Clinical Nurse Specialist Rapid Diagnostic Centre

Job description

Job responsibilities

Responsibility for Patient Care

The post-holder will:

1. Actively engage service users throughout the development of the RDC and pathways

2.Accept referrals directly from primary and secondary care into the service as appropriate

3. With the key medical staff, help lead, organise, develop and deliver a service involving follow-up of individual patients

4.Enhance the quality of care provided to patients presenting with potential symptoms of cancer-early recognition, rapid onward referral to specialist cancer or specialist palliative care teams in hospital or community as appropriate

5. Provide assessment (including e-HNA) and evaluation of individual patient needs referring to other multidisciplinary team members, as appropriate, using set guidelines and protocols; this includes comprehensively assessing patient suitability and level of risk using service proformas and policies, contributing to the recommendation of best treatment options using clinical protocols; this may include referral straight to CT

6. Order appropriate clinical investigations as required within the required timeframe

7.Attend any RDC Clinical / MDT meetings and contribute to the discussions and feedback patient assessment / care planning and management decisions as appropriate as the key worker

8.Participate in the decision making process with the medical and multidisciplinary team to ensure appropriateness of referral to the RDC

9. Review and interpret all information available utilising a systematic process of reasoning to make a working and differential diagnosis with the support of medical staff as required

10. Lead, organise, develop and deliver a clinical service (and caseload as appropriate) on a day-to-day basis in the RDC service including follow-up of individual patients care or to ensure there are appropriate onwards referrals to other clinical teams if required as appropriate

11. Ensure that the consultation environment is conducive to a professional patient assessment, positively reflecting the reputation of the service and that it provides the patient maximum privacy and dignity

12. Collect, collate, evaluate and report information, maintaining accurate patient records

13. Ensure effective contribution to clinical decisions regarding changes to patient care interventions

14. Provide telephone help/advice for patients and carers along with the RDC Navigators

15. Maintain a high clinical profile and facilitate application of theory to practice, whilst carrying out clinical duties in accordance with National, Network, Trust and local standards and policies, in order to improve the quality of care

Planning and Organising

The post-holder will:

1. Ensure objectives for the service are appropriate, delivered on time, to a high quality and in a cost effective manner, adjusting plans as required

2. Support the RDC Project Team to work with a wide range of stakeholders (including patients & carers) to develop clear and deliverable plans on any redesign and improvement work required for the service resulting from service evaluation and other feedback including education and training initiatives

3. Support joint working between teams and between primary, secondary (and tertiary where applicable) care on identified project components

4. Support the RDC Project Team in managing the quality of key programme documentation, product development including commissioning specification, policies and other documents

5. Support the RDC Project Team in highlighting exceptions and risks ensuring mitigating actions can be taken to keep the programme on track

6. Support RDC Project Team on local scoping work to identify gaps and dependencies

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development and Implementation

1. Report and investigate any adverse incidents relating to the management of the RDC service, making recommendations as appropriate and taking actions to avoid the adverse incident in the future
2. Support the RDC Project Team as required to collate qualitative and quantitative information and lead appropriate analysis to develop robust business cases and contribute to development of the service

1. Lead, propose and implement policy/service change which may impact beyond own area of work
2. Support the RDC Project Team and the Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer to design policies and guidelines relevant to the role

Responsibilities for Human Resources and Leadership

1. Support the Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer to ensuring effective leadership and management of the RDC Service, working in partnership with the Clinicians and linking with key stakeholders and deputising where required
2. Support the Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer in providing direction for the service.

Responsibilities for Teaching and Training

1. Support RDC Project Team if required to lead (large) groups in multi-professional workshops and other improvement development events
2. To share learning with other programme staff, other commissioners and services as needed in discussion with the Line Manager and the various local and regional RDC programme groups
3. Maintain a peer network of support, information and learning with other nurse specialists

Responsibilities for data and information resources

1. In conjunction the RDC Project Team as appropriate interpret data from a broad range of organisations to identify improvement areas and present this in a clear and concise format
2. Provide data to enable the evaluation, analysis and interpretation of progress and performance

Research, Development and Audit

The post-holder will:

1. Identify objectives for own professional development through effective Contribution Framework (CF2) participation which reflect local and national service needs in discussion with the RDC Lead Nurse

2. Act as a resource to others in developing and improving knowledge and skills in others including the RDC navigators

3. Contribute to the development of practice knowledge within the speciality through internal and external presentation and publication as appropriate

4. Network with peers including the attendance at appropriate forums internally and externally

5. Maintain own and others awareness of relevant research evidence related to the speciality and work others in applying this to practice as appropriate

6. Support the Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer to develop evidence based standards, policies and guidelines at a local, network and national level to improve the practice of own and other professions

7. Support the Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer to evaluate clinical effectiveness within the speciality, identifying poor quality and a plan for quality improvement

8. Take part in reflection and appropriate learning from practice, in order to maintain and develop competence and performance as appropriate

Partnership Working

1. Contribute to defining and clarifying the strategic direction of the service with the Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer and RDC Project Team

2. Engage and facilitate all interested stakeholders of the service in the planning of service development as appropriate in conjunction with Associate Director of Nursing for Cancer

3. Continually review and evaluate policies, strategies and service development to maintain and improve care delivery as appropriate

4. Encourage and facilitate changes in working practice in line with Stockport NHS Foundation Trust objectives

5. Develop and facilitate team working across functional boundaries

6. Work with the Clinical Teams to enable delivery of the clinical governance agenda and the continual improvement of services

7. Ensure the involvement of users in service planning and development and that their views, including complaints are effectively sought, channelled and acted upon in line with Trust policy

8. To contribute to local/regional/national groups related to the RDC

Person Specification

1st level degree , RMN/RN

Essential

• Has Degree in Nursing

Desirable

• Part way to achieving degree

Non medical prescribing

Essential

• Is a NMP

Desirable

• going through NMP
• Willing to undertake NMP

post registration learning

Essential

• Post registration experience in specialist area
• Leadership experience

Desirable

• limited evidence of speciality specific learning

Communication

Essential

• Advanced communication skills

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Bolton Hosptial

Minerva Road

Bolton

BL4 0JR

Employer's website

http://www.boltonft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)