Senior Rapid Response Sister/Charge Nurse/Urgent Care Practitioner

Overview

A Vacancy at Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust. We are expanding our Rapid Response Community Nursing Team in Luton to support the delivery of community urgent crisis response requirements and the development of Virtual Wards in the community. This brings an exciting opportunity for experienced and skilled Registered Nurses to join the team. The Rapid Response Team in Luton is an established and successful team providing high quality nursing care to people which enables them to maximize their health status, minimize the effects of ill health and disability, and to lead as independent a life as possible. The team work collaboratively with the acute hospital, the ambulance service, GP’s and other local providers to ensure that people can receive care at home that avoids inappropriate hospital admission; the team also supports patients receiving District Nursing by providing unscheduled / urgent care in and out of hours to patients across the Luton area. Shifts covering 08:00 until 21:00.

As a senior member of the team you will lead the team by undertaking clinical assessments, planning and delivering care, demonstrating effective leadership skills and contribute to continuing service development to meet business and operational need.

Should we receive a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close this vacancy at any point after the 18th September.

Is this an opportunity for you?

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical support and leadership to Community Rapid Response services; contribute to the continued development of the service in line with local priorities and national strategies.
• Provide acute clinical assessment and treatment to patients in their own home, including residential homes undertaking the planning, assessment and evaluation of patient care packages and arranging onward referrals as required.
• Ensure that through partnership working the service liaises closely with community, primary and secondary healthcare professionals to ensure a smooth pathway of care for the patient in order to provide a holistic care package designed to meet the specific needs of the individual, to prevent unnecessary hospital admission and to facilitate timely hospital discharge.
• Work with the Team Lead to provide leadership and line management support to team members that supports the delivery of safe effective care ensuring pathways and processes are in place that supports effective safe care.
• You will contribute to ensuring that local policy, protocols and procedures are monitored and developed in order to provide safe, effective telephone assessment and prioritization of patient referrals to ensure effective and safe delivery of care to patients under the care of the service.
• Develop specialised care packages for patients, plan and deliver prescribed therapy in patient’s homes, including intravenous therapy as prescribed.
• Liaise with Discharge Planning and medical staff to effectively manage the safe discharge of patients.
• Liaise with GPs and the multi-disciplinary team / community nursing team to effectively respond and plan packages of care to support patient’s at home which avoid inappropriate hospital admission.
• Ensure appropriate staff cover for management of caseload / service and take necessary action to provide a safe high quality service.
• Support the single point of access by providing Clinical Nurse Triage
• Using highly developed clinical skills and knowledge recognise and assess any complication surrounding patient care and refer to physicians / GPs / Specialists as required.
• Prioritise workload, review caseload and allocate tasks / visits as required.
• Provide education to patients on nature of treatment, side effects and expected outcome which empower patients to manage their own condition to encourage independence.
• Undertake responsibility for prescribing medication where applicable in line with independent nurse prescribing guidelines following accredited training and competence.
• Ensure at all times patients are treated with care and compassion, provide understanding and support to patients coping with acute and/or long-term conditions.
• Identify and manage unpredicted crisis situations i.e. staff, caseload, support network and supervision. Escalate to senior managers the situation, risk, action and outcome as required.

This advert closes on Sunday 28 Sep 2025