Staff Nurse (Band 6) Oak Day Unit DDU

Job overview

The drug development unit is a globally competitive, early clinical trials unit that conducts first in human clinical trials for patients with advanced cancer when all avenues of standard treatment have been exhausted. The unit comprises of an in-patient 9 bedded ward, day care area and outpatient clinic. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work in all areas as part of their induction before joining the Day Unit Team.

The Staff Nurse role here is diverse and combines aspects of the traditional staff nurse duties with some research responsibilities. Care involves trial related assessments, oral and IV treatment, symptom control and supportive treatments. It is a unique opportunity to broaden your knowledge and skills whilst providing high quality care and emotional support to patients with advanced cancer.

The successful candidate will, ideally, have experience in either chemotherapy and/or clinical trials. The ability to prioritise a busy workload and work well within a multidisciplinary team is essential.

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• 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.