Senior Palliative Care Nurse/Paramedic in Luton

Are you an experienced Adult Nurse or Paramedic ready to take the next step in your career? Join Keech Hospice and our dedicated team in providing excellent palliative and end of life care. You will be an exceptional role model for our professional and hospice values, while demonstrating an inclusive team approach and positive leadership.

Main duties of the job:

• Supervise and participate in the delivery of holistic patient centred care.
• Provide specialist symptom control to patients.
• Provide professional leadership to support colleagues in providing high quality care.
• Ensure patients and their families experience is professional, welcoming, relaxed and friendly.
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings and provide reports as required.

About us:

Keech Hospice provides free specialist palliative and end of life care for people of all ages. We support adults in Bedfordshire, children and their families in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Milton Keynes. At home, in hospice, or wherever we are needed. As a teaching hospice, our exceptional people, training, and facilities are helping local communities to live and die well.

Job responsibilities:

• As shift leader, take responsibility for dealing with day‑to‑day operational requirements including staff rotas, sickness absence, co‑ordinating team members, and overseeing patient admissions and discharges.
• Ensure patients and their families experience of the hospice is professional, welcoming, relaxed, and friendly.
• Supervise and actively participate in the delivery of evidence based clinical care, promptly reporting any change or concern in the patients condition to the Palliative Care CNS/CPS or Medical teams.
• Provide specialist symptom control to patients and seek guidance when this is not being achieved.
• Comply with Keech Management of Medicines policies and legislative requirements for controlled and non‑controlled drugs.
• Facilitate opportunities for patients and families to talk should they wish, demonstrating advanced communication skills and working as a level 2 psychology practitioner.
• As a level 2 psychology practitioner, sensitively complete a distress thermometer with patients when needed.
• Ensure effective communication and liaison with other members of the Hospice Team and outside agencies, reporting and discussing individual cases as appropriate.
• Attend multi‑disciplinary and organisational meetings and provide written and/or oral reports as required.
• Provide pre and post bereavement support to families in conjunction with the family support team.
• Arrange/supervise the provision of a wide range of diversional and complementary therapeutic activities in accordance with the patients and family's wishes and hospice policy.
• Promote health education within the family unit.
• Maintain accurate records including records pertaining to all referrals and admissions in line with confidentiality, data protection and other statutory regulations and requirements.
• Participate in the senior clinician on‑call rota as required to maintain service support.
• Have an awareness of the need for staff support and indications of stress, apply judgement in referral to senior staff.
• Participate in staff support group sessions.
• Be aware of the lone worker policy and take responsibility with the team for ensuring that community colleagues also follow the lone worker policy and escape any concerns to the shift leader promptly.
• Undertake training for annual reviews of staff as delegated, identifying training needs and establishing and monitoring measurable objectives, as agreed with the unit manager beforehand.
• Participate in the teaching of staff, including primary health care teams, and other professionals as required. This may include the in‑service training programme and the induction of new staff.
• Help develop the service in response to patient needs, and lead on particular areas of interest/expertise.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

• NMC Adults Nursing level 1
• Mentorship qualification or equivalent
• Advanced communication skills course, or willingness to undertake
• Psychology level 2 skills training or willingness to undertake this.

Experience:

• Experience in caring for patients with palliative and end of life care needs and supporting their loved ones.
• Working within a multi‑disciplinary team
• Experience of supporting junior staff to achieve their objectives.
• Transferable work and life skills, experience, and knowledge.
• Complex Symptom control
• Understanding of signs and symptoms of palliative medical emergencies and escalation pathways.
• Loss and bereavement
• Mentorship and leadership of junior staff
• Understanding of palliative care services internally and externally and the referral process to them
• Understanding of the legislative requirements for controlled drugs
• Experience in leadership of small team
• Undertaking annual appraisals with junior staff
• Involvement in clinical audit
• Understanding of caring for patients with rare neurological conditions/advanced respiratory disease/heart failure

Additional Criteria:

• Advanced communication skills
• Prepared to develop skills in advanced practice
• Competent in the safe administration of medicines
• Ability to work in a culturally aware way with many different cultural and faith groups
• Effective teaching skills training or willingness to undertake.
• Ability to lead the shift in the absence of the unit manager
• Teaching, informally and formally.

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.