Hospice of the Valleys

Job Description and Person Specification

Title: Clinical Specialist Nurse

Grade: Developmental Band 6

Responsible to: Deputy Head of Clinical Services

Accountable to: Head of Clinical Services

Locality: Based at Hospice of the Valleys office in Ebbw Vale and working within the Blaenau Gwent locality.

Hours: 37.5

Key Working Relationships: Members of the Hospice multi-disciplinary team. Primary health care teams such as General Practitioners and the District Nursing service. Hospital palliative care teams and disease specific CNS’s (cancer and non-cancer)

1.Job Summary:

Work alongside more senior or experienced MDT members to provide palliative care to patients and loved ones of the Hospice of the Valleys following the completion of an induction program.

During the secondment there is an expectation the post holder will complete clinical and professional competencies in order to demonstrate learning which will be transferable to future roles.

Support will be provided for our patients and loved ones in a variety of community settings including their own, residential and nursing homes, outpatients at Hospice of the Valleys premises and local inpatient hospitals including Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan.

The post-holder will participate in our ‘on-call’ rota where palliative care and support is provided outside of normal working hours.

The service provides care 365 days per year and whilst the rota is created 2 – 3 months in advance there may be exceptional circumstances in which the post holder will be expected to change a scheduled rota at short notice in times of clinical staffing crisis. Last minute changes to shifts in order to sustain quality safe patient care would be initially requested on a voluntary basis and only as a last resort would they be imposed on any individual

It will be expected that the postholder hold a full, valid driving license and has access to a vehicle for all shifts.

2. Clinical Responsibilities

1. Working alongside more senior or experienced clinical staff initially until confidence and skills have grown to a level where independent working will be expected.
2. Ensures quality practice by delivering and monitoring evidence based individualised and personalised care through holistic needs assessment, care planning and evaluation of all care interventions.
3. Give encouragement, support, empathy, time, reassurance and advice to patients, families and carers to enable them to explore and express feelings and issues of concern promoting informed choice.
4. In collaboration with other members of the MDT, assess the needs of patients, families and carers and provide specific advice or support as necessary.
5. With support, demonstrate clinical leadership predominantly through community caseload management and consultancy
6. With assistance of more senior team members, manage a caseload of patient within the locality. Including liaising with the relevant district nursing teams, GP’s, attending palliative care meetings and facilitating regular caseload reviews with other team members.
7. Recognise and accept the limits of personal knowledge and responsibility, assessing and reporting relevant clinical information in a timely manner to Hospice of the Valleys team as appropriate.
8. Promotes and influences self-management, undertaking risk assessment to determine those who can self-manage, following education, those who will need guided support to self-manage and those who will require on-going, face to face support in coping with life limiting illness and its treatment.
9. With senior support, make professional autonomous decisions for which they are accountable
10.  Admit and discharge patients from own caseload and refer patients to other healthcare/social care professionals.
11. Facilitate the management and support of palliative care patients, collaborating with other Health Care Professionals and relevant agencies (statutory and/or voluntary) to promote planned coordinated care.
12. Maintain accurate records using a system of nursing documentation and appropriate information systems which reflect on advanced assessment and practice.
13. Implement and encourage the use of the “All Wales Care Priorities for the last days of Life” as appropriate and in collaboration with the Head of Clinical Services and other members of the multidisciplinary team.

3. Education

1. Recognise own training needs and be willing to undertake any training identified as necessary by the Deputy Head of Clinical Services to support effective working within the role, in line with Hospice policy and protocol on study leave allocation and funding
2. Work alongside more experienced members of the MDT in order to gain knowledge and skills
3. Takes personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through reflective practice, appraisal and actively engages with the learning and development opportunities
4. Identify the specific education needs of individual patients and carers and facilitate meeting
5. Participate in the education of local partners by taking part in the Hospice’s education sessions, for example the ‘Two Day Course’. Also providing ad hock training to individuals such as District Nurses or junior staff as gaps in knowledge become evident in order to provide excellent patient care.
6. Develops and delivers specialist education and training to other professionals involved in patient care. Leads the development of patient and community focused education, including coaching to self-manage the impact of life limiting illness
7. With support from senior staff, promotes the service and clinical excellence by publishing and presenting innovations, audit and research locally and nationally.
8. Acts as a role model for excellent communication skills and hospice care expertise, to include managing emotional distress for patients and relatives in appropriate cases.

4. Management/Leadership

1. Contribute to effective multidisciplinary team working and discussion.
2. With assistance of more senior team members, manage a caseload of patients and loved ones within the locality. Including liaising with the relevant district nursing teams, GP’s, attending palliative care meetings and facilitating regular caseload reviews with other team members.
3. Actively participates in multi-professional meetings, demonstrating clinical leadership and acting as patient advocate.
4. Use of reflective skills and facilitation skills to evaluate current practice.
5. Receive clinical supervision in order to self-manage.
6. Support practice development through participation in complex case discussion/reflection with members of the MDT and other health care professionals as appropriate.
7. Work within the Hospice’s policies and procedures guidelines.
8. Provides clinical leadership, expertise, advice and support across service boundaries; refers to other professionals and sign-posts to other agencies as appropriate.
9. Actively participates and promotes the service and clinical excellence through innovation, audit/evaluation and research.

5.Clinical Effectiveness

1. All staff and volunteers in the Hospice are encouraged to contribute to identifying and meeting their own job-related development needs. This will be achieved through a variety of processes including regular 1-2-1’s with Line Managers or senior colleagues, appraisals and development reviews.
2. Each employee must co-operate and attend all appropriate mandatory and statutory training as required by the organisation and /or their professional bodies.
3. Report any incident or accident in accordance with Hospice of the Valleys policy and protocol.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of own nursing practice, participating in multi-disciplinary audit as required and appropriate
5. Critically evaluate research and assist in the implementation of evidence-based best practice in all aspects of patient care.
6. Develops and uses clinical expertise, creative reasoning and experience to improve care; seeking help from senior practitioners as needed.
7. Evaluates nursing practice and implements changes as appropriate; using patient experience to influence change.
8. Uses creative reasoning, experience and vision to enhance care.
9.  Demonstrates continuous evaluation of practice and make changes where appropriate.
10. Participate in the Hospice of the Valleys review process and education programme as appropriate and as agreed by the Head of Clinical Services in order to identify and address relevant training needs.
11. Attend mandatory lectures according to hospice guidelines.

All Staff

1. Act as an ambassador for the charity and encouraging others to do the same.

1. All employees are subject to appraisals. To maximise the benefit from this process the employee must engage fully in the review and agree with their Line Manager organisational, team and personal objectives.

3. Work closely with colleagues in Fundraising and Marketing to promote the charitable activities of the hospice and participate in fundraising as required.
4. Ensure the maintenance of confidentiality in respect of staff, volunteer and client records and all privileged information relating to the services of the Charity, its patients, staff and volunteers and particularly of the area for which directly responsible.
5. Promote and foster the Hospice’s reputation and standing within the community and with private, statutory and voluntary sector agencies and organisations.
6. All staff must be sympathetic to and able to project the philosophy and concept of hospice care.
7. The Hospice has in place provision for staff support. Staff are expected to exercise responsibility in accessing and providing whatever forms of support might be appropriate for them to ensure that they are able to offer the professional care for which they are employed.

Health and Safety

All employees have a responsibility under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect and promote their own health and that of others in the workplace

No Smoking Policy

Hospice of the valleys operates a No Smoking Policy

Data Protection

All employees are required to uphold the confidentiality of all information records in whatever format, encountered in the course of employment and after it. All employees are bound by the requirements of the Data Protection Act when, in the course of their employment, they deal with information records relating to individuals

Equal Opportunities

It is the aim of Hospice of the Valleys to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, race, colour, nationality or ethnic origins, or is placed at a disadvantage by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable. To this end, Hospice of the Valleys has an Equal Opportunities Policy and it is for each employee to contribute to its success.

This job description is not exhaustive and may include any other tasks as may be deemed reasonable.

Person Specification: Developmental Band 6 CNS