Associate Specialist Palliative Care Nurse Accrington

An excellent opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated and enthusiastic nurse to join the Specialist Palliative Care Team at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust on a full-time, permanent contract as a Band 6 Associate Specialist Palliative Care Nurse. Operating across 7 days, we are a dynamic, multidisciplinary team delivering highly specialist palliative care advice, support and monitoring to patients, their families and staff across the acute and community settings. This is a very fast paced, rewarding and demanding role caring for people and their families who require Specialist palliative Care services.

You will be working in a team of Clinical Nurse Specialists, Consultants in Palliative Medicine, Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Specialist Palliative care team and Lead Nurse for Specialist Palliative Care across the trust. You will play an active role, together with the existing members of the Specialist Palliative Care Team, in advancing high quality specialist palliative care services and promoting excellence in end of life care across ELHT. In return, you'll be supported by an expert team in an environment where training and development opportunities are actively encouraged in order to meet the clinical needs of the role.

Main duties of the job:

• Provide evidence based specialist palliative care, advice and support to patients with cancer or other life limiting illness, their families and carers.
• Manage a case load of patients with specialist palliative care needs, in a holistic manner assessing, developing and implementing programmes of care and managing their complex physical, psycho social, emotional and spiritual needs.
• Organise and manage own workload to ensure the delivery of care, to meet patient needs.
• Ensure patients are referred appropriately to key health care workers when specialist palliative care intervention is completed.
• Work collaboratively with multi-professionals teams across the health economy/ICS.
• Maintain accurate and effective electronic patient records, ensure they are kept updated and communicated to relevant members of the multi-disciplinary team.
• Collect and collate statistics as required in accordance with professional, national and organisational requirements.
• Act as a core member of the palliative care MDT ensuring that all new and complex patients with specialist palliative care needs are assessed and discussed as appropriate.
• Participate where appropriate to non-clinical aspects of the clinical nurse specialist role including audit, education and research.
• Provide specialist palliative care advice, education and training to all members of the multi-professional team across all care settings as the service requires.
• To work within or towards the competencies of V300 qualification.

The post holder will contribute to the provision of a co-ordinated and comprehensive specialist palliative care service for patients, families and carers across ELHT. Have responsibility for a shared case load of patients with Specialist Palliative Care Nursing needs. Assess patients, formulate management plans and implement care by providing specialist nursing advice on complex pain and symptom management and maintain associated records. Act as a specialist resource for advice on complex pain and symptom management to health care professionals across ELHT. Maintain excellent working relationships with the wider MDT and uphold the positive reputation of the specialist palliative care team.

Job responsibilities:

• Be involved and contribute to clinical protocols and developments for the specialist palliative care service.
• Embrace and support line management and the department in making service improvements effective in the workplace.
• Ensure compliance with organisational policies and procedures and national, legal and professional standards.
• Be an active member of appropriate groups representing needs of patients and appropriate staff.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of a seven day service working flexibly over the seven days to meet the needs of the service.
• Maintain accurate up to date information relevant to service compiling statistical evidence as required.
• Contribute to management of complaints and incidents.
• Work within palliative care clinical governance framework.
• Contribute to the achievement of ELHTs objectives and targets for Specialist Palliative and End of Life Care.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

• Essential: Registered General Nurse/Current NMC registration. Recordable Oncology/Palliative qualification (20 credits at 1st degree level) or equivalent practical experience demonstrated throughout application. Teaching or mentorship qualification and/or experience of teaching both formally and informally.
• Desirable: Advanced communication skills or willingness to undertake. V300 prescribing qualification or willingness to undertake.

Experience:

• Essential: Able to demonstrate extensive post registration experience in a palliative care setting. Evidence of recent study, not including core mandatory training, in the last 2 years. Able to demonstrate knowledge about the importance of effective communication in a team and with patients and their families.
• Desirable: Previous specialist palliative care experience is desirable.

Personal attributes:

• Essential: Self-awareness of own personal developmental needs / limitations. Importance of Time management skills/Diary management. Autonomous working/ team working. Self-awareness of own well being. Evidence of local and national palliative care drivers.

Other:

• Essential: Access to a car for work purposes. Willingness to travel and work flexibly over 7 days within the hospital or community specialist palliative care team.