Charge Nurse - Laurel House and Honeybourne Unit

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for 2 x caring, compassionate and highly motivated individuals to work with Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust as Band 6 Charge Nurses at Laurel House and Honeybourne Unit. Both sites are Inpatient Mental Health Rehabilitation Units.

Please note that there are 2 separate roles; one based at Honeybourne Unit and one based at Laurel House, both at 18.75 hours per week.

Laurel House is a 13 bedded mixed unit and Honeybourne, a 10 bedded mixed unit based in Cheltenham. The services provide care for people with severe and enduring mental health needs, to help support them to become more independent and live fulfilled lives in the community.   The units are set up to provide a more home from home environment, offering a low stimulus and calming environment for which to promote recovery and independence

This role is offered on a permanent basis. The hours are 7.5 hour shifts with a working pattern of 2 shifts for 2 weeks and 3 shifts for 2 weeks; amounting to 18.75 hours a week. Hours including rotational day time shifts to include weekends, bank holidays and cover for nights if needed. The total number of hours worked in a 4 week period will be 75 hours.

Main duties of the job

We are seeking 2 highly motivated caring, compassionate and committed Band 6 Charge Nurses to complement our current team of professionals. As an ideal candidate for this post you would be an experienced mental health nurse seeking an opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives, through effective positive leadership and a passion for helping those experiencing an acute mental health concern.

The purpose of this role is to:

• Provide assessment and implementation of evidence-based interventions for service users who are experiencing common, acute mental health and longer-term recovery needs
• Take responsibility for the provision of appraisal and supervision of other team members including induction of junior staff members and assessment of work based studies such as NVQ
• Provide mentorship and preceptorship to junior nurses, nurses in training and other members of the multi-disciplinary team ensuring training objectives are met
• Support clinical governance initiatives at ward / hospital level
• Completion of regular audit and feedback outcomes and learning to the wider team
• Contribute to service development and quality initiatives in line with local and national policies through the use of audit and policy development

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Engage in complex health assessments as appropriate and plan relevant care in partnership with services users e.g. Specialist assessment of complex nursing needs
• Develop, implement and evaluate care plans in conjunction with service users, carers and other professionals which reflect individual needs
• Ensure that everyone involved in the care plan receives a copy and to ensure that all relevant details are recorded on trust IT systems
• Assist service users to meet their personal care needs e.g. assisting with bathing and washing, as outlined in the Care Plan. This intervention may be delegated where appropriate
• Liaise with and offer specialist assessment and advice to other agencies and professions. To participate in Multi-Agency meetings to offer advice and opinions to facilitate the ongoing treatment and care of clients and to ensure adherence to National Service Framework (NSF) guidelines
• Actively support service users in the management of their medication within a ‘concordance framework’ and relevant policies. Administer medication, including Intra-muscular injections depot medication as appropriate and monitor side effects. Delegate the checking and delivery of medication when appropriate
• As named nurse to have responsibility for undertaking mental and behavioural state examinations for own service users and service users being admitted, repeated on at least a weekly basis with clinical risk assessment and management plans
• Take charge of the ward in the absence of senior staff for clinical, environmental, and managerial aspects.
• Shift Co-ordination – including allocation of resources, deployment of staff, upholding the requirements of the Mental Health Act, maintaining a safe environment, liaising with other disciplines, service users and carers
• Positively contribute to the operational management of the team
• At nights and weekends undertaking additional responsibilities for hospital wide issues of bed management, staff deployment, fire coordination etc.
• Implement Safety Assessments and management plans on a daily basis
• To be involved in the recruitment of staff
• Take responsibility for the provision of appraisal and supervision of other team members including induction of junior staff members and assessment of work based studies such as NVQ
• Contribute and deliver in the planning and delivery of teaching sessions to members of the multi-disciplinary team and outside agencies including professions from primary care in order to implement mandatory training or to pass on specialist knowledge and skills.  These sessions may be part of protected learning time
• Contribute to service development and quality initiatives in line with local and national policies through the use of audit and policy development
• Ensure sufficient time is allocated to provide and receive clinical and managerial supervision, to include work load management, focusing on improving quality of care and audit in line with the Government Modernisation Programme, through competent planning and organisational skills
• Ensure the therapeutic programme across a seven day period is developed and outcomes are shown through audit and evaluation of evidence based practice
• Provide mentorship and preceptorship to junior nurses, nurses in training and other members of the multi-disciplinary team ensuring training objectives are met
• Provide mentorship and preceptorship to junior nurses, nurses in training and other members of the multi-disciplinary team ensuring training objectives are met

The Trust is required to work in line with the Government’s UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas