Community Psychiatric Nurse

Job overview

We are seeking an experienced and enthusiastic Band 6 Community Psychiatric Nurse to work within community services in the borough of Merton for South West London and St Georges NHS Trust, within the Community Recovery Support Team.

The post offers a chance to work as an integrated member of a dedicated community team, working with adults experiencing mental health issues.  Our community services are innovative and have recently been reconfigured to provide specific recovery focused interventions to people with mental health issues accessing secondary care. The focus is on providing time limited interventions to enable individuals to maintain their lives with limited intervention; to understand and develop strategies to manage symptoms they may be experiencing, while working in partnership to establish their own personal recovery action plans.

Main duties of the job

Successful applicants will work as part of a Multidisciplinary Team. You will hold a designated caseload and work generically as a care coordinator alongside your Nursing functions.

The Trust has regular Nursing forums there is an emphasis on being actively involved in continuing research and ongoing learning. We offer regular developmental learning sets professional and line management supervision; yearly individual appraisals and a robust in service training/ educational programme.

Applicants should have experience working within a mental health setting post qualification; ideally a community mental health team. You will need to be flexible energetic have a positive attitude and demonstrate an ability to work autonomously.

You should be able to demonstrate excellent communication and interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with individuals sometimes adopting a creative / problem solving approach to working practice. You should be committed to MDT working and partnership working, establishing good networks with our Recovery College and a variety of voluntary, statutory and independent agencies.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be responsible for the flexible management of a defined caseload designed to meet the individual needs of the client and the carer’s.
• To maintain high standard of individualised client care, recognising factors and events that are likely to affect the mental, emotional and physical well-being of clients/carers and provide advice and support when required.
• To act as a care coordinator in assessing clients’ needs and strengths through a collaborative approach, ensuring that all clients have care plans and that these are implemented and regularly reviewed/updated.

Working autonomously within the parameters of the role leading and supporting junior staff and wider care team to implement the delivery of quality nursing care, contributing to the physical, psychological, social, recreational and spiritual care in a recovery-focused way through therapeutic engagement and activities, and taking steps to address any issues that arise.

Leading on and undertaking activities to ensure that the fundamentals of care are met - nutrition, hydration, hygiene, comfort, emotional and social support:

Co-ordinating and evaluating collaborative patient centred care; getting feedback and improving plans with the multi-disciplinary team (MDT).

Liaising and working positively with members of the multi- disciplinary team and partner organisations.

Administering, and monitoring the side-effects of, medication; monitoring service user compliance. Safety; safe custody of medicines, sharps, clinical equipment, report all incidents following trust policy.

Leading and supporting/teaching junior staff on risk assessment and risk management that involves making decisions based on knowledge of the research evidence, knowledge of the individual service user and their social context, knowledge of the service user’s own experience and clinical judgment.

Supporting and supervising junior staff to develop the management of care needs through: Initial data collection, Monitoring of individual service user / patient progress, Feedback and discussion

Producing reports and in-care reviews. Devising a plan of care and interventions in partnership with service user, carer and MDT.

Coordinating junior staff and the wider care team in providing hands-on care to service users and evaluating processes of care delivered. This will include: Undertaking 1-1 engagement with service users in an honest, open and non- judgmental way.

Recognising and valuing service users as individuals, acknowledging the importance of maintaining the service user’s respect and dignity at all times and ensure that the care provided respects equality and diversity.

Ensuring the monitoring and recording service user clinical observations are undertaken, such as physical observations and vital signs and treating or escalating as appropriate any signs or symptoms of deterioration or that does not fulfil the personal parameters to the relevant professional for treatment. Promote healthy lifestyles and give health promotion advice and support.