Brent Community Team Clinical Nurse Specialist in Harrow

The clinical nurse specialist is a key worker role. The clinical nurse specialist acts as a key worker for the person living with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. They hold regular supported conversations with the person, identifying their wide range of needs through a holistic needs assessment. They develop a comprehensive care and support plan for the person living with cancer and other diseases, addressing their health concerns and working to promote their health, wellbeing, and independence.

Using their skills and expertise in cancer/palliative care, the clinical nurse specialist delivers high standards of personalised care, providing physical and emotional support to their patients, coordinating their care services, and informing and advising them on clinical and practical issues associated with their illness. This leads to a more positive outcome for patients.

Leadership

• Demonstrate leadership through clinical expertise, delivering high standards of personalised care by acting as a key worker identifying needs through a holistic needs assessment and co-creating a care and support plan with people living with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses.
• Provide a recognisable experience by ensuring people living with cancer/limited life expectancy are aware they are interacting with a specialist professional and know the full range of resources and services available through, navigating and coordinating where necessary.
• Work in collaboration with services across the cancer and other disease pathways, to implement plans and monitor their effectiveness in improving service delivery and meeting the needs of people living with cancer and other palliative diagnoses.
• Lead by example, contribute to the delivery of specialist education and training to other professionals involved in patient care; promote best practice; support and coach less experienced colleagues to achieve high quality, personalised care for people living with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses.
• Support in demonstrating the impact of the post, contributing to progress reviews and regularly capturing and returning outcome and performance metrics.
• Act as a role model, demonstrating high standards of care and providing clinical leadership to others.
• Promote a culture that supports and enables self-management.
• Support St Luke's strategy and vision by leading the development, management, and promotion of services, ensuring the delivery of high quality, cost-effective care.
• Embed patient and public involvement within the sphere of practice.
• Lead on the implementation and monitoring of adherence to relevant clinical guidelines.
• Take professional responsibility for ensuring effective communication between all service providers across the care pathway.
• Actively participate in multi-professional meetings, acting as patient advocate and representing nursing views.
• Act as a role model for excellent advanced communication skills and expertise.
• Demonstrate skills in conflict resolution and negotiation skills when dealing with difficult or challenging situations.
• Lead the development of patient-focused education, including training to self-manage ongoing consequences of treatment.
• Develop new skills in response to emerging knowledge and techniques.
• Work across professional boundaries using creative reasoning and problem solving.
• Instigate and manage change within a complex environment.
• Perform duties according to the values of St Luke's Hospice acting at all times to safeguard the interests of the individual patients and their families.
• Influence the development of others through education and training.
• Promote patient and public experience feedback through local initiatives to drive innovation and change.

Expertise

• Take personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through clinical supervision, appraisal, and Knowledge & Skills Framework and actively engage with the learning and development opportunities offered by St Luke's Hospice.
• Demonstrate high level clinical, technical, and research skills through breadth and depth of knowledge.
• Use creative reasoning, experience, and vision to advance care.
• Attend relevant CCG/locality meetings, using expert knowledge to support and advise on the development of patient services and pathways.
• Demonstrate continuous evaluation of nursing practice and make changes where appropriate.
• Act as practice assessor/supervisor for learner nurses.
• Contribute to the hospice education program liaising with the Education and Professional Development Managers to ensure this is current and addresses the needs of our own staff and those who work in external teams and organisations.
• Provide mentorship and support when required to junior staff, staff undertaking the hospice development program, and student nurses allocated to the hospice from our local partner Higher Education Institutes ensuring timely assessment and completion of clinical competencies.

Clinical Excellence

• Deliver personalised care through regular supported conversations with the person living with a palliative diagnosis, identifying needs through a holistic needs assessment, and addressing patients' healthcare needs.
• Following a holistic needs assessment, develop a comprehensive care and support plan with the person living with a terminal illness.
• Review and update the plan every time a supportive conversation takes place, which should be regularly and evaluate the impact of care interventions.
• Actively integrate theory and practice.
• Act as a key worker for a clinical caseload, working to coordinate care and provide easy access for ongoing support for patients.
• Participate in a 7-day service as part of a rota.
• Assess people's information needs and provide information, to determine their own future.
• Enable people to access, identify, appraise, and interpret complex technical information to help them to determine their own future.
• Provide clinical expertise, specialist advice, and support across service boundaries.
• Lead the nursing contribution to service development, ensuring the pursuit of excellence in care.
• Define a clear care pathway, refer to other professionals, and signpost to other agencies as appropriate.
• Promote the service and clinical excellence by contributing to publishing and presenting innovations, audit, and research locally, regionally, and nationally.
• Influence and develop policy and clinical guidelines internally and externally.
• Promote self-management, risk stratifying patients into who can self-manage following education, those who will need guided support to self-manage, and those who will require ongoing, face-to-face support, to support people to live with their diagnosis and the choices available to them.