Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) Nurse

The SARC nurse will be responsible for the day to day running of the SARC. They will work autonomously but in collaboration with forensic medical examiners and paediatricians in assessing the care needs of the child or young person referred to the SARC and will co-ordinate and provide a follow up service that will include sexual health and safeguarding assessments., · To provide professional and clinical support to nursing staff and the multi-disciplinary team within the department
· Provide clinical nursing care to the SARC including sexual health support/advice?
· Support the SARC Nurse Manager in the share in the development of a culture of highest quality care provision and forensic standards at the SARC.
· · Support the SARC Nurse Manager and SARC Clinical Director with development of care pathways, policies, and procedures.
· · Liaise with department colleagues to ensure continuous nursing cover for the SARC.
· Ensuring that the voice of the child and young people is listened to and heard to promote awareness of their needs and requirements throughout the SARC.
· Support the SARC in achieving UKAS Accreditation
· Have oversight of the referrals being made to the SARC and contribute to decision making in relation to timings of examinations.
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· Liaise with the CYP / family prior to their attendance at the SARC to help reassure and prepare them for their visit.
· · Be a supportive advocate for the CYP and family during their visit.
· Support the forensic medical examiner / paediatrician during examinations of the CYP.
· · Understand and undertake forensic cleaning within the forensic clean areas of the SARC., · To provide professional and clinical support to nursing staff and the multi-disciplinary team within the department
· Provide clinical nursing care to the SARC including sexual health support/advice?
· Support the SARC Nurse Manager in the share in the development of a culture of highest quality care provision and forensic standards at the SARC.
· Support with the coordination of the nursing team and staffing according to clinic activity and patient flow through the SARC.
· Support the SARC Nurse Manager and SARC Clinical Director with development of care pathways, policies, and procedures.
· Support the SARC Nurse Manager regarding quality improvement.
· Liaise with department colleagues to ensure continuous nursing cover for the SARC.
· Ensuring that the voice of the child and young people is listened to and heard to promote awareness of their needs and requirements throughout the SARC.
· Support the SARC in achieving UKAS Accreditation
· Have oversight of the referrals being made to the SARC and contribute to decision making in relation to timings of examinations.
· Attend multi-agency strategy meetings for CYP where concerns have been raised regarding child sexual abuse to aid decision making regarding the CYP attending the SARC.
· Liaise with the CYP / family prior to their attendance at the SARC to help reassure and prepare them for their visit.
· Liaise with relevant multi-agency professionals prior to the child or young person's visit to ensure all relevant information has been received.
· Be a supportive advocate for the CYP and family during their visit.
· Support the forensic medical examiner / paediatrician during examinations of the CYP.
· Contribute to the assessment of health needs of the CYP which will include offering clinical advice regarding emergency prophylactic medication and both emergency and ongoing contraception.
· Understand and undertake forensic cleaning within the forensic clean areas of the SARC.
· Provides clinical advice and support around sexual health screening to other healthcare professionals within the trust.
· Provide support when required to the Trusts safeguarding duty nursing and practitioner team with regards to internal safeguarding orders that have been received from professionals within the hospital who require advice and support with their safeguarding practice.
· Be responsible and accountable for the actions and quality of own work and those staff whose responsibility is delegated to you.
Communication Skills
· To promote an effective communication system which ensures that a team approach to the care of children, young people and families is encouraged and adopted.
· Have a high level of interpersonal and communication skills to support the children, young people, and their families in what could be a hostile, antagonistic, and highly emotive atmosphere which require enhanced skills in persuasion, motivation, negotiating, empathy, and re-assurance.
· Have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
· Play an important role in making sure children and young people, who may be anxious about attending for an examination, feel as calm and comfortable as possible.
· To work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies to ensure the needs of the children and families attending the department are met.
· To provide up to date information for families in conjunction with the multi-disciplinary team.
· Support in the management of complaints received and advise families of the Trust complaints procedure.
· Maintain patient confidentiality in line with the Data Protection Act and NMC guidelines.
· Work collaboratively, maintaining effective communication with colleagues, other professionals, and agencies, to ensure patient needs are met especially in relation to ongoing care needs and safeguarding.
Analytical Skills
· Assist the SARC Nurse Manager with the collection and submission of Key Performance Indictor (KPI) data to the Commissioners.
· Maintains accurate patient records and ensures all relevant information is documented in the patient's medical and nursing records.
· Be responsible and accountable for maintaining own accurate and comprehensive patient treatment records in line with professional requirements.
· Complete weekly SARC data collection processes in preparation for monthly KPI submission.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care
· Assess, implement, and evaluate family centred programmes of care without direct supervision.
· Maintain high standards of nursing care and promote an environment suitable for the care of children and young people, ensuring that all care carefully reflects the latest research developments and is evidence based.
· Ensure the smooth coordination of both Acute and Non-Acute cases presented to the SARC.
· Administer prescribed oral and injectable medication to the CYP.
· Use skills to take a sexual history and screen CYP for sexually transmitted infections following national guidance.
· Undertake venipuncture for blood borne infection screening.
· Provide sexual health advice and signposting.
· Provide health promotion to all CYP and their families eg. smoke cessation, alcohol, substance misuse and diet.
· Contribute to the assessment and implementation of safeguarding assessment of the CYP ensuring any relevant information is shared with multi-agency colleagues.
· Enable patient choice and involvement and initiate appropriate action.
· Provides specialised advice to patients, partners, carers, and family as appropriate.
· Provides clinical advice in accordance with current evidence-based practice.
· Assess patient understanding of assessment / treatment proposals, gain valid consent and have the capacity to work within the legal framework with patients who lack the capacity to consent to treatment.
· Ensures patients, carers, and family, as appropriate, are given appropriate oral and written information regarding planned care.
· Manage a follow up service for CYP who require ongoing sexual health screening, ensuring any necessary investigations or referrals are arranged.
· Adhere to guidelines for the safe use of equipment in clinical areas and report defects as appropriate
· Participate in quality monitoring and audit to evaluate the effectiveness of care within the SARC.
· Participate in infection control monitoring and compliance, ensuring actions to improve cleanliness and infection control are implemented.
· Ensure accurate documentation is maintained in accordance with Trust and professional guidelines for record keeping and confidentiality.
· Participate in benchmarking, adopting best practice into departments.
· Contribute to clinical audit and research.
· Always respect the confidentiality and privacy of CYP and staff in accordance with Trust procedures, NMC regulations and Data Protection Act.
· The post holder will adhere to all Trust values and local policies.
Responsibility for Policy/Service Development
· Support the senior nursing team in ensuring Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Policies are being followed by clinical staff and visitors.
· Adhere to current Trust Policies and SOPs relating to decontamination and infection control when undertaking preparation of clinical areas.
· Adhere to National and Trust guidance relating to preserving forensic integrity within the SARC.
· Undertake a weekly quality review of records to identify any issues in practice and report accordingly to the SARC Clinical Director and SARC Nurse Manager
· Follow Trust Policies and may be required to comment on policies and SOPs or possible developments across the Service.
· Work in line with SOPs, good practice and understand what standards are to be achieved.
· Be familiar and comply with all Trust Policies, Procedures and Values.
· Lead and participate in the development of nursing services as part of the SARC.
· Support with the teams daily safety huddle, as required.
· Attend governance and senior leadership team meetings.
· Promote and maintain a safe and comfortable therapeutic environment for patients, visitors, and staff.
· Promote incident reporting and carry out appropriate immediate actions.
· Support the review clinical incidents in a timely manner, identifying lessons learnt to prevent recurrence.
· Maintain knowledge of incident trends and the department's risk register.
· Take responsibility for own continuing professional development.
· Undertake independent academic and practical self-study and understand, analyse, and evaluate such study into everyday practice.
· Demonstrate a sound understanding of clinical governance and risk management and their application to the work situation.
We reserve the right to close vacancies without notice when we have received a sufficient number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply regularly as we will contact you using this regarding your application. All candidates will be notified via email whether or not they have been shortlisted.
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are committed to creating a well-managed, flexible working environment that supports staff and promotes their welfare and development. We actively promote equality and diversity and operate a Zero Tolerance policy to aggression, violence, bullying and harassment.
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Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care and has a presence in community outreach sites and, in collaboration with other providers, our clinicians help deliver care closer to patients' homes by holding local clinics at locations from Cumbria to Shropshire, in Wales and the Isle of Man. The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site., As one of Europe's biggest and busiest children's hospitals, at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, we treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions. In addition to our main hospital site, we offer paediatric services at a number of community sites and hold local clinics across Merseyside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Wales and the Isle of Man. We also provide specialist inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs in our recently relocated and newly opened state of the art facility.
Alder Hey has a thriving research portfolio and leads research into children's medicines, infection, inflammation and oncology. We are becoming recognised as one of the world's leaders in children's healthcare and research. We contribute to public health, lead cutting-edge research and teach the next generation of children's specialists. Alongside this is our Innovation Hub, a dedicated space where clinicians and industries can come together to create new products and technologies.
We know that a children's hospital is different and that our job is more than just treating an illness. To us, every child is an individual. As well as giving them the very best care, we set out to make them feel happy, safe and confident as they play, learn and grow. At Alder Hey we are here to look after a child and their family and that includes mums, dads, brothers and sisters.

We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We're also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.
As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.
You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:
+ Great flexible working opportunities
+ Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
+ Generous annual leave and pension scheme
+ Extensive staff health and well-being programmes