Clinical Nurse Specialist – Palliative Care

Job overview

Part Time - 6 Months contract - 19hours per week,

We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity to work with in the Palliative care team at Princess Royal University hospital.  We are seeking a dynamic, innovative and a highly motivated nurse to join our team as a band 7 specialist palliative care nurse.  This post has been created due to staff on unpaid leave.

The palliative care team offers an advisory service to patients with palliative care needs and promotes excellence in end of life care across the Trust. The successful candidate will be an enthusiastic individual who will contribute to the development of this dynamic multi-professional team and build on partnerships across the locality. The team sits within the adult medicine care group and is supported by the care group triumvirate. The team has access to links with Cicely Saunders Institute offering opportunity to be involved in cross site research projects and have access to education provided through the Institute.

Main duties of the job

• To work as a clinical nurse specialist and effectively deliver an expert nursing service within the multi-professional palliative care team on the Princess Royal University hospital site
• To support the management of a caseload of patients with specialist palliative care needs
• Participate in providing a seven day face to face service.
• To assist in the development of evidence based clinical nursing practice in line with current research and guidelines
• To establish clear lines of communication within palliative care to ensure cohesive multidisciplinary management of patients
• To link with other palliative care providers and primary care in order to facilitate the care of this group of people in the community
• To act as a role model to other nurses and support the delivery of palliative care education within the Trust
• To engage in the team’s governance programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist nursing services for people with specialist palliative care needs, including their families and significant others.
• To accept responsibility for own patient caseload, ensuring all patients have an accurate plan of care, which reflects the assessment undertaken and incorporates the issues and recommendations made
• To accept responsibility as the named palliative care key worker, ensuring clear documentation in the patients’ records
• To co-ordinate a seamless service through the development of enhanced Multidisciplinary team (MDT) processes and communication
• To attend and ensure that appropriate palliative care patients on the caseload are discussed at the weekly MDT
• To liaise with local community, social services, paramedics and voluntary organisations in order to develop existing services for clients, carers and health professional
• Ensure all patients receive appropriate follow-up and relevant information is available to enable patients to make an informed choice about their treatment and future care
• To work with the MDT to develop, implement and evaluate integrated care pathways and systems of MDT documentation, including the care of the dying person
• To work with the Palliative Care Team to support the ongoing implementation of the 5 priorities for care of the dying person
• To be responsible for identifying and developing clinical protocols and strategies to enhance both the continuity and standard of specialist care whilst ensuring equity of access to the service
• To actively involve service users in providing feedback of their experience of the current service and suggestions for improvements
• To liaise with discharge coordinators and ward staff to ensure appropriate and timely discharge/follow-up arrangement in place for patients
• To participate in relevant forums at Care Group, Trust, CCG, Cancer Network or National/International Level to represent the service perspective