Senior Liaison Flow Practitioner

Job overview

The post holder will be part of the Mental Health Psychiatric Liaison Team which is a model of psychiatric liaison serving the Newham University Hospital including the Emergency Department and the Inpatient Wards. The service is commissioned to carry out the following:

• Provide a single multidisciplinary mental health and drug assessment service
• Provide expert advice on the management, treatment and diagnosis of patients to acute hospital clinicians
• Provide support to acute hospital clinicians
• Provide training to acute hospital clinicians
• To improve health outcomes for patients
• To reduce length of stay for patients
• To reduce readmissions to the Emergency Department,
• To reduce re-attendances to the Emergency Department
• To improve the experience of patients who receive care in the acute hospital
• To reduce direct admissions to care homes
• To improve the Royal London Hospital staff awareness, skills and knowledge in mental health and drugs and alcohol.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work across Newham’s Crisis pathway services where needed. The Service forms part of Newham’s crisis pathway and operates a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service for people aged 16 years and above who present with a suspected mental health, self-harm or drug and alcohol problem. The service will maintain focus on identifying, assessing and care planning for older people.

The post holder will be expected to be self-motivating and autonomous with the ability to demonstrate accurate formulations of mental state, risk and need for people over the age of 16 years taking into account medical and social factors and referring on to other disciplines in the team or other agencies as appropriate within the given timeframes for the service.

The post holder will provide advice on mental health issues and participate in carrying out training programmes for clinical teams on the management of a wide variety of mental health problems.

The post holder will be expected to maintain the highest degree of customer service at all times and will work in collaboration with the teams and organisations who come into contact with the service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Have a wide base of clinical skills, knowledge and experience appropriate to the needs of individual patients over the age of 16 years and to the clinical settings in which they are required to be seen. Where clinical knowledge requires more specialist input e.g. 16 and 17 year old or drugs and alcohol the post holder will be expected to refer on to the relevant department.
• Carry out specialist assessments across the crisis pathway and develop, implement, evaluate and document specialist management plans and care plans as appropriate to the individual patient’s needs and behaviours.
• Provide a consultation-liaison service to clinicians and clinical teams within the acute hospital. This will include giving specialist advice on a range of care, treatment and patient management issues including psychiatric emergencies.
• Demonstrate a high standard of record keeping and documentation with adherence to trust policy and an understanding of professional guidelines and application of confidentiality.
• Work with colleagues to develop and promote the philosophy of the psychiatric liaison service, framework of care delivery and strategic objectives, taking responsibility for specific areas of policy and strategy delivery.
• Work with colleagues to develop clinical expertise and high standards of nursing practice, as defined by the Nursing & Midwifery Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives (2009).
• Deliver care that is evidence based, reflecting current best practice and research.
• Actively participate in structured regular management supervision provided by your line manager in accordance with Trust policies and procedures. You may also be expected to take responsibility for the supervision of nurses and others in non-mental health settings working with patients with mental health problems.
• Demonstrate clinical excellence and high standards of nursing practice to other colleagues.
• Demonstrate a sound understanding of the legal and ethical issues in caring for the mentally ill. In particular, demonstrating sound understanding of the Mental Health Act (2007), Mental Capacity Act (2005), deprivation of liberty safeguards and their application in a non-mental health setting.
• Demonstrate the ability to receive and give complex clinical details clearly and appropriate to the situation, with patients, carers and colleagues.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly, sensitively and with compassion in situations that are emotional, contentious and/or hostile.
• Demonstrate a high level of interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy in all communications
• Demonstrate an ability to negotiate and problem solve in contentious and/or antagonistic situations where agreement cannot be reached e.g. in situations where the Mental Health Act may be needed to be used.
• Demonstrate the ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within the psychiatric liaison team, Barts Health staff and East London Foundation Trust staff.
• Take responsibility for agreed clinical, managerial and strategic projects associated with the provision of the psychiatric service. This will include planning, implementing, reviewing and revising these projects as necessary.
• In the absence of the Team Manager; take responsibility for the immediate management of the team and patient care provided, to agreed local and professional standards.
• In the absence of the Team Manager, take responsibility for the co-ordination of all activities within the clinical area or equivalent sphere.
• Ensure the promotion of health and safety regulations in relation to the well-being and interests of the patients, staff and all visitors who come into contact with the team environment.
• At all times follow the Nursing & Midwifery Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives (2009) and ensure that all staff within their sphere of responsibility also follows the code as laid down.
• Supervise monitor and appraise the performance of junior staff within the sphere of designated responsibility, and report to the team manager.
• Assist the shift co-ordinator and senior management to exercise day to day control of the budget for the service.
• Act as change agent to promote innovation and high standards of practice in line

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.