Kentown Specialist Palliative Care Community Nurse

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is situated on the west coast of Lancashire, with services covering the local authority areas of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre. The Trust is part of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) supporting a population of around 1.6 million people. We have three main hospitals providing acute services to around 330,000 local residents. The organisation also provides specialist tertiary care for cardiac and haematology services, delivers community health services to over 445,000 residents including those in North Lancashire and hosts the National Artificial Eye Service across England. Plus, we provide urgent and emergency care services to an estimated 18 million people who visit the seaside resort each year. We employ over 7000 people from 68 different countries.

We welcome and encourage applications from anyone with protected characteristics, as well as supporting reservists and Veterans who are looking for a rewarding and challenging career within the NHS. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals encourages flexible working in all our roles to support staff in maintaining a healthy home-life balance. Working patterns such as part-time working, self-rostering, compressed hours, annualised hours, term time, reverse term time and flexitime working can be explored.

An exciting opportunity has arisen within our children's community nursing team for a Band 7 role to cover for 12 months maternity period. The post holder is required to hold a children's nursing qualification and is required to have advanced knowledge and experience in the care and management of children with life limiting and palliative care needs. They will directly deliver nursing care and support the Children's community team in delivering safe, personal, effective and compassionate care to children, young people and their families, ensuring empathy and quality. They will work within the well-established Blackpool Children’s Community Nursing team and network alongside the other Kentown nursing team across Lancashire.

Main duties of the job:

• To develop skills as a Kentown nurse for Children’s Palliative Care within Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, supporting and advising children, young people and their families requiring palliative care, including those families facing the end of their child’s life; at the time of death and following death.
• Support children, young people, and their families to prevent inappropriate hospital admissions and enable children with palliative care needs to be cared for in the place of their choice.
• To work collaboratively with all professionals involved with the child and family and support and signpost to other available services to optimise available holistic support.
• To work closely with the child, young person and their families developing and reviewing their Advance Care Plan, supporting them to ensure their hopes and wishes are explored and documented.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• To develop skills in the assessment of children’s palliative care needs and develop plans of care to meet the needs of the child, young person, and their families so that appropriate care and support is established and maintained as they move between hospital and community settings.
• To develop skills in coordination and mobilisation of services, complex discharge planning to support the patient and family during palliation and bereavement and signposting them to the most appropriate professional to act as a key worker.
• To develop skills in advanced care planning by networking with colleagues and undertaking required training to ensure that all children and families are offered the choice of an advance care plan.
• Provide verbal and written information for families which is age appropriate and culturally sensitive.
• Be responsible for ensuring that the environment and Trust processes are responsive to the needs of the bereaved parents and family, recognising the importance of maintaining privacy and dignity.
• To develop and strengthen links with local and regional palliative care networks and be a key player/support within the multidisciplinary team to provide safe, appropriate and effective management of children with palliative care needs.
• Have a commitment to collaborative working and support the transition process for young people with palliative care needs into adult services.

Leadership:

• Act as a good role model, providing effective palliative and end of life care advice, guidance and support to the children’s community nursing team and advise paediatric teams as needed.
• To advise, encourage and share knowledge utilising the latest research and practice development.
• Participate in the development of guidelines, protocols, pathways, policies in relation to palliative and end of life care for children and young people supported by the Kentown programme.
• Be the source of contact following the death of a child, participating in child death review meetings, sharing good practice and any lessons learnt.
• Undertake training for quality service improvement and redesign supporting contribution to service evaluations and reviews to assess the workload and make plans for service development.
• Participate in the research and audit process ensuring that children’s palliative and end of life care is endorsed.
• Provide up to date education and expert advice for other health care professionals including GP’s, Health visitors, social workers, school staff and others to ensure they are able to support children and families with palliative care needs.

Communication and networking:

• Always represent the Trust, demonstrating core values and behaviours whilst promoting collaboration and teamwork.
• Champion advance care planning and palliative care, promoting effective communication, across all community settings and reaching into ward environments.
• Advocate for children, young people and their families during palliation and raise awareness of the service.
• Be able to demonstrate empathy and communicate effectively in difficult situations.
• To develop and maintain expertise in working across organisational boundaries.
• Support professionals to have end of life/preferred place of care conversations with families, supporting families who wish to transition their care from hospital to home or to a hospice setting.
• Utilise advanced communication skills communicating effectively with the children, young person and their families to understand their condition and the impact it may have.

Training and development:

• Act as a mentor for students and other junior staff, providing effective education facilitating their development and promoting high standards of children’s palliative and end of life care.
• Be responsible for creating a dynamic learning environment for all staff, overseeing the provision of education, research and practice development in children’s palliative and end of life care.
• To assist in the updating of teaching resources, patient information, protocols, guidelines.
• Provide training and updates for children, parents, and their carer.
• To assess, identify and evaluate own knowledge and practice needs in relation to knowledge and skills required to meet the demands of the service, taking responsibility for continuing personal development and performance in addition to key training identified within the trainee programme.
• To stay abreast of up-to-date research and developments ensuring evidence-based practice is used at all times.

Professional responsibilities:

• Work as a positive role model to ensure that the delivery of nursing care is at the highest possible level to meet the complex palliative care and/or end of life care needs of children and their families.

Person specification:

• First level registered nurse, BSc hons or equivalent.
• Community Specialist Practitioner or equivalent.
• First level leadership training.
• Non-medical prescribing.
• Advanced communication Skills Training.
• Master level qualification in related field or willingness to undertake level of study.
• Teaching qualification.
• Evidence of training in relevant speciality.
• Previous experience as band 6.
• Evidence of on-going professional development within the past 2 years.
• Experience of clinical work and skills in a children’s community services.
• Evidence of multidisciplinary/agency working.
• Significant experience of working with children and young people with life limiting conditions and at end of life.
• Extensive knowledge of Safeguarding Procedures and legislation.
• Knowledge of GDPR, Fraser Guidelines, Gillick Competency etc.
• Experience of delivering formal structured training and teaching of practical skills.
• Experience of communication and liaison with tertiary level centres and understanding and leading on complex care plans for children nursed in the community and/or attending specialist School Provision.
• Experience of advance care planning.
• Experience with training, coaching and supervision for colleagues.
• Experience with transition/preparing for adulthood and supporting tools.
• Evidence of leadership skills.
• Experience of developing clinical pathways and SOPs.