Macmillan Acute Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist

Job overview

The Acute oncology clinical nurse specialist plays a key role in the acute oncology team, working in collaboration with the rest of the team  to deliver a highly effective, specialist service for patients, the service will  provide early input of specialist care enabling;

• Faster and better care of patients with complications of chemotherapy, including early recognition of symptoms, better treatments and facilitating early discharge.

• Faster and better care of patients with complications of cancer, facilitating a rapid referral on to the specialist oncology team/specialist palliative care team.

• The appropriate investigation of patients who may benefit from treatment for cancer of unknown primary (CUP) including rapid triage and targeted investigations into specialist oncology/specialist palliative care.

Main duties of the job

• Give advice and implement patient care in an area which requires specific clinical knowledge, skills and experience.
• Work alongside other clinical colleagues in oncology, palliative care, the emergency floor, acute medicine, radiology and pathology to ensure quality of care to the patients is maximised. This will include the development of clinical guidelines & education programmes.
• Assess, plan, implement and evaluate programmes of care in collaboration with the lead nurse, referring on to other specialist disciplines.
• Receives referrals from general practitioners, district nurses, community Macmillan nurses and hospital staff. Makes referrals to general practitioners, district nurses, community Macmillan nurses, occupational therapists and social workers.
• Works in collaboration with others in order to ensure a seamless transition for patients by attending multi-disciplinary meetings and contributing to case management by influencing decision making to optimise health outcomes by acting as a highly specialist resource.
• Provides and receives highly complex, sensitive information and uses developed interpersonal and communication skills such as would be required within a highly emotive atmosphere.
• Influences clinical decisions regarding service delivery by acting as a highly specialist resource and provides highly specialist clinical advice to all members of the multidisciplinary team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Develops and reviews policies and clinical guidelines that are necessary to deliver specialist care at all levels within the hospital setting and beyond in order to improve standards of care.
• Demonstrates professional and clinical leadership and acts as a role model in relation to the provision of specialist care.
• Promotes best practice within the Trust through dissemination of specialist knowledge by establishing networks with other acute oncology professionals.
• Promotes collaborative working relationships and effective communication between all members of the multi-disciplinary team and other agencies
• Assesses monitors and manages risk, working within the clinical governance framework to improve service quality within acute oncology.
• Promotes the acute oncology service by working to national guidelines and standards, whilst providing an annual report outlining the service activities and future service developments and provision.
• Plays a key role in the peer review process for acute oncology in accordance with the cancer standards.
• Implements legislation from government and contributes to the achievement of corporate objectives.