Martha's Rule (Call for Concern) Lead Nurse

Job overview

Band 7 Lead Nurse /  12 hours per week

We are seeking a motivated and experienced Specialist Nurse to join our Acute Care Response Team and play a key role in implementing Martha’s Rule across the Trust.

This is an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of improving patient safety and ensuring that patients, families, and staff have a clear and effective route to escalate concerns about deterioration.

The Role As a Specialist Nurse, you will work alongside our Acute Care Response Team to support the rollout and embedding of Martha’s Rule trust wide. You will act as a clinical leader, advocate, and educator, helping to drive cultural change and ensure best practice in recognising and responding to patient deterioration.

Support and Collaboration You will be well supported in this role, working closely with:

• The Nurse Consultant
• Specialist Lead Nurse
• Critical Care Matron
• Critical Care Consultant

Together, you will lead on the development, implementation, and evaluation of Martha’s Rule, ensuring it is effectively integrated into everyday clinical practice.

Martha’s Rule is an initiative aimed at enhancing patient safety and empowering patients and their families in acute care settings.

The successful candidate will be significantly autonomous and responsible for embedding the work for Martha’s Rule within the Acute Trust.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be responsible for running specific projects that support Martha’s Rule and the prevention, identification, escalation and response (PIER) to clinical deterioration, such as:

• Work with a variety of healthcare teams to embed the improvement projects for Martha’s Rule and the deteriorating patient (Newborn, Maternity, Paediatrics and Adults)
• Provide expert guidance and support to healthcare teams in implementing Martha’s Rule
• Monitor and evaluate the progress of the aims of Martha’s Rule, identifying best practice and areas for improvement
• Facilitate training for healthcare staff on Martha’s Rule
• Gather and analyse data to assess the impact of the initiative on patient outcomes
• Report and disseminate learning on Martha’s Rule and the PIER approach to the deteriorating patient working group

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Martha’s Rule, also known as Call for Concern is an exciting initiative aimed at enhancing patient safety and empowering patients and their families within acute care settings. As the Martha's Rule Specialist Nurse, you will play a pivotal role in embedding this initiative across the Acute Trust.

This is a highly autonomous role funded by NHS England, with the successful candidate driving forward key projects that focus on preventing, identifying, escalating, and responding (PIER) to clinical deterioration.

This is a unique opportunity to influence change and improve outcomes for patients across a wide range of care areas, including newborn, maternity, paediatric, and adult services.

• Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary healthcare teams, including Health Innovation England, to embed Martha’s Rule (Call for Concern) and related improvement projects across various care areas within the Great Western Hospital.
• Provide expert advice, guidance, and support to inpatient healthcare teams, ensuring the successful implementation of Martha’s Rule and the Call for Concern project.
• Regularly assess the progress of Martha’s Rule initiatives, identifying best practices, and highlighting areas requiring improvement.
• Design and deliver training sessions to healthcare staff, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to effectively apply Martha’s Rule in their practice.
• Collect, analyse, and interpret data to evaluate the impact of the initiative on patient safety and outcomes. Report this data Nationally to NHS England.
• Share findings, lessons learned, and progress updates with the deteriorating patient working group and other relevant stakeholders.