Senior Sister/Charge Nurse

Job responsibilities

CLINICAL LEADERSHIP

The Senior Sister will create, lead and maintain a nursing culture which is open to change, new ideas, concepts and innovation, whilst influencing Trust strategy and direction.

This will be achieved by:

• A commitment to patients centred values.
• Working with patients/families/carers and the multi-disciplinary team to provide therapeutic care that anticipates and responds to the needs of patients.
• Developing a philosophy of care which involves the rights of patients, carers and staff.
• Creating a shared vision with the team, integrating and embracing risk taking, flexibility and change.
• Providing clear direction and leadership for nurses with regard to legal, ethical and professional dimensions or care.
• Promoting peoples equality, diversity and rights.
• Promoting an organisational philosophy and structure philosophy which enables appropriate delegation of authority to all levels and encourages staff to take up development opportunities, within existing or new roles.
• Facilitating an environment in which critical appraisal of practice is fostered alongside innovative practice.
• Being responsible for taking an overview of the contribution that other disciplines make to their clinical area and taking action to ensure efficiency is achieved.
• Developing annual ward objectives, establishing service developments in line with Directorate and organisational plans.
• Maintaining awareness of national and regional initiatives and subsequent transfer of these into practice.
• Being proactive in the development and facilitation of the 10 key roles for nursing.
• Retaining a productive workforce.
• Instigating, managing and facilitating others to lead organisational change for the benefit of patients.
• Actively being involved in the delivery of any new strategies for patient care that impacts on their clinical environment and taking the lead in promoting the nursing contribution.
• Fostering and demonstrating creativity, energy and inspiration in leading the nursing team.
• Supervising and facilitating staff in guided structured reflection in complete situations, utilising a range of skills which may include clinical incident analysis and practice review processes.
• Supporting and contributing to the Trusts Shared Leadership practice development councils.
• Participating in Professional Forums.
• Fulfilling the role of the senior nurse bleep holder when required or when rostered.

QUALITY / CLINICAL GOVERNANCE

The Senior Sister will be responsible for improving the patient experience, and safe guarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care can flourish and be measured.

This will be achieved by:

• Overtly valuing patient centred care.
• Acting as the patients advocate when necessary.
• Creating a ward culture which recognises and works in partnership with patients and carers involving them in all decisions.
• Striving for continuous improvements in the delivery of high quality patient focused care.
• Proactively lead in the admission, discharge or transfer of care arrangements taking responsibility for initiating improvement.
• Working and co-ordinating in a collaborative manner with other health care professionals and other relevant agencies.
• Lead patient and public involvement activities in the ward area, leading to service improvement.
• Respecting and promoting dignity, choice and autonomy of patients / families and carers.
• Undertaking skilled therapeutic nursing intervention / care provision.
• Exercising clinical judgement, often with complex facts and circulating why clinical decisions were made.
• Ensuring adequate and accurate patient documentation and records are maintained.
• Complying with Information Governance.
• Maximising the effectiveness of the team e.g. appropriate skill mix, duty rotas, training, mentorship (Ward Rota Policy).
• Organising and overseeing clinical workload so that the competencies of staff are matched to the needs of the patients.
• Overseeing complex clinical cases and using specialised skills and knowledge. Provide staff with guidance when necessary, taking responsibility for intervening in difficult situations.
• Using complaints positively and proactively to review and improve the quality of services.
• Developing efficient and effective reporting systems and encouraging staff to report any untoward incidents in a positive manner promoting confidentiality as appropriate.
• Ensuring relevant incidents are thoroughly investigated, appropriately actioned, feedback given and learning from these incidents transferred into practice.
• Proactively generate and review clinical risk assessments and action plan appropriately.
• Identifying gaps in knowledge and prioritising areas for action for themselves and the ward team.
• Maintain a ward register of competencies
• Establish and maintain a culture that continually updates practice by implementing valid research findings and facilitating appropriate research activity
• Critiquing evidence based literature and helping others to develop this skill.
• Devising, updating and implementing protocols, guidelines and policies appropriate to the specialty which are evidence based.
• Developing systems which monitor the delivery of nursing care.
• Interpreting and evaluating information from diverse sources to enable informed decisions, to set standards for quality and appropriate care.
• Continually evaluating and auditing of practice by selecting and applying a broad range of appropriately valid and reliable methods.
• Participating and ensuring that the Trusts Nursing Charter standards are met.
• Participating in the Trusts accreditation process.

MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE

The Senior Sister will create, maintain and enhance a culture conducive to learning, and the personal and professional safety, growth and development of all staff.

This will be achieved by:

• Ensuring statutory training programmes are implemented, and all training is monitored, recorded and evaluated as been effective in meeting the needs of the service.
• Working in partnership with educational providers to promote an environment conducive to learning and development for all staff including students.
• Monitoring and effectively managing sickness and absence.
• Identifying future staffing requirement to meet service changes and trends in the delivery of care.
• Creating healthy working environment with particular regard to health and safety policies, flexible working, promotion of the need to balance work and home life.
• Creating, maintaining and enhancing effective working relationships.
• Recognising areas of interpersonal conflict and developing a proactive stance in resolving issues.
• Creating a culture conducive to learning, staff development and change.
• Leading and participating in the recruitment and selection of staff, having due regard for employment law and policies.
• Developing a systematic approach to performance management, ensuring annual appraisals of all staff, establishment of personal and professional objectives and goals, with regular monitoring and feedback.
• Working closely with Matron instigating capability, disciplinary and grievance procedures as appropriate.
• Supporting and coaching staff in their professional development, recognising and utilising individual skills and knowledge, and providing opportunities for further development, to nurture future leaders.
• Ensuring the correct storage of information relating to personal details of staff, maintaining all aspects of confidentiality with regard to the appropriate use of information.
• Promoting, providing and participating in clinical supervision and other systems such as preceptorship, mentorship which allow staff to reflect and improve on their own practice.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Has a caring, compassionate and sympathetic nature
• Ability to work closely with work colleagues and within a team
• Ability to discuss personal coping mechanisms for potentially stressful situations i.e. patient deaths, acutely ill patients and other difficult situations within a hospital.
• Demonstrates self motivation, common sense and organisational skills
• Has stamina, is reliable, tidy and punctual
• Understands the need to work in a multicultural environment and non-discriminatory way

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse
• Evidence of ongoing professional development.
• Recent post registration experience in an acute setting.
• Evidence of competency in teaching and assessing
• Evidence of further study within speciality

Desirable

• First level degree or evidence of working towards a degree.
• Evidence of post graduate study in clinically related subject
• Management qualification

Knowledge and Awareness

Essential

• Demonstrates an understanding of the role of the Senior Sister
• Demonstrates an understanding of leadership
• Demonstrates an understanding of accountability
• Knowledge of health and safety issues and processes
• Knowledge of governance and processes
• Demonstrates disability awareness and the need to make reasonable adjustments
• Awareness of own limitations.

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Clear and concise written English skills
• Good numeracy skills
• Able to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing
• Critical thinking skills
• Analytical skills
• Ability to manage own workload
• Ability to talk to patients and relatives in a friendly manner

Other

Essential

• Able to access all Trust sites.
• Good attendance record.

Experience

Essential

• Extensive post registration experience
• Relevant experience in Elderly care
• Evidence of previous resource management experience
• Experience in research and audit.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).