Job responsibilities
Patient Care:
1. Take personal responsibility for the nursing care of patients in the clinical setting.
2. Ensure changes, advice, day-to-dayactivity and tests are documented contemporaneously, giving a clear profile of care received during a patients visit to the care setting.
3. Plan,allocate, supervise and evaluate working practices of the team on a day-to-day basis.
4. Provide professional advice and support to team members so that theyare able to assume responsibility to carry out delegated duties.
5. Facilitate andmaintain clinical competence/skills of self and others in day-to-day working practices.
6. Assist the Supervisory Sisters to ensure clinical competence/skills of members of the nursing team meet the requirements of Trust Policies and Procedures, and are measurable against benchmarking standards.
7. Undertakeadditional nursing tasks, relevant to clinical area and specialism
8. Ensure all members of the multi-disciplinary team are aware as changes occur.
9. Compliance with all infection control policies and procedures will form an integral part of the practice of all staff involved in direct patient care.
10. Clinical staff will seek support and advice from infection control in all instances where cross infection is likely to have occurred or when managing situation involving patients with infections where guidance provided in the policies is not applicable.
11. All staff will contact occupational health if they are suffering from any form of infection which may put patents and other staff at risk
Policy and Service Development:
1. Contribute to the development of speciality specific clinical protocols and guidelines.
Supervisory and Management Responsibilities:
1. Assist Supervisory Sisters and support cascade of information to department team in a timely manner.
2. Deputise for the Supervisory Sisters as required.
3. Assist Supervisory Sisters in compliance with all Health and Safety and Risk Management requirements relating to the clinical area.
4. Hold the outpatients bleep and be the point of contact for staff requiring support with the day to day running of the gates in the absence of the supervisory sisters.
5. Investigate clinical incidents/complaints, report and take any actionrequired to the Supervisory Sisters. Initiate any immediate actions required to ensure patient and staff safety is maintained.
6. Provide professional and operational management of department on aday-to-day basis.
7. Support Supervisory Sisters to implement Trust HR Policies and Guidelines consistently across area of responsibility.
8. Act as Directorate/Service/Department representative at meetings in the absence of the Supervisory Sisters.
9. Assist Supervisory Sisters in recruitment of staff to department team.
Financial Responsibilities:
1. In the absence of the Supervisory Sisters, ensure department resources are managed effectively and appropriate action taken.
2. Be aware of the financial position of thedepartment and discuss any areas of concern with the Supervisory Sisters or Clinical Matron for the area.
3. Work within Trust and departmental protocols for deployment of staff and utilisation of temporary staffing
Education:
1. In support of the Supervisory Sisters, ensure staff are given appropriate training and support to undertake their day-to-day duties safely and competently, in line with NMC and Trust requirements.
2. Contribute to the facilitation of a suitable educational environment in which to support the development and learning of ward team members and students on placement.
3. Act as a practice supervisor and assessor to students on placement.
4. Provide expert advice within sphere of specialism
Training and Development:
1. Undertake staff appraisals in line with Trust requirements
2. Undertake designated training role as required by the department.
Research and Development:
1. Ensure that own and teams practice is evidence based and in line with National Service Frameworks and/or other given standards.
2. Participate and facilitate others in research and audit. Assist in implementing recommendations of audits or other related documents, e.g. patient & staff surveys and complaints.
3. Act as a department link nurse to directorate/Trust, ensuring feedback to team, enabling review of practice, e.g. tissue viability, palliative care etc
Freedom to Act:
1. Work and undertake duties as delegated by the Supervisory Sisters.
2. Workat all times within speciality, directorate and Trust Guidelines, procedures and policies.
3. Supervise work carried out by other team members.
Communication and Information:
1. Maintain effective communication of patient information with the internal Trust and external members of the multidisciplinary team.
2. Communicate effectively via verbal, written and electronic routes.
3. Maintain contemporaneous patient records.
Communicate and record all information in accordance with Trust Policies and Data Protection Act
Workloads may be unpredictable on a day-to-day basis and variations in activity should be expected.
Staff are required to walk or stand for the majority of the shift time.
Weekend and late working may be expected as part of the role, unless otherwise agreed with relevant managers.
Manual handling of loads and patients using the appropriate aids and assessments will be required on all shifts.
Pushing trolleys, chairs and other furniture according to manual handling policies may be required on all shifts.
Contact with blood and bodily fluids on all shifts.
The staff nurse may be expected to deal with distressed, violent or aggressive (verbally or physically) patients and relatives on occasion.
The requirement to take responsibility for safeguarding vulnerable patients.
Due to the nature of the workload staff will be required to concentrate at a high level often during the shift in relation to carrying out instructions/documentation/communication. This will involve the use of computer screens for short periods of time
The staff nurse will be required to be responsible for multiple tasks, delegation, other staff/carers and patients simultaneously frequently throughout a shift.
Staff maybe required to act quickly and immediately in the event of emergencies or other unexpected events within the area.
Frequent telephone interruptions requesting help or advice.
