Job responsibilities
Promote and set high standards of professional nursing care and maintain the delivery of quality care within the trust policies, protocols, and guidelines.
Implement the trust values and beliefs, ensuring they are embedded into everyday practice and evaluate their impact on the patients experience.
Provide professional nursing leadership to all staff within the sphere of clinical responsibility. Lead by example and motivate staff by giving clear directives and set achievable objectives through APDR process.
Responsible for the assessment of care needs, development, implementation, and evaluation of programmes of care on a day-to-day basis.
Always maintain a high visible presence within the clinical area ensuring that the patients, visitors, healthcare staff and the multidisciplinary team, always can have access to the senior staff. Act as an effective professional role model and expert clinician. idence-based practice, initiate, manage, and evaluate changes that lead to improved
and high standards of care, and in particular any service changes required, following
feedback from patients.
Communicating,
influencing, and working in tandem with the multidisciplinary team (MDT) in
different ways to improve the quality of care, and informed clinical decisions.
Promote creativity and innovation and participate in benchmarking and quality
audits to measure effectiveness of current practices. Maintain standards of
fundamental nursing care, using tools such as the Portsmouth Bundle.
In
collaboration with members of the MDT, ensure that the users of the service and
their families have a positive experience. Encourage feedback (Elephant
Surveys, Family and Friends Test, concerns, and complaints) to evaluate patient
processes and pathways of care and are redesigned as required.
Create a
culture for learning and development, that will sustain person-centred safe and
effective care.
Ensure that
the concerns raised by patients and their families are dealt with in an open, honest,
and transparent way; quickly and effectively, in line with trust policies,
procedures and Duty of Candour legislation.
Support
junior colleagues in the provision of direct care; facilitate learning in and
from practice at the same time as working alongside; or undertaking a care plan
review when a serious incident or complaint has occurred.
Confirm accurate
and timely nursing records are maintained, monitoring standards, and taking
corrective action as required.
Ensure all
staff in the clinical area are competent in the use of medical
devices/equipment and have access to training and monitoring compliance.
Management/Leadership
Responsible
for the organisation and management of the ward/department when on duty.
Have an
overall view of the intensity of the workload and the experience of the staff
and act to utilise the nursing skill mix on duty to ensure the nursing cover
achieves a high standard of nursing care.
With the
Senior Sister/Charge Nurse use the Trust Ward Accreditation Programme, an
essential part of the organisations Safe and Effective Care Framework to
strive towards achieving excellence for the clinical area. Key quality indicators embedded in the
framework, alongside trust peer reviews and focused CQC style reviews will be
tools to measure the ward/department performance and identify key areas for
improvement.
Manage the
discharge and transfer of patients by using the SAFER discharge bundle and
other discharge policies to ensure a seamless transition from hospital to home
or other community care services.
Actively
contribute to achieving the clinical governance goals/targets set by the Trust
and department and comply with reporting schedules for monitoring and reporting
on clinical outcomes.
Implement the
Nursing Strategy by setting clear achievable objectives for staff who the post
holder manages into annual performance and development reviews and evaluate
performance.
Robust roster
management taking into consideration the skill mix and inform senior
sister/charge nurse of any issues as they arise. Working with the Senior
Sister/Charge Nurse contribute to the recruitment, selection, and retention of
the nursing workforce.
With the
Senior Sister/Charge Nurse look a succession plan for any hard to recruit posts
and use Talent Management skills to identify key staff for further development.
Be proactive
in the prevention and management of complaints (formal and those via Patient
Advice and Liaison Service) and when they occur investigate and respond in a
timely manner. Use any learning to share widely with the multidisciplinary team
and to improve care delivery.
Responsible
for the management of staff performance and attendance in line with trust
policies.
Promote the
health and well-being of staff, patients, and their carers.
Comply and
promote compliance with Trust policies and guidelines e.g., Health and Safety,
Clinical Risk, and Infection Control.
Take
appropriate action to address unexpected changes and situations, informing the
Senior Sister/Charge Nurse or other if unable to resolve.
Contribute to
the ward/department pay and non-pay budgets to ensuring good housekeeping and
economic use of resources.
Delegate duties
and tasks as appropriate to team members and evaluate the outcomes. Ensure
efficient bed management.
Work closely
with partners i.e., Engie, resolving any issues regarding cleanliness,
provision of food and maintenance of the environment. Ensure staff are aware
how to escalate when issues cannot be resolved.
Research and
Education
Research
Contribute to
a research culture within the nursing team to identify current knowledge and
deliver evidence-based care.
Support local
research teams, actively contribute to local department multidisciplinary
audits, represent the clinical area at governance meetings and highlight areas
for change.
Liaise with
the relevant research nurse to ensure patients are identified to take part in
clinical research studies and research is delivered safely on the ward.
Report
research activity as standard practice and as part of the ward accreditation
process.
Embed in the
team culture the concept of recruitment to clinical trials which is a national
performance indicator.
Education
Ensure staff
under the post holder, has an annual personal development review, and set
achievable objectives. Feed agreed development opportunities into the
department training plan.
Create an
environment that is conducive to learning and encourage team open-ness so that
an evidence-based approach is utilised and applied to nursing care.
Act as a
mentor and coach for student nurses, support staff and junior team members
Commit to and
encourage a culture where students receive quality placements supported by
mentorship and teaching from the multi-professional team.
With the
Senior Sister/Charge Nurse ensure student mentors and sign off mentors within
the clinical area are up to date with NMC standards, including annual updates
and undertaking triennial reviews.
Responsible
for ensuring that ward/department staff undertake essential training.
Ensure there
are processes in place for the orientation of new/temp staff and preceptorship
for junior nurses.
Communication
and Working Relations
Communicate
highly sensitive and complex information with empathy ensuring that information
is well understood.
Maintain
excellence in communicating and co-operating with other wards and departments,
promoting and maintaining good working relationships within own clinical area
and across the organisation, giving accurate information as required and keeping
everyone informed of any untoward incidents.
Develop
expertise in dealing with interpersonal conflict and be responsible for the
resolution of any adverse situation/incidents. Comply and promote compliance to
Trust policies e.g. Harassment and Bullying.
Make sure to
be an active member of the clinical nursing team contributing to relevant Trust
wide nursing groups and meetings.
Represent the
Senior Sister/Charge Nurse in their absence at ward level.
Working
Conditions and Effort
Expect frequent
moderate efforts for several short periods, such as moves, manoeuvres -
patients from bed to chair, wheelchair patients and transferring patients from
ward to ward.
May be
exposed to distressing circumstances eg. if working with patients who are
terminally ill and also their families, and/or exposed to other conditions.
Frequent
exposure to unpleasant or highly unpleasant working conditions e.g. bodily
fluids, smell, etc.
