Practice Nurse - Primary Care (Annex 21) | Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Practice Nurse to join our Primary Care Team

The post will be part of a skill mixed team providing a range of practice nursing interventions to patients registered with St Helens G.Ps. Examples of the duties carried out are as follows:

• Supporting registered nurses providing end of life care


• Provision of personal care in line with care plans


• Chronic disease reviews and management


• Immunisations and vaccinations


• Follow all care plans/wound care/catheter care/administration of medication, To supervise junior members of staff


• To supervise the delegation of work within the team and review performance.


• To establish excellent working relationships with all service users and actively encourage and promote joint working in the pursuit of continuous service improvement., Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the NMC.


• Proactively identify, diagnose, and manage treatment plans for patients at risk of developing a long-term condition, as appropriate.


• Undertake opportunistic screening when clinically required.


• Perform occasional venepuncture and electrocardiography (following appropriate training).


• Undertake wound care/ management/dressing techniques.


• Carry out ear examination and syringing, (following appropriate training and assessment).


• Undertake male, female and family planning assessments, give advice and refer patients appropriately (following appropriate training).


• Perform cervical screening and promote breast awareness (following appropriate training).


• Administer adult and paediatric injections under an individualised prescription or Patient Group Direction, ensuring safe storage, rotation and disposal of vaccines and drugs.


• Provide an adult and childhood immunisation service working to Patient Group Directions (following appropriate training).


• Delivers travel health care, including vaccinations and advice for patients (following appropriate training).


• Work with patients to support compliance with and adherence to prescribed treatments. Providing information and advice on prescribed or over-the-counter medication, medication regimes, side-effects, and interactions.


• Support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that promote healthy lifestyles, and to apply principles of self-care and management.


• Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care.


• Undertake first aid and management of emergencies, e.g., burns, haemorrhage, hypo/hyperglycaemic emergencies/asthma attacks.


• Apply infection control measures when collecting and handling of laboratory specimens, disposing of waste materials, dealing with blood and body fluids spillages and report and treat sharps injuries.


• Contribute to the maintenance of the practice diseases registers.


• Recognise the signs of child abuse, family violence, vulnerable adults, substance abuse, addictive behaviours, suicidal tendencies and is aware of local, referral procedures.


• Ensure that current evidence-based approaches to patient are standard practice.


• Support the practice in achieving quality indicators and targets of the contract and any relevant National Service Frameworks.


• Undertake accredited training in specific chronic disease management as or if required. e.g., diabetes, respiratory, epilepsy, CHD etc.


• Undertake annual training and demonstrates competency in anaphylaxis and resuscitation techniques.


Communication

• Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles, to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment.


• Communicate with and support patients who are receiving difficult news.


• Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background, and preferred ways of communicating.


• Anticipate barriers to communication and take action to improve communication.


• Maintain effective communication both within the practice environment and with external stakeholders.


• Ensure awareness of sources of support and guidance (e.g., PALS) and provide information in an acceptable format to all patients, recognising any difficulties and referring/signposting where appropriate to other services/agencies.


• In conjunction with the Practice Management team ensure the maintenance of equipment and stock levels relevant to patient care are suitably maintained and ordered.


Delivery of High-Quality Services:

• Prioritise, organise, and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes high quality service delivery in line with Trust objectives.


• Deliver care according to NICE guidelines and evidence-based practice.


• Assess the effectiveness of care delivery through self and peer review, benchmarking, formal evaluation, and consideration of patient responses.


• Initiate and participate in the maintenance of governance systems, audits and processes across the Practice and wider organisation to evaluate the quality of care delivered.


• In partnership with other clinical teams, collaborate on improving the quality of health care delivery, responding to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate.


• Assess and report on the impact of policy implementation on the delivery of care and respectfully challenge practice, systems, and policies in an objective and constructive manner.


• Use a structured framework (e.g., root-cause analysis) to manage, review and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents, and near-miss events in line with organisational policy.


• Understand and apply legal issues that support the identification of vulnerable and abused children and adults and be aware of statutory child/vulnerable patient health procedures, policies, and local guidance., Lead on key aspects of quality assurance to develop robust outcome indicators for general practice nursing and other aspects of clinical governance.


• Participate in partnership programmes of awareness raising, detection and prevention of chronic diseases.


• Produce accurate, contemporaneous, and complete records of patient consultations, consistent with legislation, policies, and procedures., Teach, support and mentor other staff to enhance their clinical practice, skills, and knowledge, assessing competence against set standards.


• Provide mentorship and guidance for health care assistants.


• Develop, deliver, and evaluate training and education packages, for individuals and groups, across a broad range of general practice nursing needs and in collaboration with other disciplines and agencies to facilitate inter-professional/agency learning.


• Provide education to patients, carers, families, and colleagues in an environment that supports learning.


• Maintain a level of expertise in specific chronic disease management (when appropriate) and other pertinent areas of health care and seek to develop new and improved skills.


• Collaborate proactively with public health agencies and local authorities to ensure general practice nursing is actively engaged in the health improvement strategies for the local community.


• Take responsibility for personal development and education including in-service training., The management role of the Practice Nurse will vary according to employer expectations of the specific role, but will include the ability to:


• Assist the GP's and ANP's to help deliver effective implementation and management of patients with chronic diseases as detailed by the Quality and Outcomes framework.


• Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others.


• Attend general practice meetings as required.


• Critically evaluate and review innovations and developments that are relevant to the area of work.


• Lead on the development of strategy and ensure collaborative working with others to translate this into practice development to improve the quality of care delivered to patients.


• Contribute to the development of local guidelines, protocols, policies, and standards.


• Apply the theoretical perspectives of change management to create an environment for successful change and practice development.


• Aid the practice team with implementation of new initiatives in the delivery of chronic disease management services.


• Formulate reports as required for the practice manager and or senior nurse.


• Encourage the development of integrated services within Primary Care to include integrated practice-based teams and multidisciplinary working.


• Promote the continuing professional development of yourself and other nurses & HCAs within the practice.


• Recognise the opportunities for working in partnership with the Primary Health care team.


• Participate in an annual appraisal.


RESEARCH & AUDIT

• Lead on the development and implementation of research projects related to general practice nursing and build effective working relationships between practice and higher education institutions.


• Encourage the development of a practice audit strategy and action plan for Primary Care.


• Contribute to the provision of equitable, high-quality services for patients in the locality.


• Help support the integration across primary, secondary, and tertiary care services.


• Maintain an interest in national research initiatives and disseminate appropriate information to health professionals if asked to do so.


• Ensure all care is evidence based using up to date validated literature.


• Contribute to research and development programmes where required to improve clinical practice.
  
  The post holder will demonstrate an attitude which respects and values service users' and their carers., 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.

The post holder will embrace the core values of the organisation. These principles will recognise the need to:

• Promote safe practices


• Value the aims of service users


• Work in partnership and offer meaningful choice


• Be optimistic about the possibilities of meaningful change


• Value social inclusion


Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018


• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)


• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme