Staff Nurse (Band 6) - Children's Day Unit

Our busy CYP Daycare and Outpatients sees over 6000 patients a year, requiring systemic anti-cancer therapy, radiotherapy, and supportive care, delivered by our team. The age range of our patients is 1 to 24 years old, making CYPDU a very unique unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Are you willing to gain experience in areas of cancer care delivery and SACT administration? Then we want to hear from you!

Main duties of the job:

• To coordinate and supervise a shift, communicating effectively with members of a multidisciplinary team to deliver high quality, evidence-led care to patients.
• To exercise clinical judgment and decision making about patient needs in terms of long term goals or plans.
• To participate fully in the day to day organization and running of clinical trials including the recruitment, education and monitoring of patients entering a clinical trial and liaison as required with trial sponsors.

Job responsibilities:

• To complete the first level assessment of the patients' needs to gain an understanding of the physiological, psycho-social, spiritual and cultural needs of the patients with cancer and their families and to develop a positive, realistic and supportive attitude to ensure that the needs of the patient and family are met.
• Counterchecking patients' vital signs, blood results, patient body surface area, chemotherapy prescription and consent before administration of treatment.
• Educating patients on their treatment such as indications and side effects.
• Ensuring necessary medication and follow up appointments are obtained.
• To plan, document, deliver and evaluate care plans from admission through to discharge/transfer discussing this with the patient, their family and multidisciplinary teams and to alert the Sister/Charge Nurse of any changes.
• To set goals for each of the identified nursing issues and encourage/teach other nursing staff to do the same.
• To help the patient achieve set goals through care planning.

Person Specification:

Education & Qualifications:

• Must be a Child Registered Nurse
• Evidence of ongoing professional development
• RMH Certificate in Intravenous Drug Administration or to be obtained within three months of appointment
• NMC Registration
• Qualification in oncology or speciality
• Diploma or Degree level study (or equivalent)
• Recognised teaching qualification

Experience:

• Experience in intravenous drug administration
• Sufficient post-registration nursing experience in oncology or speciality to be confident and competent in using the required skills to do the job
• Experience in chemotherapy administration
• Experience in Clinical Management
• Evidence of relevant teaching experience
• Knowledge and understanding of clinical trials management

Skills, Abilities & Knowledge:

• Evidence of effective interpersonal skills with particular ability to liaise with multidisciplinary team members
• Evidence of working cooperatively in a team
• Ability to demonstrate self-motivation (working with minimal supervision)
• Ability to work accurately and reliably under pressure
• Ability to make decisions, organise and prioritise
• Evidence of commitment to customer care initiatives
• Knowledge and understanding of quality issues
• Ability to coordinate a shift/department
• Flexibility to meet the needs of the service (e.g. shift work)
• Experience in oncology or area of specialty
• Venepuncture and/or cannulation skills
• Evidence of understanding of the NHS Plan and current NHS issues
• Computer Literacy (e.g. use of Microsoft Word and Outlook)

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.