Nursing Associate

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB PURPOSE:

Working within the Primary Care Network, the post holder will deliver high quality, safe nursing care to the PCN population. Supported by the Lead Nurse, Registered Nurses, GPs and Practice Management teams they will deliver care within the boundaries of their scope of practice and within the organisations policies and protocols, focusing on supporting patients with health needs, promoting self-care, monitoring long term conditions, health prevention and screening activities.

The post holder will deliver care to patients in their own homes, in care home and in clinics at the PCN practices.

This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities and is not exhaustive. There may be other duties required of the post holder relevant to the position.

Being an accountable professional

• Act professionally at all times and use knowledge and experience to make evidence-based decisions and solve problems.
• Recognise and work within the limits of competence, working within professional boundaries and to be responsible for the actions taken.
• Be proactive in seeking opportunities to develop own knowledge and skills, attending statutory/mandatory updates in accordance with organisational requirement.
• Work as part of the PCNs multidisciplinary team to provide and monitor care under direct and indirect supervision.

• Support patients to improve and maintain their mental, physical, behavioural health and wellbeing, demonstrated in such as:
• using behaviour change interventions to support health and wellness when undertaking health checks (physical and mental) which may include for example new patient checks, NHS Health checks (Q risk), over 75s checks and referring to other services as needed including signposting patients to personalised care colleagues and local community and voluntary sector services.
• Chronic disease management contribute to the monitoring of patients with, for example, respiratory disease, diabetes, coronary heart disease, renal failure, hypertension.
• Encourage patients to take part in health screening. The role may require, when appropriately trained, to perform cervical screening tests.
• Care for individuals with complex conditions such as dementia, mental health conditions, and learning disabilities.

Providing and monitoring care

Carry out procedures safely and effectively within the PCN practices and also in the patients home (including care homes), clinical tasks to include:

• Clinical observations such as BP / Pulse / Temperature / Oxygen saturations / point of care blood glucose / BMI
• Venepuncture
• Spirometry
• ECG
• Diabetic foot checks
• Sample processing and management
• Provide care and support with hygiene and maintenance of skin integrity including minor and complex wound care
• Administration of medicines via oral, topical and inhalation routes and administer injections using subcutaneous and intra-muscular routes. This will include immunisations influenza / shingles / pneumonia, B12
• Assist GP / ANP with minor surgery / invasive procedures for example coil fitting
• Contribute to on-going assessment and recognise when it is necessary to refer patients onto others for reassessment.

Working in teams

• Demonstrate the ability to recognise changing priorities seeking advice and guidance from the registered nurses or other registered care professionals as appropriate.
• Support, supervise and act as a role model to undergraduate student nurses (years one and two), trainee nurse associates, health care support workers and those new to care roles, review the quality of the care they provide, promoting reflection and providing constructive feedback.
• Participate in team meetings, clinical supervision and where required, contribute to setting the agenda and recording minutes.
• Contribute to team reflection activities, to promote improvements in practice and services.

Improving safety and quality of care

• Protect health through understanding and applying the principles of infection prevention and control, including communicable disease surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship and resistance.
• Maintaining a safe work and care environment in particular;
• Cleaning and restocking consulting rooms, stock control of consumables.
• Adhering to infection control policies and procedures to include participation in regular audits, hand hygiene training, vaccine/cold chain storage awareness, spillage control procedures.

Contributing to integrated care

• Ensure clear, concise, accurate and legible records and all communication is maintained in relation to care delivered adhering to local and national guidance.
• Develop relationships across the MDT to support integration of the role across health and social care including primary care, secondary care, and mental health.
• Communicate effectively across a wide range of channels and with a wide range of individuals, public, health and social care professionals, maintaining the focus of communication on delivering and improving health and care services.
• Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks across clinical and patient process.
• Recognise issues relating to safeguarding vulnerable children and adults and report any problems or raise concerns to the appropriate registered care professionals.
• All staff have the responsibility to support all learners and to keep their knowledge of supporting learners in practice up to date, according to appropriate governing bodies regulations.

Supervision

• PCNs must ensure that the post holder has access to appropriate clinical supervision and an appropriate named individual in the PCN to provide general advice and support on a day-to-day basis.

For more information, please see the supporting documents

Person Specification

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Please provide detailed information of how you feel that your knowledge and skills are suitable for this role; please provide examples to support your application referring to the job description and person specification for guidance.

Qualifications

Essential

• Please provide details of your CPD, using examples where necessary.
• Please provide your registration number of your NMC professional registration (where approriate).

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Please provide details for why you would be a great fit for this role and why you have decided to apply.

Experience

Essential

• Please provide detailed information of how you feel that your experience is suitable for this role; please provide examples to support your application referring to the job description and person specification for guidance.

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Primary Integrated Community Services

Address

Newark Primary Care Network

Nottinghamshire

NG24 4XG

Employer's website

http://picsnhs.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)