Palliative Care Discharge Facilitator

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest integrated care providers in England, serving a population of around 600,000 people. We are a high performing organisation with a track record of success and have been rated as Outstanding by the CQC for our Palliative and End of Life Care.

This Band 6 post offers an exciting opportunity for a suitably qualified and experienced Nurse/AHP to work within the Specialist Palliative Care as a Discharge Facilitator in the Acute setting at DMH. The post covers core hours of 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday.

As a Palliative Care Discharge Facilitator the successful candidate will:

• Enable fast track progression of the discharge process for any patient wishing to exercise choice in preferred place of care/death and for palliative care patients with complex discharge management needs.
• Support patients and carers.
• Have a role in education, facilitating and providing a resource to staff both within and outside the Trust.
• Actively participate in clinical audit activity.
• Work collaboratively as part of a team and provide advice and direct clinical support for all members of the team to assist and guide colleagues within multi-disciplinary teams with the discharge process, in order to ensure safe, effective and timely transfer, as well as influencing best use of resources.

We provide hospital services from two acute sites – Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham. We have a centre for planned care in Bishop Auckland and provide care from community hospitals in Chester-le-Street, Shotley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Weardale as well as over 80 other community based settings and providing care in patients' homes.

You must be able to produce ALL certificates stated essential in the person specification or you will not be able to complete pre-employment checks. We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented.

The successful candidate will be part of the Specialist Palliative Care team that provides consistent high quality specialist palliative care service for patients and families. Working with the ward medical and nursing teams, rehabilitation, discharge management and community-based services to facilitate the discharge, increasing the numbers of palliative care patients able to die in their preferred place of care.

• Identify patients who are reaching the end of their lives who wish to be discharged or transferred to their preferred place of care to die.
• Provide a specialist/expert service for patients, acting as an autonomous practitioner offering advice to primary/secondary care staff regarding the care of patients in this specialist group.
• Undertake home visits when required.
• Work collaboratively as part of a team to guide colleagues within multi-disciplinary teams with the discharge process, in order to ensure safe, effective and timely transfer, as well as influencing best use of resources.

• Able to travel across Trust sites to meet the requirements of the post.
• Ability to work hours flexibly when service needs require.

HCPC / NMC

• Professional Registration
• Knowledge of palliative care symptom control and management.
• Advanced communication skills training or willing to undertake.
• Post registration accredited qualification in palliative care or oncology.
• Teaching qualification.
• Knowledge of national and regional policies influencing palliative care services.

• Must be able to demonstrate a track record of practice development.
• Demonstrates ability to communicate at all levels within the organisation.
• A sound understanding of communication principles.
• Demonstrates proactive approach to palliative and end of life care.

• Excellent communication and counselling skills both in clinical settings and with other healthcare professionals.
• Demonstrate on-going commitment to personal professional development.
• Evidence of experience in teaching across all disciplines.
• Evidence of recent practice in a cancer/specialist palliative care field.
• Ability to think strategically and see the bigger picture.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing at all levels of understanding.
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of an integrated team.
• Well-developed influencing negotiation and facilitation skills.
• Organised and able to prioritise and work to deadlines.
• Ability to respond sensitively to situations of conflict.
• Confident & effective teaching / presentation skills.
• Ability to deal with difficult and complex situations with sensitivity & compassion.
• Demonstrates proactive approach to palliative and end of life care.

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.