Job responsibilities
Primary
duties & areas of responsibility
Key
responsibilities and duties include:
Leadership
and management
The Head of Nursing has overall
responsibility for the leadership and line management of nursing/midwifery
across the CSU and is the named and identified lead for all issues of
nursing/midwifery practice within the CSU.
Identified as the senior
nurse/midwife within the CSU Triumvirate responsible for decision making
where practice or service delivery issues cross matron specialities or
require cross speciality leadership.
Has overall responsibility for the
delivery of safe and clinically effective care within the CSU - providing
assurance evidence in this regard to the Nurse Director (Operations) and
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Has line management responsibility
for Matrons and directly reporting ward managers within the CSU.
Leads and manages the clinical
services in defined clinical areas/specialities.
Deputises for the Clinical Director
and the Nurse Director (Operations) when required.
Utilises leadership and management
skills to ensure the effective planning and delivery of nursing care and
services across the CSU planning for seasonal variations in case mix and
workload and collaborating with other Heads of Nursing where cross CSU
working is required.
Provides credible, visible and
effective leadership, to Matrons and the nursing/midwifery team within the
CSU.
Through performance management and
monitoring, ensures essential quality standards are achieved and improved.
Leads and participates in performance review programmes throughout the
clinical areas.
Contributes to the leadership of
nursing and midwifery within the Trust as a member of the professional forum.
Develops mechanisms to enable
Matrons to develop and strengthen their leadership and management skills in
order to meet the responsibilities of their roles.
Actively works to support and
empower Senior Sisters/Charge Nurses to develop and utilise their clinical
leadership skills. Enabling them to assume appropriate levels of authority to
undertake their role effectively to support and develop the leadership within
their wards and teams.
Takes the lead on defined and time
limited projects or work programmes across the CSU identified by the Nurse
Director (Operations) to support the delivery of Trust priorities, national
and local professional priorities and objectives.
Takes the lead on defined areas of
professional practice on behalf of the Nurse Director (Operations).
Participates in Trust initiatives
to develop and improve clinical practice and patient care, providing expert
advice and current service provision future developments.
Participates in the Trust on-call
rota
Communication
Establishes and fosters an
effective working relationship with the triumvirate team to lead improvement
in nursing and midwifery care and service delivery and the achievement of
organisational priorities within the CSU.
Utilises negotiating and
influencing skills to secure and support change and improvement in care and
service delivery within the CSU.
Ensuring robust systems are in
place within the CSU to deliver effective communication from wards and
departments to the CSU management team (ward to board and board to ward
communication).
Taking the lead role within the CSU
for communicating with individual nursing and midwifery staff/teams regarding
the context of professional care and service delivery, organisational
priorities and whole hospital transformation, particularly where information
is complex, sensitive or contentious.
Utilises developed interpersonal,
communication, empathetic and re-assurance skills when communicating on an
individual basis with patients, families and staff for example regarding
complaints or complex human resources or professional conduct issues.
Regularly produces written reports
and papers for the CSU triumvirate (e.g. assurance reports and business
cases).
Promotes staff involvement and
engagement within the CSU.
Care
and service - delivery and quality.
Maintains own clinical practice
standards by participating with the delivery of patient care regularly (as
agreed with the Clinical Director and Nurse Director (Operations)).
Maintains a regular visible
presence in own clinical speciality wards and departments.
Has overall responsibility for the
delivery of safe, clinically and cost effective and compassionate
nursing/midwifery care within the CSU. Utilises planning and organisational
skills to ensure services are organised and delivered to achieve on:
Safe
care
Pressure ulcers
Falls
HCAI (including MRSA, CDI and CAUTI)
Nutrition
and hydration
Compassionate,
private and dignified care (including single sex accommodation).
Positive
patient experience, involvement and engagement
Learning
and improving from incidents and complaints
Ensures systems and processes are
in place to monitor and assure the quality of nursing and midwifery care and
patient experience within the CSU.
Provides highly specialised advice
to the CSU manager regarding nursing/midwifery care and service delivery
within the CSU.
Leads and champions the improvement
and development of nursing/midwifery practice within the CSU in line with
regulatory requirements, Trust objectives, national guidance and whole system
transformation.
Lead responsibility for ensuring
the provision of safe, clinically and cost effective nursing/midwifery staffing
within the CSU.
Analyses and interprets data from a
variety of sources to provide a nursing opinion - making decisions regarding
care and service delivery and staffing e.g. roster central to make decisions
on staffing.
Leads service improvement projects
within the CSU, analysing and interpreting highly complex data and making
recommendations to the CSU triumvirate
Responsible for the implementation
of a range of policy and service improvements within area of responsibility.
Utilises polices, regulations and guidance to ensure that appropriate results
are achieved.
Identifies areas for service
improvement, guideline and policy development.
Makes a corporate contribution to
the nursing, clinical practice development and strategic decision making
within the CSU and as a member of the wider Trust senior nursing team.
Identify areas of clinical risk and
take preventive action including incident investigation, staff and patient
feedback and promotion of clinical audit.
Act as a named lead investigator
for serious untoward incidents and never events.
Takes the lead role in ensuring
effective patient and public involvement and engagement within the CSU and
fostering a close working relationship for current services and future
service provision to ensure full user involvement and access.
Promote a culture that supports the
active involvement of patient and carers in actively seeking their views on
services provided in the planning, delivery and evaluation of their care.
Ensure that nursing practice is
delivered in a manner consistent with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct,
the NMC Scope of Professional Practice.
Financial
Responsibility
For
their own area of responsibility:
Prime budget holder for wards and
departments
Operates within the agreed income
and expenditure budget working to ensure financial performance is
optimised.
Implements and actively maintains
frameworks for monitoring financial performance, demonstrating sound
mechanisms for review and for the identification, agreement and
implementation of actions necessary to address performance issues and to
achieve agreed targets.
Supports delegated budget holders
and ensures that they successfully fulfil their financial responsibilities
and can meet the financial competencies required in their role.
Takes overall responsibility for
the development of annual budgets and robust business and financial plans.
Ensures that robust safe and
effective cost efficiency plans are identified and delivered.
Leads the production of bids and
business cases for service developments and capital investment
Initiates, implements and maintains
sound financial governance systems, continuously monitoring adherence against
legislation, policies and procedures and ensuring that effective action is
taken to address issues of risk or non-compliance.
Coordinates and ensures an
appropriate timely response, in respect of any miscellaneous requests
pertaining to finance which require their input, for example around year end
reporting procedures.
As
a member of the CSU Triumvirate:
Provides professional nursing or
midwifery advice into the production of bids and business cases for service
developments and capital investments.
Provides professional nursing or
midwifery advice to the development of business, financial and cost
efficiency plans and the budget setting process, ensuring due regard for
clinically and cost effective care.
Ensures Quality Impact Assessments
are undertaken in respect of all service changes and cost improvement programmes.
Human
Resources, Education and Training
Responsible for the day to day
management of Ward Managers, Senior Sisters, Charge Nurses and Team leaders
within area of responsibility.
Responsible for the line management
of Matron(s) and within the CSU.
Responsible for ensuring nurse and
midwifery staffing within the CSU is in line with the Trust nursing and
midwifery workforce design principles and that safe and effective staffing is
delivered on a daily basis through the implementation of effective rostering
and absence management.
Ensure timely and effective
management of performance, absence and disciplinary matters to meet agreed
targets and ensuring appropriate action is taken within the Trusts policy and
guidelines. Provides guidance and advice to Matrons in this regard.
