Job responsibilities
To be professionally accountable for the maintenance of standards of professional practice and behaviours as set by the Nursing & Midwifery Council, national legislation and local standards
To take personal responsibility for actions and omissions, and fully recognise personal accountability
To practise within an ethical framework based upon dignity and respect for the well-being and safety of patients and clients
To demonstrate expert and extensive knowledge in areas such as diagnostics, therapeutics, the biological, social and epidemiological sciences, and enhanced skills in areas such as consultation and clinical decision-making in a variety of settings
Undertake interventional procedures/ highly specialist diagnostics with appropriate consent
Act as a change agent, developing clinically effective practice through the effective utilisation and integration of evidence based practice, setting implementing and monitoring evidence based standards of care, policies, procedures and protocols
Ensure a culture of continuous quality improvement through the use of audit, patient feedback and reflection on practice by self and other members of the team.
Promote a clean and safe environment for staff, patients and visitors by ensuring compliance with legislation, policies and protocols including health and safety, healthcare associated infection prevention, clinical governance, including risk management and critical incident reporting and root cause analysis.
Ensure a high standard of compassionate clinical care and record keeping in accordance with Nursing and Midwifery Council, national legislation and local standards
Lead effective communication with the multi-professional team regarding patient care.
Assess the risks involved in the care of patients and ensure utilisation of practices and protocols to minimise those risks, including safe use of medical devices.
To monitor the standards of care and take appropriate actions when standards fall below expected levels.
Report incidents and near misses promptly and appropriately and take effective action to minimise future risk.
Identify and implement systems to promote contribution of advanced level nursing and demonstrate the impact of advanced level nursing to the healthcare team and the wider health and social care sector
Continually evaluate and audit the practice of self and others at individual and systems levels, selecting and applying valid and reliable approaches and methods which are appropriate to needs and context, and acting on the findings
Continually assess and monitor risk in own and others practice and challenge others about wider risk factors
Critically appraise and synthesise the outcomes of relevant research, evaluations and audits and apply the information when seeking to improve practice
To enhance the patients experience
To assess individuals, families and populations holistically using a range of different assessment methods, physical examination, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests or advanced health needs assessment
Have a health promotion and prevention orientation, and comprehensively assess patients for risk factors and early signs of illness. Using making every contact count as an approach to change behaviour through interactions with individuals, carers and families to support them in making positive changes to their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Draw on a diverse range of highly specialist knowledge in decision-making to determine evidence-based therapeutic interventions prescribe medication and actively monitor the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions
Working in partnership with others, delegate and refer to other professions and services as appropriate to optimise health outcomes and resource use
Use professional judgement in independently managing complex and unpredictable care events and capture the learning from these experiences to improve patient care and service delivery.
Draw upon an appropriate range of multi-agency and inter-professional resources in clinical practice.
Work within appropriately defined boundaries of practice.
Ensure an effective and efficient patients journey by being responsible for supervising/ planning and co-ordination of the episode of care including the smooth transition to other settings, promoting safe and effective discharge and optimising communication with interdisciplinary and interagency teams as required.
Co-ordinate nursing/midwifery interventions advise on clinical decisions and monitor the quality of patient care provided through using expert clinical knowledge relevant to own field of practice, underpinned by theory and experience
Within a multidisciplinary framework, develop a culture of person-centred care.
Promote a caring environment where equality and diversity issues are respected and patients are enabled to be partners in their care
Identify opportunities to develop care and services by ensuring that there are effective systems in place to ascertain patient and carer experience/feedback and ensure complaints are managed in line with organisational policy, including the dissemination of learning points
Ensure that everyone within the sphere of care is treated with dignity and humanity, understanding individual needs, showing compassion and sensitivity, and provide care in a way that respects all people equally
Provide advice to own services and other professions on therapeutic interventions, practice and service development.
Plan opportunities to generate and apply new knowledge to own and others practice in structured ways which are capable of evaluation
Safely use patient group directives (PGD)/ non-medical prescribing as appropriate to service needs
Demonstrate resilience and determined leadership in contexts that are unfamiliar, complex and unpredictable.
Strive constantly to improve practice and health outcomes so that they are consistent with or better than national and international standards through initiating, facilitating and leading change at individual, team, organisational and system levels
Engage stakeholders and use high-level negotiating and influencing skills to develop and improve practice.
Work across professional, organisational and system boundaries and proactively develop and sustain new partnerships and networks to influence and improve health, outcomes and healthcare delivery systems.
Develop practices and roles that are appropriate to patient and service need through understanding the implications of and applying epidemiological, demographic, social, political and professional trends and developments.
In partnership with others identify the need for change, proactively generate practice innovations and lead new practice and service redesign solutions to better meet the needs of patients and the service.
Act as a visible positive role model, creating a supportive ethos to empower staff to contribute to the delivery of high quality person centred care.
Ensure nurses and nursing staff take responsibility for the care they provide and answer for their own judgments and actions and carry out those actions in a way that is agreed with their patients, and the families and carers, and in a way that meets the requirements of organisational policies and procedures, their professional bodies and the law.
Take all reasonable care of health and safety at work for you, your team and others and to co-operate with employers to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements.
Create a learning environment that ensures effective learning opportunities for staff and students including appropriate orientation and induction programmes, a range of clinical support strategies (mentoring, coaching, peer review and clinical supervision).
Plan, monitor and evaluate ongoing mandatory training and relevant education and development opportunities for the nursing team.
Maintain training needs analyses to support standards of care delivery development of the service.Develop strategies and undertake activities that monitor and improve the quality of healthcare and the effectiveness of own and others practice.
