Community Liaison Nurse

Job overview

The post holder will be a clearly identifiable senior staff member. They will take overall responsibility for assessing and planning the safe discharge of patients on Ron Johnson Ward and will take a lead in the MDT (multidisciplinary team) meetings. They will need to individually assess and identify appropriate pathways for all patients being discharged to the community and co-ordinate their referrals and ongoing planning.

They will be an advocate for the patients on the ward and will take a leadership role in identifying appropriate admissions and co-ordinating with Gazzard Day Unit and the Clinical Site team.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be a clearly identifiable senior staff member. They will take overall responsibility for assessing and planning the safe discharge of patients on Ron Johnson Ward and will take a lead in the MDT (multidisciplinary team) meetings. They will need to individually assess and identify appropriate pathways for all patients being discharged to the community and co-ordinate their referrals and ongoing planning.

They will be an advocate for the patients on the ward and will take a leadership role in identifying appropriate admissions and co-ordinating with Gazzard Day Unit and the Clinical Site team.

They will need to be a lead in completing Optica and will ensure that all PDD’s are correct, as well as maintaining clear and concise discharge records. They will also be responsible for collecting all discharge feedback from patients using our friends and family tool and play an active role in using this feedback to improve our services.

They will need to have excellent communication skills and be able to liaise effectively with Social Services, mental health teams, hospices etc and build strong relationships with all our community partners and commissioners. They will role model the identified Trust values at all times.

In specialist settings, they will have a significant level of specialist clinical knowledge and expertise in the clinical functions of care delivery. They will provide advice and guidance also.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical:

Have a good clinical knowledge in acute nursing care, including HIV and Oncology/Haematology/Chemotherapy

Lead on complex discharges for all patients in the area

Ensure all discharges are well planned and safe, involving the patients significant others

Promote and maintain a safe therapeutic environment for patients, their families and staff, according to national and local Infection Control guidelines, Health & Safety legislation and Trust policies and objectives

Coordinate discharges and transfers, promoting timely and safe processes for them

Ensure that patient flow and the management of beds is effective and safe

Work closely with the palliative care team to ensure patients preference for end of life care is taken into consideration when planning discharge

Maintain a good understanding and implementation of clinical escalation procedures as required

Understand the Trust clinical governance framework, and participate in the promoting and safeguarding of high standards of care, through effective risk management & governance, and adherence to the Trust values

Ensure that the team promote, ensure and adhere to the Trust safeguarding polices

Coordinate specialist functions, including making clinical decisions where appropriate

Monitor quality of standards of care, in line with CQC requirements and Trust and Divisional objectives

Deliver and supervise a high quality patient experience from admission to discharge

Work with manager to collect and disseminate data on quality indicators etc, in line with national and Trust objectives

Promote and maintain patient safety at all times, including  proactively implementing falls prevention

Lead role in the detection, management and prevention of safeguarding issues, implementing the appropriate use of IDVA’s and DOL’s etc

Have an awareness of current professional and clinical developments within their area of practice and promote this to others

Please see attached job description and person specification to this advert for further details.