Practice Nurse - West Cornforth Medical Centre

Practice Nurse – West Cornforth Medical Centre

The post holder is responsible for the delivery of basic practice nursing services care to the practice population. Supported by senior nurses within the practice, they will deliver care within the boundaries of their role, focusing on supporting patients to be healthy, monitoring long‑term conditions, health prevention and screening activities, and working collaboratively with the general practice team to meet the needs of patients.

The successful candidate will be an exceptional team player with good communication and interpersonal skills, enthusiastic and committed to join the team. The ideal candidate will have experience of primary care, chronic disease management, diabetes, first contact and telephone triage.

Candidate must possess a practice nurse qualification with at least two years’ experience. Long‑term conditions experience is desirable.

The successful applicant for this post will be joining us at a particularly exciting time as we develop and expand our service.

About us

IntraHealth is one of the UK’s leading provider of NHS Primary and Community Care services. We serve a range of patients across our three divisions of Primary Care (general practice), Pharmacy and Clinical Services which includes anticoagulation monitoring, patient medication reviews and childhood immunisation programmes.

We also provide management and clinical support to other GP practices and NHS bodies. We are a well‑established organisation having provided NHS services since the company was founded in 1999. Our team is made up of GPs, Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs), Nurses, Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Health Care Assistants (HCAs) and local administration teams supported by a centralised back‑office function; providing finance, HR, administration and data analysis support.

We operate NHS services across the North East, North West and Yorkshire.

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and highly motivated Practice Nurse to provide a high quality service to our patients within our William Brown Centre.

Our aim is to provide an excellent standard of primary care whilst supporting personal and professional development.

Main duties of the job

• Promote health and well‑being, and prevent adverse effects on health and well‑being
• Implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for patients with a known long‑term condition
• Identify, and manage as appropriate, treatment plans for patients at risk of developing a long‑term condition
• Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care
• Work with patients in order to support adherence to prescribed treatments
• Support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that encourage patients to live healthily, and apply principles of self‑care
• Deliver opportunistic health promotion using opportunities such as new‑patient medicals
• Support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that promote patients to live healthily, and encourage self‑care
• Assess and care for patients presenting with uncomplicated wounds
• Support and manage health needs of women presenting for cervical cytology consultations
• Implement and participate in vaccination and immunisation programmes for both adults and children
• Advise, support and, where appropriate, administer vaccinations for patients travelling abroad

Communication

• Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles, to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating
• Utilise communication skills to support patients to adhere to prescribed treatment regimens
• Anticipate barriers to communication and take action to improve communication
• Act as an advocate when representing the patients’ and colleagues’ viewpoints to others

Delivering a quality service

• Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures
• Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality
• Deliver care according to the NSF and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines and evidence‑based care
• Participate in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the organisation and its activities
• In partnership with other clinical teams, collaborate on improving the quality of health care, responding to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate
• Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation
• Participate in the performance monitoring review of the team, providing feedback as appropriate
• Work within policies relating to domestic violence, vulnerable adults, substance abuse and addictive behaviour, and refer as appropriate safeguarding children

Learning and Development

• Act as mentor to students, assessing competence against set standards as requested and if appropriately qualified
• Disseminate learning and information gained to other team members in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments
• Assess own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate
• Make effective use of learning opportunities within and outside the workplace, evaluating their effectiveness and feeding back relevant information
• Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning

Team Working

• Understand own role and scope in the organisation and identify how this may develop over time
• Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working
• Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence of those taking on delegated duties
• Ensure clear understanding and utilisation of referral mechanisms within the practice
• Accept delegation from other nurses, prioritise own workload and ensure effective time‑management strategies are embedded in own practice
• Work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting on care delivery. Participate in team activities that create opportunities to improve patient care

Management of risk

• Manage and assess risk within the areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to protect staff and patients
• Ensure safe storage, rotation and disposal of vaccines and drugs is undertaken. Where appropriate, oversee the monitoring, stock control
• Undertake mandatory and statutory training
• Apply infection control measures within the practice according to local and national guidelines
• Apply policies that reduce environmental health risks, are culturally sensitive and increase access to health care for all
• Participate in the local implementation strategies that are aligned to the values and culture of general practice

Managing Information

• Use technology as an aid to management in planning, implementation and monitoring, presenting and communicating information
• Review and process data using accurate Read codes about patients in order to ensure easy and accurate retrieval for monitoring and audit processes
• Manage information searches using the internet. Understand own and other’s responsibility to the individual organisation regarding the Freedom of Information Act

Equality and Diversity

• Identify patterns of discrimination and take action to overcome this and promote diversity and equality of opportunity
• Enable others to promote equality and diversity in a non‑discriminatory culture
• Support people who need assistance exercising their rights
• Monitor and evaluate adherence to local chaperoning policies
• Act as a role model in the observance of equality and diversity good practice
• Accept the rights of individuals to choose their care providers, participate in care and refuse care
• Assist patients from marginalised groups to access quality care

Person Specification

Skills and Abilities

• Excellent clinical skills.
• Demonstrate appropriate professional and personal boundaries.
• Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision.
• Respects the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.
• Experience of relevant clinical systems.
• Skills including: Venepuncture, ECG, wound care, adult/children vaccination and immunisation, health education, cervical cytology, ear irrigation, spirometry and NHS health checks.
• Qualification / Experience in running chronic disease management clinics.
• Cryotherapy.

Experience

• At least 1 year’s experience of working in general practice.
• Experience of treatment room duties required for the post.
• Awareness of clinical governance issues in primary care.
• Knowledge of patient group directions and associated policy.
• Experience of quality initiatives such as QOF and KPIs.
• Chronic disease management experience in 1 or more chronic disease.
• Knowledge of local health issues.
• Awareness of local and national health policy.

Qualifications

• Registered General Nurse.
• Current NMC registration and revalidation with NMC.
• Evidence of continuous professional development.
• Work without direct supervision.
• Qualifications/experience in cervical cytology.
• Childhood immunisation and travel vaccination.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.