial leadership and maintain an awareness of the needs of colleagues, ensuring they are supported to deliver the requirements of their roles.

Participate in staff support sessions

Undertake annual appraisals of childrens service staff, identifying training needs and establishing and monitoring objectives.

Work with individual staff members to encourage personal and professional growth and development.

Take reasonable care of the health and safety of yourself and other persons who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work and cooperate with the Hospice to ensure that statutory and departmental regulations are adhered to.

Ensure comprehensive, accurate and up to date written and electronic record keeping is maintained in line with legislation and organisational standards.

Participate in external teaching, training and delivery of education where appropriate.

Ensure adequate and appropriate resourcing of the service including;

• safe staffing levels to meet the flexible needs of service delivery
• effectiveness of equipment in use
• building and maintenance
• faults must reported in a timely way

To participate in an On Call Rota system, which ensures;

• the team are responsive to families at all times, when a child is on the Red caseload.
• specialist telephone advice and support is available to any family or professional involved in the care of a child with a life limiting condition
• advice and support for staff on the childrens in patient unit

• In exceptional circumstances the on call nurse may be required to go into the hospice to support a childs care or in the event of staff sickness where no other staffing can be sourced

Participate in recruitment and development of Childrens services staff.

Participate in regular psychosocial and multi-professional meetings with acute services

Experience

Essential

• Symptom control in palliative care
• Current trends in
• nursing/paediatrics
• Child Protection Procedures
• Evidence of recent professional
• up-dating
• Use of reflective practice
• An understanding of the concept
• of clinical governance

Desirable

• Trends in palliative care for children
• Involvement in the development of guidelines and protocols

Qualifications

Essential

• Minimum of 2 years post registration childrens nursing experience
• Caring for sick children with special and complex needs
• Care of the dying child and their
• RSCN

Desirable

• Learning disabilities qualification
• Community qualification

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Symptom control in palliative care
• Current trends in nursing/paediatrics
• Child Protection Procedures
• Evidence of recent professional up-dating
• Use of reflective practice
• An understanding of the concept of clinical governance
• Excellent clinical nursing skills in complex medical care
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to organise and manage workload priorities
• Skills in effective use of clinica lsupervision
• Good IT skills
• Teaching and presentation skills
• Ability to work in collaboration with other professionals/teams
• Belief in holistic and family centred care

Desirable

• Trends in palliative care for children
• Involvement in the development of guidelines and protocols
• Training as a Clinical Supervisor

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).