Senior Staff Nurse (Band 6) - Ellis Ward

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for surgical nurses to join our friendly and energetic team on Ellis Ward.  We are looking for a committed, enthusiastic, and self-motivated nurse to join our well-established team.

Ellis ward is a 14-bed adult female surgical ward, predominantly caring for patients undergoing treatment for breast and gynaecological cancers as well as other specialities including gastrointestinal and urological. We also care for patients having chemotherapy, radiotherapy and patients requiring symptom control as part of their treatment. The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal and clinical skills and enjoy working as part of a team.

As a Band 6 Senior Staff Nurse you will be required to assume responsibility for co-ordinating shifts on a regular basis, as deemed necessary, by the ward manager and be proactive in identifying areas to improve the patient experience and quality of nursing care. You will also need to have strong managerial and clinical leadership to the ward team; provide day to day managerial leadership support to staff, and ensure delivery of high-quality, safe patient care

We can offer you a supernumerary period designed to explore all that the ward has to offer, time allocated with the mentor and members of the various MDTs with whom we work and provide a tailor-made programme to introduce you to the ward.

Main duties of the job

• To coordinate and supervise a shift, communicating effectively with members of a multidisciplinary team to deliver high quality, evidence-led care to patients.
• To exercise clinical judgment and decision making about patient needs in terms of long term goals or plans.
• To participate fully in the day to day organization and running of clinical trials including the recruitment, education and monitoring of patients entering a clinical trial and liaison as required with trial sponsors.

The Senior Staff Nurse is responsible for assisting the Ward Sister / Charge Nurse in the management of the clinical environment and for the management of shifts. At Senior Staff Nurse level, the post holder is required to take responsibility for the management and development of a team of employees under the supervision of the Ward Sister / Charge Nurse.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information on this role, please see the attached detailed Job Description and Person Specification:

To complete the first level assessment of patients with cancer and their families to gain an understanding of their physiological, psycho-social, spiritual and cultural needs and to develop a positive, realistic and supportive attitude to ensure that these needs are met. This will include:

• Counterchecking patients’ vital signs, blood results, patient body surface area, chemotherapy prescription and consent before administration of treatment.
• Educating patients on their treatment such as indications and side effects.
• Ensuring necessary medication and follow up appointments are obtained.
• To plan, document, deliver and evaluate care plans from admission through to discharge / transfer discussing this with the patient, their family and multi-disciplinary teams and to alert the Sister/Charge Nurse of any changes. To set goals for each of the identified nursing issues and encourage / teach other nursing staff to do the same. To help the patient achieve set goals through care planning.