Children's Community Nurse

Job overview

We have an exciting job opportunity a dedicated Band 6 Nurse to join our friendly and progressive Community Children's Nursing Team in Ealing.

We are looking for a full time (37.5 hours per week) post.

Our team is well-established and committed to providing compassionate, family-centered nursing care to children who are facing acute, complex, and long-term health conditions. We currently provide a 5-day service to children and their families living in Ealing Borough, supporting palliative and end-of-life care. Join us and become an integral part of our team.

We are looking for experienced, enthusiastic, and motivated individuals who is either a Band 5 or already in a Band 6 role. Whilst experience working in the community is preferred, it is not essential. We are interested in your skill set and what you can bring to our team.

Ultimately, we are looking for an  enthusiastic and experienced Children's nurse. You will be a highly motivated independent practitioner,  underpinned by a solid foundation in evidence-based nursing practices. In your capacity as a Band 6 Nurse, you will shoulder the responsibility of managing a diverse caseload, serving as a specialist resource in a defined clinical area, and actively contributing to the continuous enhancement of our Children's Community Nursing team.

Main duties of the job

This is an opportunity to become part of a team that provides nursing care to children in a variety of community settings.

The Children’s Community Nursing Team provides clinical nursing care, training and support to children, young people (aged 0-19) and their carer’s at home or other community settings, enabling them to remain safely in the community and transition to adult services where appropriate.

Our team look after the following children and young people in the community:

• Children with acute and short-term conditions
• Children with long term conditions
• Children with disabilities and complex conditions, including neonates
• Children with life-limiting and life-threatening illness, including palliative and end-of-life-care.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary:

Children’s Community Nurses work closely with the people who use our services. Families, friends and carers play an important role in the partnership and their feedback is valued regarding how people experience our services. Children’s Community Nurses are expected to be kind and responsive, but professional and informative and contribute to the quality of the services we provide by:

• keeping the people who use our services as safe as possible through the use of sound clinical skills and effective risk assessments
• ensuring the best possible clinical outcomes by using up-to-date skills and adhering to evidence-based policies and procedures
• ensuring the people using our services have a good experience by respecting, empowering, and working in partnership with people throughout the care planning process

We believe that the best health care is delivered by multi-disciplinary teams working well together and in partnership with other teams and services to provide seamless care. Children’s Community Nurses work as part of a team and you will contribute to the success of the team by being an effective role model and supervising Health Care Support Worker's, students, or other Band 5 nurses, to ensure they are working to the standards that the people using our services deserve.

Key Responsibilities

Community Children’s’ nurses contribute to the provision of safe and reliable services by:

• Using their clinical judgment and risk assessments to keep the people using our services as safe as possible
• Safeguarding people by recognising and responding when an adult or child might be at risk from abuse but also recognising their own limits and asking for help and escalating concerns when necessary
• Escalating safety concerns and by doing so acting as effective advocates for those who use our services
• Being open and transparent about their own practice
• Supervising the work of others
• Reflecting on everyday practice to identify areas where improvements in safety or quality can be made
• Working with others to create a culture of continuous improvement
• Maintaining accurate, legible, comprehensive records
• Maintaining compliance with their mandatory training requirements.

The NMC plays an important role in safeguarding the public by regulating the work of nurses and all nurses, including Community Children’s’ nurses, are expected to register with the NMC each year and adhere to the NMC Code of Conduct.

Clinical Outcomes

Community Children’s’ nurses often work with people who have complex needs and contribute to the effectiveness of services by:

• Being confident, autonomous practitioners who take responsibility for the care they give to patients but also take responsibility for overseeing the work of others in the team including less experienced nurses and staff without a professional qualification
• Providing skilled, evidence based nursing care which adheres to agreed policies and procedures
• Working with patients and families in all stages of the care planning process including assessing risks and needs
• Acting as patient advocates in the multi-disciplinary team and overseeing the work of others to ensure that they are also responding to the needs of patients and providing clinically effective care
• Working as autonomous practitioners and taking responsibility for the care they give to patients but also working as team members

Contributing to creating and maintaining high-performing teams by:

• Communicating well with all members of the team
• Understanding their role in the team and how they help the team achieve its’ objectives
• Reflecting on their own practice regularly and encouraging the whole team to reflect on their practices in handovers and team meetings
• Encouraging the team to learn from adverse events or respond to data analysis from audits or benchmarking exercises and implement sustainable initiatives which improve clinical outcomes

Patient Experience

Community Children’s’ nurses contribute to the people using our services feeling respected and empowered to make decisions about their health and wellbeing by:

• Working in partnership with patients and their families and carers
• Gaining consent and, as far as possible, involving people in all decision making
• Signposting patients and carers to the courses provided by the Recovery and Wellbeing College or services provided by the local authority or voluntary sector
• Reassuring people by being professional, responsive, knowledgeable and confident
• Demonstrating clinical leadership and challenging any poor behaviour to patients, families, or other staff members and creating a positive, inclusive culture in which everyone is treated with kindness and respect and the trust’s values are embedded in all practice
• Responding to complaints or concerns effectively and quickly in line with the Trust policy

Supporting yourself and others

All services and teams in the Trust should be able to demonstrate that they are meeting the Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards of care. Community Children’s’ nurses are expected to be Clinical Leaders and play an active role in ensuring that the team understands the CQC standards and what individual team members do to help achieve those standards by:

• Taking a lead role in gathering and recording evidence which demonstrates that CQC and locally agreed standards are being met: assessing the performance of the whole team by using audit and benchmarking exercises and often contribute to the implementation of quality improvement initiatives
• Contributing to the performance management of teams and creating a positive culture in which the team can learn from mistakes and is enthusiastic to improve
• Deputising for the team leader as required ensuring there is no fall in performance in their absence. This may include managing the team and coordinating shifts.
• Providing supervision and annual appraisals to individuals and giving constructive, regular feedback which helps those individuals reflect on their work, understand their objectives
• Participating constructively in their own supervision and annual appraisal processes
• Use continuing professional development funds to develop a relevant clinical specialism, gain sign-off mentorship skills, or undertake accredited leadership or management modules.