Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner - Acute Stroke Halifax

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust are seeking an enthusiastic Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) to join the Acute Stroke Service. This role is central to the delivery of high-quality hyper acute and acute stroke care, supporting patients across the stroke pathway including Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU), acute stroke wards, and rapid-access Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) clinics.

Once qualified, the ACP will be an experienced, knowledgeable, and autonomous practitioner providing advanced clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing management of patients presenting with suspected or confirmed acute stroke and TIA. Advanced practice is underpinned by the four pillars of clinical practice, leadership, education, and research, with a strong focus on direct patient care and service development.

The postholder will join the service during an exciting time of expansion. The expectation will be for the postholder to form part of a weekend rota which may change as more roles are approved and recruited to.

You will be a part of an established ACP community within CHFT. We can offer the following benefits:

• 20% non-clinical time for you to develop across the four pillars of advanced practice
• ACP peer teaching
• Trust ACP Lead support
• Allocated medical supervisor

Main Duties of the Job:

• Undertake all associated training and study with the ACP qualification.
• Work closely with the Stroke Consultant team, stroke nursing team, therapists, radiology, and emergency services to provide safe, effective, and timely care to patients with suspected or confirmed stroke and TIA across HASU, acute stroke wards, and outpatient settings.
• Undertake advanced clinical assessment for patients presenting with acute neurological deficits, including differentiation between stroke, TIA, and stroke mimics.
• Act as an autonomous practitioner within agreed scope, providing expert clinical decision-making in complex, time-critical situations.
• Support the hyper acute stroke pathway, including initial assessment and prioritisation; coordination of urgent imaging; support for thrombolysis and thrombectomy pathways; ongoing monitoring and escalation of clinical deterioration.
• Undertake independent prescribing to optimise secondary stroke prevention and symptom management in line with national and local guidelines.
• Accurately request and interpret radiological and pathology investigations relevant to acute stroke and TIA management.
• Provide advanced clinical care for patients attending TIA / rapid-access stroke clinics, including risk stratification, initiation of secondary prevention, and onward referral.

About Us:

We employ more than 6,500 staff who deliver compassionate care from our two main hospitals, Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as well as in community sites, health centres and in patients' homes. We also are incredibly proud to have almost 150 volunteers here at CHFT.

We provide a range of services including urgent and emergency care; medical; surgical; maternity; gynaecology; critical care; children's and young people's services; end of life care and outpatient and diagnostic imaging services.

We continue to modernise and invest in our health services to build on our strong reputation. Foundation trusts are public leaders in improving quality in health services. They are part of the NHS- yet decisions about what they do and how they do it are driven by independent boards.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead the management of patients from arrival to discharge within the hyper acute and acute stroke pathway, demonstrating service improvement through audit and data collection.
• Be responsible for the assessment and management of patients presenting with suspected or confirmed acute stroke or TIA within HASU, acute stroke wards, and relevant clinical areas.
• Independently assess and manage patients referred to TIA / rapid-access stroke clinics, initiating investigations, treatment, and secondary prevention.
• Work collaboratively within the multidisciplinary stroke team to ensure timely assessment, diagnosis, and treatment decisions.
• Monitor readmission and re-presentation rates following stroke/TIA, identifying trends and contributing to service improvements.
• Contribute to stroke-specific research, audit, and quality improvement initiatives. Develop and review stroke pathways, guidelines, and patient information resources in line with national best practice.

Person Specification:

• Essential: Registered general nurse or Allied health care professional; Teaching/Assessment, Mentoring qualification; Previous experience of formal/informal teaching of patients and staff.
• Desirable: Masters in Advanced Practice or equivalent; Non Medical Prescriber.

• Essential: Extensive experience in stroke, neurosciences, or acute medicine relevant to stroke services; Experience in working as an autonomous practitioner within a specialty; Knowledge of the key professional issues and NMC/AHP guidelines related to professional practice; Evidence of being able to work across organisational boundaries; Experience of applying research evidence to clinical practice; Evidence of continuing professional development; Commitment to maintain own fitness for practice through maintaining a personal profile of competencies.
• Desirable: Demonstrates up to date knowledge and expertise of Advanced Practice; Working knowledge of acute stroke pathways, HASU processes and secondary prevention.

• Essential: Demonstrate a clear vision of the role and service; Ability to initiate sustain and evaluate change; Demonstrates skilled written and verbal communication, presentation and decision making skills.

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.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.