Ward Manager - MacGregor Ward in Carlisle

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Ward Manager to provide strong clinical and operational leadership within our ward team. The successful candidate will be responsible for delivering high-quality, safe and effective patient care, leading and developing staff, managing resources and driving quality improvement initiatives. Working collaboratively with multidisciplinary colleagues, you will ensure excellent patient experience, effective service delivery and continuous improvement, while promoting Trust values and supporting the professional development and wellbeing of your team.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced nurse leader with a passion for patient care, staff development and service improvement to make a significant contribution to the delivery of outstanding healthcare services.

Main duties of the job

• Establish, develop, maintain, monitor and facilitate the delivery of services at ward/departmental level, ensuring services provided meet organisational objectives, divisional service strategies and quality accounts.

About us

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further. In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4th in the country for recommended place to work.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.

Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work.

Job responsibilities

• To provide strong visible leadership to all staff within the ward and across the organisation, ensuring that nursing practice is up to date, evidence based and cost effective.
• To develop the ward teams, individuals and self to enhance performance, ensuring that staff training needs to meet organisational objectives are pursued through the principles of IPR and PDP and knowledge & skills framework, in accordance with Trust Policies and procedures.
• To be responsible for own professional registration and ensure that all nurses working on the ward have valid NMC registration and practise in accordance with the NMC Code, Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives and in accordance to Trust policy, ensuring a robust system is in place to checking registered practitioners registration status.
• Provide leadership for the implementation of the quality improvement projects.
• Ensure a strong team focus on high quality, clinically effective healthcare that meet our patients needs, is embedded in ward culture.
• Create and maintain a strong culture of Infection Prevention & Control awareness & practice and ensure robust systems are in place to measure IP&C standards, celebrate & share good practice and develop & review action plans to address deficiencies.
• Develop, maintain and review annually the wards philosophy so that this continually reflects the aims of the team, division and organisation.
• Develop and lead a team that seeks to actively resolve compliant/concerns at local level ensuring appropriate escalation of complaints, clinical incidents or near misses.
• Participate in patient acuity studies measuring patient dependency and nurse to bed ratio.
• Foster and embed a patient safety culture and participate in national and local patient safety work streams or campaigns to improve the patients environment and experience such as Patient Safety Thermometer.
• Develop and maintain cohesive multidisciplinary working relationships which focus on individualised patient care that facilitates a care management plan and a safe and timely discharge.

Manage Strategy Main Duties

• Promote the organisations Trust values and annual objectives, with particular reference to the Divisional business objectives, service strategies and developments.
• Contribute to the creation, implementation and evaluation of the Divisional service plans by reviewing ward performance against organisational objectives, identifying cost pressures and exceptions and proposing service developments to the Divisional Management Team.
• Contribute to the implementation and evaluation of Divisional service strategies and contracts by establishing systems to monitor performance at ward level.

Manage Finance Main Duties

• Secure effective resource allocation for wards activities and quality initiatives, including the updating of ward and departmental capital and revenue equipment replacement plans at regular intervals to maintain continuity of service.
• Monitor and control the use of ward resources by ensuring that costs are contained within allocated budgets whilst achieving maximum value for money on all expenditures and implement a robust system for exception reporting.

Manage Services Main Duties

• Initiate and implement change and improvement in services and operational system to meet Divisional service strategies and contracts.
• Monitor, maintain and improve service delivery against quality and functional specifications, encourage staff to share innovations and good quality practice when visited by external regulating bodies.
• Participate in the development and implementation of Integrated Care Pathways within the clinical area.
• Benchmark ward services against published best practices, whilst ensuring that they meet statutory standards and professional guidelines.
• Identify and contribute to the Divisional Management Team innovative service development ideas and proposals in line with evidence-based practice and the principles of clinical governance.

Manage People Main Duties

• Recruit and select ward staff by defining future personnel requirements, determining specifications to secure quality people, and assessing and selecting candidates against Trust Values and organisational requirements.
• Produce a timely roster that adheres to agreed KPIs and is safe, fair, effective and within budget.
• Support the rotation of all staff through the 24 hour period, agreeing and monitoring flexible working agreements to support individuals and the service.
• Support agile working where practicable.
• Scrutinise your ward staffing on a daily basis and with your clinical sister /charge nurses ensure this is proactively managed in accordance with SWH 03254 Nurse Staffing Escalation procedure.
• Develop and implement ward based accessible clinical supervision for all staff.
• Monitor and evaluate sickness/absence trends and act accordingly in line with Trust policies and procedures.
• Work collaboratively with the Human Resources Department to proactively manage poor attendance, lateness, capability and performance issues in line with Trust policies and procedures.
• Develop teams, individuals and self to enhance performance to achieve organisational objectives and divisional service strategies. Succession plan within your team.
• Plan, allocate and evaluate work carried out by teams, individuals and self.
• Undertake learning needs analysis to establish the levels of skills for all grades of ward/department staff.
• Develop and implement a performance appraisal system supported by a dynamic development programme to meet staff training needs.
• Create maintain and enhance effective working relationships by involving and informing staff of service developments, performance against key performance indicators and quality metrics, and future plans honestly, timely and sensitively.
• Ensure staff comply with Trust policies and procedures at all times and take appropriate action to deal with staff who disregard these obligations in the course of their employment.
• Develop and maintain a robust system for checking professional registration of nursing staff on appointment and annually thereafter comply with Trust policy.

Manage Information Main Duties

• Exchange information to solve problems and make decisions by networking with wards/departments within and outside the Division and the Trust.
• Contribute towards the Divisional service plans by reviewing ward/department performance against Divisional objectives and service strategies, identifying cost pressures and proposing service developments to the Divisional management team.
• Establish and maintain a culture of shared learning from incidents and complaints.
• Develop and maintain a robust mechanism for ensuring good communication is disseminated through the team and foster a culture of openness and candour to all patients, relatives and staff.
• Measure the success of communication dissemination.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Essential: Professional Registration for Paediatric Nursing/Health Studies
• Teaching Qualification
• Post-registration management qualification or equivalent experience
• Paediatric Advanced Life Support
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Experience

• Essential: Experience in nurse management
• Significant experience at band 6 within acute hospital setting
• Experience of change management
• Experience of Acute paediatrics

Skills

• Essential: Presentation skills and relevance to question
• Experience of writing guidelines/protocols & policies
• Sound knowledge of evidence based practice
• Knowledge and experience of audit process
• Evidence of involvement in change management
• Sound resource (human and finance) management skills

Personal Qualities

• Essential: Can demonstrate characteristics of effective leadership
• Demonstrates ability to motivate, train and develop staff
• Is innovative, positive and has ability to stimulate a productive team
• Able to set/achieve individual/team objectives and meet deadlines
• Able to role model both clinically & managerially

Other Job Requirements

• Essential: Up to date with current NHS priorities and nursing issues
• Flexible and adaptable in meeting changing service demand