Substance Misuse Nurse

Change Grow Live are a charity dedicated to the belief that we can make a difference to our Service Users' lives. Our core values are ‘Be open, be compassionate and be bold’ and our teams apply these daily offering support and respect in a safe environment, treating each user as an individual and working with them to find the right treatment and care options.

Our Nurses play an integral part in Change Grow Live's mission to help people change the direction of their lives, to grow as individuals, and live life to its full potential. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you would offer specialist clinical interventions to people who use our services.

We're offering a wonderful opportunity for a passionate and driven Hospital Liaison Substance Misuse Nurse to play a key role in shaping how we support individuals affected by drugs and alcohol. This is a dynamic role within a multidisciplinary team, providing specialist clinical care to people in hospital who may find it difficult to engage with services. No two days are the same. We treat every person as an individual, so a whole-person approach, curiosity, active listening, clinical confidence, and adaptability are all essential.

Where: Watford

Full Time Hours: 37.5 per week

Full Time Salary Range: £37,184.91 - £43,384.62 (based on full time working hours, pro rata for part time)

Allowances: Outer Fringe London Weighting £694.24 (based on full time working hours, pro rata for part time)

Your role includes:

• Set up effective communication and referral pathways with hospital based specialist teams.
• Act as a point of contact for acute referrals.
• Participate with acute services to create/maintain a process for targeting repeat attendees, implementing an investigation system that enables wider services to critically evaluate the circumstances around an individual’s hospital admission.
• Provide support to acute hospital services to avoid unnecessary admission to hospital of people who can be supported and treated at community addiction services.
• Develop specific links with identified specialist acute services and provide in reach to hospital wards including Gastroenterology/Hepatology; Orthopaedic-falls prevention services; specialist clinics (i.e. Hypertensive Disease); observation ward; A&E.
• Provide advanced assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of care to a small, complex, specialist caseload of patients who misuse alcohol and/or drugs, while they remain in a hospital setting or as part of the discharge to community plan.
• Provide expert advice and guidance to clinical staff on the appropriate management of those identified as misusing alcohol and/or drugs in order to prevent further complications from their conditions both in the short term and the long term.

About you:

• First level registered nurse with recent relevant post qualification experience and a current PIN.
• Relevant recent experience of working within drug and alcohol treatment (desirable but not essential).
• Sound and demonstrable knowledge of harm reduction and health promotion interventions.
• Ability to assess and recovery plan service users and formulate written reports, as necessary.
• Clinical auditing skills to inform evaluation of the service and identify areas for development.
• Employ a professional, empathetic, and non-judgmental attitude towards service users and all stakeholders.
• An understanding of the importance of professional integrity in relationships with service users, peers, and other relevant professionals.
• Good working knowledge of medically assisted treatment - OST and Medically assisted Withdrawal from Alcohol.

We want to support you to recognise and achieve your goals. We hold regular national nurse and HCA forums, and you will have regular 1:1s and appraisals. We actively support our nurses with revalidation with protected continuing professional development time, which totals up to 6 days per year. We also have a wide range of educational opportunities including free access to the RCNi learning platform and we pay for your NMC fee. We offer you the opportunity to use the government backed Apprenticeship Levy fund to develop nursing practice in line with your specific role. All our team members are encouraged to take a wellbeing hour every week and access personal well-being resources. Our nursing pay is competitive with the NHS Agenda for Change pay bands.

Please ensure that when completing your application form and supporting statement, you reflect on the details outlined in the job description. This will help us understand how your skills and experiences align with the requirements of the role.

If this sounds like you and you’d like to begin your journey with Change Grow Live, then we’d love to talk to you.

This post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check at an enhanced level.