Community Tissue Viability Staff Nurse Southampton

Job summary

We are looking for an enthusiastic and passionate registered nurse to join the Southampton Tissue Viability Team.

Our mission is to provide an open and honest, holistic, collaborative, specialist tissue viability service that facilitates the highest quality, evidence-based care, which keeps our patients at the heart of everything we do.

The team is based at the Adelaide Health Centre and will see patients in the Community, Community Hospitals, GP Practice, Nursing Homes and in Clinic.

Our role is to support health care professionals in clinical practice by providing teaching, information and specialist advice on tissue viability.

We provide:

• Complex wound assessment and advice
• Leg ulcer service, including lower limb assessment
• Telephone advice
• Training and education
• Supervision and competency review
• Link nurse meeting and training

The successful candidate will support patients and their families to achieve improved health outcomes and promote health and wellbeing, while demonstrating care, compassion, competence, communication, courage, and commitment.

Care is based on comprehensive assessments and is patient/client centred, culturally sensitive, evidence-based and promotes independence.

The role will develop and maintain a culture of service improvement which promotes quality, safety and striving to do better.

Main duties of the job

Provide specialist Tissue Viability service across clinic, home and community settings, delivering assessment, diagnosis, treatment, care planning for patients with wounds, ulcers and compromised tissue viability.

Promote health and preventative care through risk assessment, education and evidence-based interventions to reduce wound breakdown, recurrence and health inequalities.

Safeguard children and adults, obtaining and documenting informed consent for care and information sharing in line with Trust policies and professional standards.

Deliver high-quality, person-centred nursing care through ongoing assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation, maintaining accurate clinical records.

Manage a defined Tissue Viability and Leg Ulcer caseload, ensuring timely admission, discharge and onward referral, contributing to effective use of resources.

Assess and manage complex wounds, including wound healing evaluation, pressure ulcer classification, lower limb assessment, Doppler assessment and appropriate use of wound care formulary products, escalating care when required.

Communicate sensitively with patients and carers regarding treatment plans and changing conditions, providing support to promote physical and psychological wellbeing.

Demonstrate clinical autonomy, promote best practice, support service improvement and positive patient outcomes, role model culturally safe care, challenge poor practice and contribute to the development of knowledge and skills within the wider team.

About us

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.

Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.

We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.

Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence

Job responsibilities

1. Clinical and Professional

1.1 To provide a Tissue Viability service in a clinic setting, as well as the patient's own home and other community settings, which includes:

• Tissue Viability assessment, diagnosis, care, treatment, and referral.
• Preventative health education/promotion and care: Risk awareness (assessment), proactive care and management to minimise or prevent wound or ulcer breakdown or recurrence.
• Public health: health protection and promotion programmes that improve and reduce inequalities.
• To actively safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults.
• Obtain informed consent from patients for assessment and intervention, and work within agreed guidelines for patients unable to give informed consent.
• Obtain consent to the sharing of information, and document all consent issues in accordance with relevant Trust procedure.

1.2 To take responsibility for providing the highest standard of patient care through on-going assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of care.

1.3 To co-operate, organise and manage a defined caseload within the Tissue Viability/Leg Ulcer Service, and enabling the patients' needs to be met within the limits of available staffing resources including supervision and support for junior staff.

1.4 To be competent in identifying patients for admission to the caseload, and discharges and/or onward referral as appropriate following a complete episode of nursing care.

1.5 To participate in regular multi-disciplinary reviews of patients with chronic/palliative wounds, ensuring that holistic assessments are carried out and care plans are evaluated to ensure they are up to date and relevant.

1.6 To be competent in performing a Holistic Nursing Assessment including recording and interpretation of vital signs.

1.7 To be competent in managing patients with compromised Tissue Viability including appropriate use of wound care formulary, evaluation of wound healing, recognition and categorisation of pressure ulcers or reduced perfusion to lower limbs, performing Doppler assessment and referral for specialist opinion, as required.

1.8 To deal empathetically with sensitive information, to include discussing patient's changing condition with patient and / or carer.

1.9 Accurately documents assessments of patients/client's health status, diagnosis and response to nursing and other interventions and treatments on the Trust Clinical Records System.

1.10 To have responsibility, authority and clinical autonomy of a link nurse role to develop and improve care, building on existing good practice and clinical skills development.

1.11 Fosters inquiry and critical thinking amongst colleagues to advance