A Vacancy at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.
Would you enjoy the challenge of working in the Hospital Palliative Care team at UCLH, where we work day to day to achieve the best symptom control, palliative care and end of life care outcomes for the people we care for? Could you imagine yourself working in the heart of the city? Are you ambitious to develop your career and would you like to be supported to do this in a thriving practice with a long tradition of ‘can do’? If yes, then please contact us to find out more.
We are looking to recruit to aBand 7 Clinical Nurse Specialistfor the Inpatient Symptom Control and Palliative Care Team, for a nine month full-time fixed term contract/maternity cover (please do call to discuss this further/hours, we would consider 0.8WTE over 12 months)
As a whole service we provide palliative care to the patients of UCLH and South Camden & Islington community.
You will work as an autonomous practitioner managing a caseload of complex palliative care patients with a variety of conditions. Supported by an experienced team of Clinical Nurse Specialist's, Registrar's and Consultants, you will also have the opportunity to be involved in a wide range of teaching, staff support, projects, service improvement as well as developing your own leadership skills.
Here in Central London, the demand for specialist palliative care is increasing at a faster pace than ever before.
To join us in this demanding and rewarding role you'll need to have...
- Resilience and clear motivation
– Passionate about working with a wide range of people in their last years of life
- An advanced toolkit of clinical skills that simply makes a consistent difference to patients and their families
- An ability to motivate and influence people and operate with a good deal of personal warmth, friendliness and compassion
- Be bright and emotionally intelligent
- Strong networking skills and proven ability to build relationships with a diverse range of people
- An accountability gene that does not shirk from leading in complex situations
- Ability to develop increasing innovation and to utilise the evidence base in palliative care
- Opportunity to occasionally work across the three Palliative care teams: UCLH, South Camden Community, Islington Community
We offer excellent training and development opportunities to support personal and professional development, a range of family friendly policies, an interest free season ticket loan and subsidised sports facilities.
We have a 7 day working pattern with on call via a rota until 8pm each day. Full time CNS's work approximately 3 weekend days over a three month rota (subject to staffing).
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. To be professionally and legally accountable for all work undertaken. To work within the Standards for Better Health and guidelines of the Palliative Care Centre, the Trusts, and NMC Code of Conduct at all times.
2. To ensure that the patient and their informal carers have an understanding of treatment protocols and give informed consent to examination and treatment interventions recommended.
3. To undertake specialist-nursing assessment of clients with complex palliative care needs through subjective questioning, objective examination, and study of appropriate written material (e.g. clinical records) available.
4. To prioritise factors involved in the patients and informal carers condition through advanced clinical reasoning based on knowledge of current professional opinion, patients prognosis and other physical, psychological, spiritual, ethical, social, and mental health records.
5. To identify patients, their informal carers or children whom may be at risk and vulnerable. Promptly enact the process outlined in the policies for Care of Vulnerable Adults and Care of Vulnerable Children.
6. To constantly monitor, evaluate and review clinical assessments and interventions within the multidisciplinary framework and to modify approach to clinical care as necessary.
7. To act as an expert nurse in palliative care for patients and their families with complex palliative care needs. Monitoring, evaluating and reviewing palliative interventions, taking a key worker role as indicated.
8. To independently receive and make referrals and manage a caseload of patients with complex palliative care needs.
9. To independently assess referrals from a variety of sources where no other professional is currently involved. To establish priority, to determine needs, initiate and monitor treatment plans. To direct and support 1st and 2nd tier clinicians in this process.
10. To work independently within a general Multi-Disciplinary Team to advise on a palliative approach to patients who may not be currently known to the Palliative Care Centre.
11. Develop and conduct skilled nursing interventions with palliative care patients- assessing their palliative care needs and addressing issues such as quality of life, futility, prognosis and end of life decision making within an ethical framework.
12. To be an expert assessor/advisor on pain and symptom management,
psychological/spiritual/social/practical care and ethical decisions at the end of life and to work in partnership, collaborating with a range of professionals to improve their palliative skills.
13. To independently assess bereavement needs for informal carers and give advice, support and make appropriate referrals independently to improve the bereavement outcome.
14. To work autonomously in isolated community care settings that vary in relation to local socio economic and multi-cultural issues.
15. To swiftly respond and lead resolution in challenging or crisis situations within palliative care, eg. difficult family situations, emergencies, and professional distress.
16. To use comprehensive knowledge of other multidisciplinary roles and external agencies to ensure best referral management and achieve best patient care.
17. To act as First Contact for palliative care emergencies out of hours across two community settings and UCLH group of Hospitals. To receive and manage new referrals out of hours with the support of the Consultant on call.
18. To contribute to the development and implementation of uni-disciplinary and multidisciplinary clinical policies, guidelines, protocols and care pathway implementation.
19. To participate in multi-disciplinary assessments and cross agency assessments as required.
20. To ensure dignity for the patients and their families at all times.
21. To ensure clinical records are recorded and maintained on the team database.
22. To provide specialist contribution to health promotion and health education initiatives within the locality.
23. To develop the palliative care skills of other professionals working locally.
24. To undertake courses to extend the scope of nursing roles as specified in CNO 10 document i.e. independent and supplementary prescribing and to use these skills in practise once appropriate qualified. To ensure competence is maintained and new skills are
undertaken according to Trust Guidance within a Governance Framework.
25. To maintain a continuing Professional Development portfolio.
26. To maintain up to date, evaluative client records in accordance with service policy and to contribute to maintaining the minimum data set.
27. To ensure that clinical care that is undertaken is safe and to an acceptable quality, and that it is continuously improving.
28. To contribute to new innovative approaches to nursing within palliative care and ensure this knowledge is shared widely within the profession to enhance patient experiences.
29. To acts as mentor to junior colleagues.
This advert closes on Wednesday 23 Oct 2024
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to
Disability Confident.
