Community Psychiatric Nurse

Job overview

When a service user experiences an acute mental health crisis, receiving fast, compassionate care in their own home environment can transform their recovery. As a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) within our East Kent Home Treatment & Rapid Response Teams, you’ll play a crucial role delivering recovery-focussed nursing care to service users, families, and carers when they need it most.

This dynamic dual role brings together hands-on crisis nursing, hospital gatekeeping, shift leadership, and student mentorship:

• Home Treatment Function: Deliver evidence-based, nurse-led care and psychosocial interventions directly in service users' homes, providing a safe and effective alternative to inpatient hospital admission.
• Rapid Response Function: Screen new referrals, conduct urgent 24/7 assessments via the Urgent Mental Health Helpline, and carry out gatekeeping assessments in general hospital settings.
• Clinical Leadership & Mentorship: Lead shifts, allocate work across the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT), uphold clinical documentation standards, and act as a Practice Educator for the next generation of mental health nurses.

If you are a passionate Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN) looking for a supportive environment where your clinical judgement and leadership are genuinely valued, we’d love to hear from you.

Sarah’s Story: A Career in Community Mental Health Nursing

Main duties of the job

• Assessment & Crisis Screening: Screen newly referred service users experiencing acute mental health crises, carrying out holistic nursing assessments and delivering short-term interventions until the crisis is resolved.
• Targeted Psychosocial Interventions: Provide evidence-based, short-term psychosocial and nursing interventions tailored for individuals presenting with significant distress.
• Shift Co-ordination & MDT Leadership: Act as shift co-ordinator—leading the floor, prioritising clinical workloads, delegating effectively across the MDT, and managing fast-changing priorities.
• Hospital Gatekeeping & Liaison: Perform gatekeeping assessments within general hospital mental health assessment areas to ensure service users access the right care pathway promptly.
• Quality & Clinical Documentation: Keep care plans, risk assessments, and clinical documentation updated and compliant with Trust policies, Care Programme Approach (CPA) guidelines, and Quality Improvement standards.
• Practice Education & Mentorship: Serve as a Practice Educator/mentor—supervising nursing students on placement, completing formal written assessments, maintaining update training, and facilitating smooth team inductions.
• Training & Service Development: Contribute to the design and delivery of specialist nursing and in-service training packages to foster team development and continuous learning

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job description for further details for full detailed responsibilities of this role.

The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes, unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.