NICU Sister - Bereavement Lead / Community

Job overview

Are you a clinically experienced neonatal palliative and bereavement care nurse looking to take your expertise to the next level? We are seeking an exceptional practitioner who brings advanced clinical skills, deep compassion and the confidence to influence high‑quality care at some of the most critical moments in a family’s life.

In this specialist role, you will act as a senior clinical leader, applying expert decision‑making, advanced practice capability and professional judgement far beyond the scope of the general multidisciplinary team. You will be a visible clinical presence, supporting colleagues across neonatal, midwifery and obstetric services while shaping practice standards that place the needs of babies and their families at the centre of every decision.

You will continually evolve your own expert nursing practice and, through effective role modelling, help strengthen the professional development of others. Working in close partnership with neonatal, midwifery and obstetric teams, you will provide authoritative clinical advice, offer specialist leadership and seek out opportunities where innovation, transformation or enhanced pathways can improve experiences and outcomes for parents and their babies.

If you are driven to make a profound difference, committed to excellence in neonatal palliative and bereavement care, and ready to lead with expertise, empathy and vision, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

COMMUNICATION

Demonstrate ability to communicate complex and sensitive information to patients, carers and other staff, taking into account the unique and complex psychosocial needs of this patient population.

Effectively utilise communication skills to empower families to make informed decisions.

Diffuse potentially hostile and antagonistic situations with staff, patients and relatives, using highly developed negotiation and interpersonal skills

Provide expertise and support to nursing and clinical teams in the management of challenging interactions with families when required.

Actively promote the philosophy and vision of the role, regionally and nationally.

Support parents during follow up appointments by advocating for them as required and subsequently reinforcing information and explanations given.

Ensure that there is a clearly defined platform for parent experience feedback, and this is utilised to understand patient need and guide service development.

Demonstrate self-motivation, and the ability to work under own initiative and without direct supervision, being accountable for own actions.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Participate in Child Death Overview meetings (CDOP) and regionally as required.

Work collaboratively with hospital and local hospices in relation to neonatal palliative care and bereavement Support needs and priorities.

Before and after birth, perinatal health professionals should take active steps to recognise babies who would benefit from palliative care and to integrate this into routine care, participate in fetal medicine meetings.

Represent through attendance and presentation at relevant local, national and international conferences/forums.

Participate in the Annual baby Remembrance Service, Wave of Light, Baby loss Awareness week.

Support the implementation of agreed clinical guidelines, documentation and education strategy produced by East of England Network

Promote change in nursing and clinical practice in order to improve the recognition and management of babies and their families requiring bereavement support.

Provide a positive role model to staff.

Delegate and empower staff without abdicating overall, continuing responsibility.

Network with other neonatal bereavement leads to attend national bench-marking groups to share best practice and influence national neonatal bereavement drivers.

Support community team with early discharge and community follow-up

To work within the neonatal unit as an integral part of the team. To work a minimum of one shift per week on NICU as a community liaison nurse, at all times supernumerary to nursing establishment of the unit. Identifying the babies ready for discharge and be proactive in the discharge planning from hospital

Support Outreach lead and attend all relevant psychosocial/neonatal discharge planning meetings when required. To discuss and identify babies and families suitable for earlier discharge and prevented readmissions.

Attend outreach meetings deputizing for the Outreach Lead, such as, weekly consultant catch up, safeguarding, fetal medicine, complex baby meeting, pediatric palliative and other strategy meetings.

EDUCATION

• Provide expert specialist advice to patients, carers and staff in the healthcare setting.
• Act as a mentor and teacher, providing mentorship and support and demonstrate exemplary practice to all members of the healthcare team.
• Identify educational and training needs of multi-professional teams.
• Advise on training and education necessary for staff at individual and team level in the specialty, and contribute to the training and education needs of the organisation as required.
• Promote evidence based practice within wards and departments.
• Ensure continued personal development of knowledge and expert skills.

• Explore the development of / promote professional educational opportunities relating to bereavement and palliative care locally, regionally, and nationally for hospital staff.
• Take responsibility for and actively participate in own personal development plan and performance review/appraisal with the Line Manager.

RESEARCH AND AUDIT

• Support in auditing service evaluation and research of neonatal palliative care and bereavement support programmes.
• Work with the clinical research teams to facilitate research opportunities for our patients, to drive new opportunities for patient-centred research.
• Regularly undertakes work audits and participates in research activity which includes participating in clinical audits and making recommendations for practice. Critically analyse data from local, regional and national reports including MBRRACE and PMRT.
• Contribute to the multidisciplinary perinatal mortality reviews and the dissemination of learning and feedback following review.
• Maintain a database of all families who have experienced neonatal loss within the neonatal service and where possible compare and analyse this information and data for a range of options including reports for specific programmes/audits and research.
• Facilitate and support in the development of evidence based guidelines for use in clinical practice.
• Participate in Quality Improvement projects as the service requires

For further information please see attached Job Description and Person Specifications.