Clinical Nurse Specialist , Pre-Operative Assessment

Job summary

The post holder will work in autonomy within the nurse led PreoperativeAssessment service in accordance with local policies, protocol, and guidelines alongside the inter professional team.

The post holder should be aware of the role of Pre-operative assessment in the overall Trust need to provide high quality, efficient service of care that respects its patients and staff. Providing effective Preoperative assessment will deliver optimal surgical intervention, with benefits for patient and hospital.

Following training and competency assessments, will be responsible to assess the elective surgical patients' fitness for anaesthetic and surgery. To identify patients' health and ill-health, noting and organising specific action resulting from the assessment which may include requesting additional investigations; liaising across nursing, anaesthetic, medical and surgical divisions and ensuring the patient is kept informed at each step.

To support the Preoperative Assessment team (POA) through training of junior members of the team and actively assisting in the development of the policies and protocols relating to the department at all times, to work as an inter-professional member of the primary and secondary care team.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is independently responsibility for arranging an effective, appropriate assessment for a case load of elective surgical patients. They will obtain and record an accurate patient history, observations and complete a chest auscultation to determine normal / abnormal sounds to lungs and heart.

It is the responsibility of the POA assessor to request investigations and / or referral to specialist assistance such as anaesthetist, cardiology or cancer care in order to aid in decision making prior to the elective admission.

To provide and receive complex patient information in relation to investigations, relaying this in a manner that can be understood by patient.

About us

With nearly9,000 dedicated staff caring for patients around the clock, they are the largest healthcare provider in southwest London.Their main site, St George's Hospital in Tooting - one of the country's principal teaching hospitals - is shared with St George's, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research. St George's Hospital also hosts the St George's, University of London and Kingston University Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, which is responsible for training a wide range of healthcare professionals from across the region.

As well as acute hospital services, they provide a wide variety of specialist care and a full range of community services to patients of all ages following integration with Community Services Wandsworth in 2010.

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of 1.3 million across southwest London. A large number of services, such as cardiothoracic medicine and surgery, neurosciences and renal transplantation, also cover significant populations from Surrey and Sussex, totalling around 3.5 million people.

The trust also provides care for patients from a larger catchment area in southeast England, for specialties such as complex pelvic trauma. Other services treat patients from all over the country, such as family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases. The trust also provides a nationwide state-of-the-art endoscopy training centre.