Neonatal Community Sister/Charge Nurse in Luton

As a Senior Sister/Charge Nurse, you will play a pivotal role in leading your ward or department, ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality, patient-centred care. You will provide visible leadership, manage a defined caseload, coordinate the day-to-day running of the clinical area and work closely with multidisciplinary teams and external partners to ensure seamless care delivery. Working within a seven-day service, you will be responsible for staffing, resource management, clinical standards and service performance. You will support, supervise and develop staff and students, fostering a culture of learning, accountability and continuous improvement. Through effective leadership and workforce planning, you will ensure the efficient deployment of staff and resources while maintaining the highest standards of care.

The successful candidate will be a compassionate and motivated professional who leads by example, champions equality, diversity and inclusion, and is dedicated to supporting colleagues to achieve their full potential. You will actively drive quality improvement initiatives, promote patient safety and ensure compliance with Trust policies, procedures and the NMC Code of Conduct. This is an excellent opportunity to make a lasting impact on patient outcomes, staff experience and service development while contributing to our mission of delivering exceptional care with kindness, expertise and respect.

Main duties of the job

• Act as an expert healthcare practitioner demonstrating advanced clinical skills, knowledge and decision making beyond those associated with the general multidisciplinary team.
• Maintain and further develop own expert nursing practice skills, abilities and through effective role modelling ensure that the professional practice of colleagues is continually developed and enhanced.
• Work closely alongside neonatal, midwifery and obstetric teams to provide specialist nursing advice and leadership using expert knowledge, practice and critical judgement skills.
• Facilitate discharge of neonates providing initial support in the family home.
• Liaise with the multidisciplinary team in relation to the discharge and follow up of neonates.
• Develop, maintain and promote robust bereavement pathways, ensuring all parents are offered choice/equitable access to bereavement support.

Communication

• Providing and receiving highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where developed persuasive, motivational, negotiating, training, empathic or re-assurance skills are required.
• Demonstrate ability to communicate complex and sensitive information to patients, carers and other staff, taking into account the unique and complex psychosocial needs of this patient population.
• Effectively utilise communication skills to empower families to make informed decisions.
• Demonstrate exemplary interpersonal skills in communicating with families in the context of often challenging existing dynamics.
• Diffuse potentially hostile and antagonistic situations with staff, patients and relatives, using highly developed negotiation and interpersonal skills.

Leadership

• Participate in Child Death Overview meetings (CDOP) and regionally as required.
• Work collaboratively with hospital and local hospices in relation to neonatal palliative care and bereavement support needs and priorities.
• Support the implementation of agreed clinical guidelines, documentation and education strategy produced by East of England Network.
• Delegate and empower staff without abdicating overall, continuing responsibility.
• Raise concerns with regards to risk, danger, malpractice or wrong doing by following the Whistleblowing policy and supporting processes.

Education

• Provide expert specialist advice to patients, carers and staff in the healthcare setting.
• Act as a mentor and teacher, providing mentorship and support and demonstrate exemplary practice to all members of the healthcare team.
• Identify educational and training needs of multi-professional teams.
• Promote evidence based practice within wards and departments.
• Take responsibility for and actively participate in own personal development plan and performance review/appraisal with the Line Manager.

Research and Audit

• Lead and support in auditing service evaluation and research of neonatal palliative care and bereavement support programmes.
• Regularly undertake work audits and participate in research activity which includes participating in clinical audits and making recommendations for practice.

Person Specification

• Registered Nurse
• Completion of Neonatal Intensive Care course (QIS)
• Current NLS training
• Educated to degree level or equivalent level of experience
• Research experience
• Quality Improvement Projects
• Teaching and Assessing course or equivalent

Skills

• Good inter-personal and Communication skills, including clear, concise written skills.
• Good level of IT i.e. Email/Internet.
• Ability to work and communicate as part of the multidisciplinary team.
• Ability to support mothers to feed their babies in a non-judgemental, empathetic and mother-centred way.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.