Heart Failure Specialist Nurse Practitioner | Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Based at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, a small, friendly, and supportive team which is constantly looking at evolving and refining patient pathways and experience for patients admitted with suspected or known heart failure. Covering the John Radcliffe Monday to Friday. The team has a strong culture of learning together with regular team meetings, MDTs and education sessions., The successful applicant will be a registered nurse with evidence of relevant continuing professional development with excellent verbal and written communication skills. They will demonstrate a keen interest in the field of heart failure nursing and show evidence of experience of working with people across the spectrum of chronic heart failure, from diagnosis to end of life care, and including acute decompensations. They will promote and ensure the delivery of, high quality, multidisciplinary, evidence-based care throughout the patient pathway for patients and their families. Contribute to the professional development of the heart failure service at a local level, providing nursing expertise for patients, families and carers. Assess patients admitted with confirmed or suspected heart failure, and collaborate with the MDT to advise on investigations and management plan. The post holder will provide information, education, and support to patients and family/carers, and will contribute to audit processes. Act as a resource for nursing colleagues, contributing toward and providing educational activities in order to ensure the development of effective, evidence based, multidisciplinary practice. For further details / informal visits contact,

• Proactively identify appropriate patients and accept referrals to agreed criteria, working in partnership with other professionals to deliver co-ordinated programmes of care effectively, referring patients to other practitioners as required.
• Work collaboratively and in partnership with other health care professionals, offering advice to colleagues, and prescribe as appropriate if the relevant qualification is held.
• Assess health and psychosocial needs of individual patients, and provide care to meet these needs, through a process of shared decision making. Deliver nursing care to patients in agreed practice settings, working as part of nursing/multidisciplinary teams.
• Provide appropriate education and communicate with patients and carers in ways that empower them to make informed choices about their health and health care and encourage self-care.
• Act as advocate for individual patients and the client group.
• Use effective conflict management strategies
• Use communication skills provide patients and carers with information, advice and emotional support.
• Maintain patient documentation meeting NMC standards for all patients seen and all advice given in any practice setting, and contribute to clinical activity/data collection as required.
• Have excellent organisational and communication skills that will contribute to effective teamwork
• Evaluate the efficacy of care in partnership with the patient /family and the multidisciplinary team
• Contribute to effective discharge of patients
Leadership: Specialist practitioners will:
• Collaborate with the multiprofessional team to develop a shared vision of the service.
• Act as a role model and resource in expert clinical evidence based practice.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues to contribute to the development of effective documentation, pathways, protocols and guidelines for care. Demonstrate a commitment to share expertise and disseminate information.
• Contribute to the development of the team and the service to continuously improve patient care
• Participate in implementing national standards and frameworks at a local level.
• Network locally and regionally, and seek opportunities to develop the SNP role.
• Support the Advanced Nurse Practitioners in change management, using an awareness of effective change management skills to develop practice and the service, taking in to consideration the best use of resources.
• Maintain involvement and active input in multidisciplinary meetings and appropriate local bodies / forums to contribute to practice and service development, Maintain, advance, and develop personal theoretical knowledge, high standards of clinical competence and professional development through ongoing self education and attendance at relevant courses of study - this may include modules at Masters level.
• Maintain own professional portfolio.
• Contribute to the development of specialist nursing knowledge and skills to enhance and extend the practice of other nurses and health care professionals within the service
• Identify and address the educational needs of patients, families, carers and staff involved in the delivery of this service.
• Contribute to the teaching and support of students from the multi professional team within relevant educational programmes.
• Contribute to relevant educational programmes and in house study days.
• Completion of SNP and role specific competency frameworks
Improving quality and developing practice: Specialist practitioners will:
• Assist in the evaluation of the service and patient care, including monitoring of patient experience.
• Evaluate clinical practice in relation to its evidence base and clinical effectiveness including policy and guidance.
• Maintain awareness of relevant research, evaluations and audit, and act on this information in collaboration with colleagues to continually develop the service.
• Identify areas of risk and poor quality, and address these through appropriate governance structures and forums.
• Develop personal and professional knowledge through critical self-appraisal, clinical supervision and networking with other health care professionals locally and nationally.
• Have responsibility to ensure annual appraisal, agree objectives which reflect local service needs and develop personal development plans.
• Advocate and contribute to a working environment that promotes continuous learning and development, evidence based practice and succession planning, as well as identifying learning opportunities at local and national levels.
• Have a high level of communication skills to enable the participation in the dissemination of practice.
• Contribute to protocols, documentation systems, standards, policies and clinical guidelines for others to use in practice.
• Ensure statutory and mandatory training updates, as well as role /speciality updates are completed and necessary records maintained.
  
  The successful applicant will be a registered nurse with evidence of relevant continuing professional development with excellent verbal and written communication skills. They will demonstrate a keen interest in the field of heart failure nursing and show evidence of experience of working with people across the spectrum of chronic heart failure, from diagnosis to end of life care, and including acute decompensations. They will be able to describe the current evidence for heart failure management, and how this integrates with practice, and be proactive in identifying their learning needs. They will show evidence of formal or informal teaching of patients or colleagues and be an effective team member., 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.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. Find out more here www.ouh.nhs.uk . The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via the OUH YouTube channel.