Safer Care Practitioner

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

This job is now closed

Job summary

Are you a dedicated healthcare professional with a passion for improving the quality of care for older people? Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking a highly motivated and experienced individual to join our team as a Safer Care Practitioner. In this pivotal role, you will collaborate closely with the Lead Nurse for Older People to enhance and sustain high-quality care in alignment with the Trusts Quality Improvement Strategy and priorities.

As a Safer Care Practitioner, you will contribute to a culture of continuous quality improvement and participate in monitoring activities related to dementia, delirium, falls, and other fundamentals of care.

You should have a minimum of 2 years post-qualification experience in an acute hospital setting, along with professional registration and a bachelors degree in a healthcare-related subject.

If you are ready to make a positive impact on the care of older people and meet the qualifications and experience criteria, we look forward to hearing from you.

Main duties of the job

The Safer Care Practitioner will be clinically credible and undertake clinical work to provide guidance and support to staff in clinical practice, contributing to a flexible and highly visible safer care environment. Responsibilities encompass supporting the Lead Nurse for Older People in delivering and disseminating effective safer healthcare strategies, monitoring activities related to dementia, delirium, falls, and hospital-acquired functional decline, and maintaining up-to-date policies and guidelines. The Safer Care Practitioner will actively collaborate with Divisional Governance Teams, assembling information to inform safer practices in older peoples care. Additionally, the role involves responding to incidents by monitoring and reviewing Datix reports related to falls, participating in local and national audits, interpreting clinical guidance, and contributing to the delivery of training and education on older peoples care.

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is nearly 6,800 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

Best services for local people
Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
Best use of resources
Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Date posted

20 December 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 5

Salary

£28,407 to £34,580.99 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

C9365-23-1284-2

Job locations

Charles Hastings Way

Worcester

Worcestershire

WR5 1DD

Job description

Job responsibilities

Post Title: Safer Care Practitioner

Pay Band: 5

Hours: Full Time 37.5 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Location / Department: Corporate Nursing

Accountable to: Deputy Chief Nursing Officer

Reports to: Lead Nurse for Older People

Key Working Relationships:

Lead Nurse for Older People, Dementia Team, Corporate Nursing Teams, Governance Teams, Clinical Audit Team, Geriatricians, Consultants and their medical teams, Divisional Nursing Leads, Nursing staff Trust wide, Patient Safety Team, Adult Safeguarding Team Patient Experience Team.

External:

Hereford & Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Physicians, other third-party organisations

Risk Assessment:

Frequent use display screen equipment

Required to travel for work purposes.

Manual handling activities when working in the clinical area.

Job Purpose:

The Safer Care Practitioner plays a pivotal role in supporting the Lead Nurse for Older People in the ongoing development and sustainability of high-quality care for older people in line with the Trusts Quality Improvement Strategy and Priorities. The primary focus of this role is to ensure safer practices, promote person-centered care, and support education initiatives to recognise the unique needs of older people, especially those living with dementia and frailty. The postholder will assist in monitoring Trust performance in these areas, including dementia, delirium, falls, hospital acquired functional decline and other fundamentals of care, and assisting in developing and delivering education fostering a culture of continuous quality improvement.

Key Duties:

To support the Lead Nurse for Older People in the development of effective safer healthcare strategy and practices for patients accessing services at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

To assist in co-ordinating and supporting a range of monitoring activities concerning dementia, delirium, falls, hospital acquired functional decline and other fundamentals of care.

Assist in ensuring all relevant policies and guidelines remain up to date.

Collect and input data for national audits for dementia and falls.

Maintain a professional relationship with the Trust Divisions and Divisional Governance Teams to ensure objective and key performance indicators are met/appropriate actions are developed.

Assemble quantitative and qualitative information with the Lead Nurse for Older People in ways that inform improved safer care practices, quality improvement and service development.

Assist the Lead Nurse for Older People with the data collection and compilation of relevant assurance reports.

Maintain the Corporate Risk Register with risks and actions concerning dementia, delirium, falls, hospital acquired functional decline and other fundamentals of care.

Monitor and review all Datix reports relating to falls and support Patient Safety and Governance teams by ensuring accurate information is provided for investigations.

Assist in local and national audits such as the RCP National Audit of Dementia (NAD) and RCP National Audit of Inpatient Falls (NAIF).

Interpret clinical guidance, recommendations, and policy for safe practice.

Attend appropriate Governance meetings concerning safer practice in relation older people, dementia, delirium, falls, hospital acquired functional decline and fundamentals of care.

Represent the Lead Nurse for Older People at local and national harm reduction/safer care forums as required.

Assist in the development and delivery of training and education concerning older people to all staff groups via appropriate training sessions e.g Trust Induction, Nurse Preceptorship, Care Certificate, Champion study days and conferences.

Actively promote a culture that reduces risk of harm to patient in hospital e.g., hospital acquired functional decline.

Actively promote a culture that encourages families / carers to work in partnership with staff, to enhance the wellbeing of the person in support of Johns Campaign.

To liaise effectively with other members of the multi-professional team to ensure a high standard of co-ordinated care to the patient.

Be a key member of the Trust Dementia & Falls Steering Group.

To attend professional meetings and study sessions as appropriate.

Assist in organising events to raise awareness of safer practice in relation to dementia, delirium, falls, hospital acquired function decline and other fundamentals of care.

Be a flexible highly visible safer care practitioner.

Clinical duties:

To maintain clinical credibility by undertaking clinical work as directed by the line manager.

To provide guidance and support to staff in clinical practice related to safer practice in line with current objectives for dementia, delirium, falls, hospital acquired functional decline and fundamentals of care.