Lead Nurse for Learning from Deaths

Job overview

The Lead Nurse for Learning from Deaths is a senior member of the Corporate Quality Team. The post holder will provide operational leadership and direction for the ‘Learning from Deaths’ Programme across the Trust with an aim of reducing avoidable hospital mortality.

The role includes developing robust systems and processes for mortality reviews and learning across the Trust; developing systems and processes for supporting and feeding back to bereaved families and next of kin following mortality reviews and adverse events relating to patient death; and working with clinical teams to identify and develop quality improvement work / mortality reduction strategies across the Trust.

Main duties of the job

• Take a lead role in the oversight of the Trust’s incident response and learning processes, working with nominated experts to strengthen processes and structures for demonstrable learning and improvement.

• Interpretation of national policy and guidance relating to “Learning from Deaths” and translation into Trust policy and practice.

• Development of an annual mortality reduction strategy, in liaison with the Associate Medical Director for Patient Safety, which aligns with Trust Quality Strategy and priorities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Planning and organisation of patient safety initiatives and quality improvement projects as identified as a result of incidents and mortality reviews

• Development and maintenance of processes to feedback the outcomes of mortality reviews to bereaved families and next of kin

• Development of quality assurance processes around the quality of SJR reviews

• Representing the Trust at regional mortality meetings as required

• Working collaboratively across the region to develop cross-organisational learning from deaths and improvement initiatives across patient pathways

• Leading on the compiling of the quarterly Trust mortality Board report.

• Providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive, and contentious information, to staff, service users, carers and members of the public, and staff groups, and where there may be significant barriers to understanding and acceptance.

• Interpret appropriate data sets and provide accompanying analytical narrative for Trust Committees.

• Undertaking mortality structured judgement reviews (SJR) both level 1 and level 2 where issues have been identified in care delivery. Requiring expertise in order to interpret complex clinical information and make judgements about the appropriateness of care and treatment and identifying learning points to feed back to clinical teams.

• Assisting with reviews into deaths of service users with a learning disability (LeDeR reviews) which can be highly complex, sensitive, contentious and require clinical interpretation

• Attending the Learning from Deaths and Dying Group and providing expertise and clinical judgement in discussions of issues with care.

See attached Job Description