Palliative Care Acute Clinical Nurse Specialist

This Band 7 Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care post will be based within the existing Specialist Palliative Care Team , working alongside staff to ensure that people with palliative care needs within our trust receive the care they need to achieve the best quality of life possible.
The Specialist Palliative Care Team are a part of a wider Specialist Palliative Care Team at a time of integration across acute and community services. We are working together in partnership with all Palliative Care services across Warwickshire to ensure patients and carers are at the heart of care.
This post holder will support the delivery of clinically effective, efficient and high-quality care to people with specialist palliative care needs, ensuring that this care is both evidence based and reflects current best practice.
Using specialist palliative care skills and knowledge you will manage a caseload of patients and their families/carers with complex needs associated with living with a life challenging illness.
The post holder will act as a specialist resource across the whole hospital using a team approach to influence patient care through the indirect role of developing and delivering education and training to multi-professional staff/students, statutory and voluntary agencies both formally and informally, undertaking research, audits and service development within palliative and end of life care., The post holder will be a Palliative Care expert practitioner based within the acute hospital who will take a key role in strengthening the nursing contribution to patients and service users within the speciality across the organisation.
In partnership with the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) the post holder will develop, implement and evaluate a seamless Specialist Palliative Care Service. The role is vital in delivering the highest standards of clinical care and supporting efficiency to drive improvements in health outcomes.
Using advanced nursing practice; takes responsibility as a member of the team for managing a caseload of hospital inpatients referred for Specialist Palliative Care and support.
The post holder will demonstrate highly developed and specialist knowledge and expertise and will be responsible for contributing to the ongoing development of innovative practice, research and standards of care.
The post holder will develop strategies to ensure practice development and education for other professionals caring for patients with Specialist Palliative Care needs., Deliver evidence-based personalised and compassionate care which places quality at the heart of Specialist Palliative Care practice. Care will be responsive to individual needs and reflect current local protocols and national guidelines.
Act as the key accessible professional for the MDT proactively managing a clinical caseload for at least 70% of the role. This will necessitate high levels of autonomy and advocacy, using analytical and judgemental skills in undertaking differential diagnosis to ensure the delivery of appropriate care.
Work as an autonomous practitioner providing an expert level of care, developing own and others knowledge within Specialist Palliative Care.
Manage a caseload of hospital inpatients and prioritise workload to meet patient and service need.
Use and apply technical knowledge of the Specialist Palliative Care to define, oversee and personalise care pathways for individuals through holistic needs assessment, planning and evaluation of care and all care interventions.
Effectively manages pathways of care, adapting to patients' emerging needs by ensuring a planned and co-ordinated approach to care, supporting enhanced recovery and reducing inappropriate admissions to improve patient experience and safety.
Receive and act upon referrals directly from health care professionals and makes referrals to other team members and specialist departments as necessary to ensure optimal quality of care.
Act as a patient advocate to facilitate the process of shared decision making in respect to health, choice of treatment and care. Use interpersonal and communication skills where there may be significant barriers in order to build confidence. Ensure that patients' individual needs are expressed and valued and individual care plans are understood.
Advise on the complex disease and symptom management for Specialist Palliative Care patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Evaluate response to interventions and advise on the adaptation of management.
Work autonomously in the development and delivery of nurse led or parallel clinics in line with National guidance and local service need.
Act as a resource providing clinical expertise, specialist advice and support across service boundaries to ensure optimum liaison and co-ordination of care.
Undertake clinical competencies relevant to this specialist service to demonstrate expertise in extended nursing roles.
Actively integrates theory and practice.
Contribute to weekend on call service for Specialist Palliative Care Team.
Management & Leadership
Act as a role model demonstrating high standards of holistic care and provide expert clinical leadership to others across the organisation.
Supervise the patient caseloads of more junior members of the nursing team assuming overall responsibility where applicable.
Lead and line manage junior members of the team of specialist nurses including responsibility for annual appraisal where applicable.
Manage budgets as necessary.
Embed public and patient involvement within the sphere of practice.
Determine measurable outcomes for the service and demonstrate continuous evaluation of practice making changes where necessary.
Contribute to lead on elements of the clinical governance agenda.
Participate in operational and strategic planning for the development and delivery of Specialist Palliative Care Services. Implement service improvements and efficiencies.
Attend Trust senior nurse meetings and contribute to the agenda and the strategic nursing vision.
Represent the Trust by contributing to and participating in meetings locally, regional and nationally relating to the speciality.
Lead or contribute to annual service review and write annual report to reflect service activity and development.
Communication
Take personal responsibility for ensuring effective communication between all service providers.
Act as a role model for excellent advanced communication skills and expertise. Demonstrate advanced empathetic interpersonal and communication skills. This will involve frequently imparting significant news or supporting patients and carers during and following such consultations.
Effectively and sensitively communicate highly complex and sensitive information to emotionally distressed patients and family/carers at key points along the care pathway on a frequent basis.
As a core member of the MDT provide professional advice.
Refer to other health professionals and outside agencies to ensure optimum care and ongoing support for individual patients/carers, and to ensure the seamless transition from primary to secondary care appropriate to patients' individual needs and circumstance.
Maintain links with local and national organisations, which support the care of patients within this speciality.
Education
Identify and use advanced educational strategies to deliver complex information to patients and carers.
Influence the development of other professionals by leading or contributing to Trust wide specialist education and training.
Deliver formal and informal teaching initiatives as part of the Trust's education strategy as agreed with the appropriate senior nurse to ensure practice development, staff empowerment and improved care for patients.
Act as a mentor/clinical supervisor as appropriate.
Take personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through clinical supervision and appraisal. Actively engages with learning and development opportunities needed to work as an advanced practitioner and take appropriate action to ensure these needs are met.
Contribute to promoting educational links with local providers of higher education and deliver lectures on a range of courses.
Quality, Audit, Innovation & Research
Develop written patient information and use existing appropriate resources to inform users, according to individually assessed need.
Work within the NMC code of professional conduct.
Influence and develop policy and clinical guidelines to support the specialist service.
Collaborate with other MDT members to develop and update multi-professional Trust operational policies and guidelines.
Maintain patient records and ensure an effective documentation system to reflect the activity and delivery of specialist nursing care.
Promote the service and clinical excellence by publishing and presenting innovations, audit and research locally and nationally.
Use creative reasoning, experience and vision to advance care.
Develop new skills in response to emerging knowledge and techniques.
Instigate and manage change within a complex environment.
Maintain membership and attendance at national and local forums to network and debate issues to inform the specialist nursing role and service delivery.
Collate and record quantitative and qualitative data to provide evidence of productivity, outcomes and quality through audit and research.
Identify and conduct clinical audit in own specialist area.
Participate in clinical research relevant to practice area.
Develop links and system to seek the views of patient and carers to ensure service development is in line with user need., Sometimes we get a lot of applications for our roles. On those occasions we might close the job early. If you don't want to miss out we recommend submitting your application as early as possible.
The Trust use an Applicant Management System called TRAC which helps us manage the recruitment process. All communications regarding your application will come via TRAC (even if you applied via NHS Jobs).
Please check your TRAC account regularly and ensure your email is set up to accept messages so they don't go into your junk/spam folder.
We aim to shortlist all vacancies within 2 days of the vacancy closing, we will get back to all candidates ASAP.
Please ensure all sections of the application form are completed fully. Please particularly ensure that you provide full details of all referees including business email address, telephone contact details and postal address.
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is an equal opportunities employer who is committed to Equality and Diversity and does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the grounds of any protected characteristic as defined by the Equality Act 2010.
All South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust sites are smoke free. We feel it's a great way to help our patients, visitors and staff stay healthy.
The Trust is part of a 'Foundation Group' through a strategic alliance with Wye Valley NHS Trust, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. This partnership is great for the sustainability of all four organisations and allows us to share learning and maximise opportunities to ensure the delivery of high quality health and care services for our local populations.

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is one of the top performing organisations within the NHS. Our staff think this is a great place to work and we hope you will agree. We have recently been rated as 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following our most recent inspection.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the whole county. This includes our Community Teams in North Warwickshire.
We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity. Over 6000 people work for the Trust and many of them have been here a long time. People find they don't need to go elsewhere to find a fulfilling career in healthcare.
The first thing you will notice about us is how we take our values seriously. We believe that our values underpin everything we do. If you are interested in a role with us you need to make sure our values match your own.
Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide inclusive, safe, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
Probationary Period
All new staff to the Trust will be subject to a standard 6 month probationary period, the details of which will duly follow in your contract of employment.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating and sustaining a positive and inclusive working environment for all our employees. Our aim is to ensure that employees are equally valued and respected and that our organisation is representative of all members of society. We define diversity as valuing everyone as an individual - we value our employees, job applicants, students, patients and visitors as people. This is reflected within our values of being Inclusive, Safe, Effective, Compassionate and Trusted.
Agile and Flexible Working
All our staff will have a work base. However the Trust operates as an Agile Working Team therefore staff may be working from home on a regular basis as required by the service. However, occasionally travel around Warwickshire and into your base will be required so access to your own transport would be helpful.
The Trust also welcome staff to work flexibly and we would welcome the conversation at interview regarding flexible working.
Staff Benefits
The Trust offer a wide range of additional benefits to staff. Anyone who joins us on a substantive basis can assess things such as the Lease Car Scheme, Electronics Scheme, Discounted Leisure and Travel, Cycle to work scheme amongst many others available.
Car Parking
The Trust have recently completed the construction of a multi-storey car park at our Warwick Hospital site which has allowed us to reduce waiting times for car parking passes.
To keep up to date on our latest recruitment activity follow us on twitter @swftrecruit or look us up on Facebook (Recruitment - South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust).

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.
Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.