Pediatric Palliative Care Nurse Leader (On‑Call 24/7)

With excellent clinical and communication skills, you’ll either be an experienced Band 5 Nurse with palliative care experience, ready to take a step upwards in your career, or a Band 6 (Equivalent) Nurse already working in the palliative care sector or have previous palliative care experience. You’ll have at least one year’s experience caring for children with complex care needs. You’ll have experience managing a nursing team, or experience of supporting students, junior staff nurses or support workers. You’ll be able to work collaboratively, experienced in leading a multi‑skilled team, or can demonstrate experience of leadership with the support from a lead nurse. Aside from experience, we look for individuals who share our core values of kindness, excellence and courage. We’ll support you to go above and beyond to be there for the children and families we support – we ask that you share this mission with us.

Main duties of the job: We’re expanding our team and are looking for more nurses to join your charity. You’ll be joining an award‑winning, certified Outstanding team, who do all they can to empower children and families to experience as much life as possible. As a member of the Noah’s Ark Nurse and Specialist Care team, you’ll be encouraged to put the experience of children and families at the heart of all you do. As well as understanding their care needs, you’ll get to know what’s important to each child you support – whether it’s knowing what their favourite song to listen to is, how they like to play, or what soothes them when they are sad – at Noah’s Ark it’s so important that each child is treated as an individual. You’ll focus on what children can do, rather than their limitations, and will support them to experience things they may never have thought possible. And by providing care for children, either at our state‑of‑the‑art building, The Ark, or out in the community, you’ll be allowing parents and carers to take some time for themselves. The hours of care you’ll provide will make a huge difference, allowing them to live life outside of their child’s condition. By creating this time, you’ll be creating choice – something which can feel impossible for the families we support. You’ll join our experienced nursing team to help provide a 24/7, on‑call symptom assessment/management service for babies, children and young people in The Ark and out in the community. Your commitment to children and families will continue through to end‑of‑life care. You’ll be a guiding reassuring presence for families, elevating anxiety and worry and working with other healthcare professionals to create as much comfort as possible. You’ll be providing essential symptom management to bring comfort. As well as giving the choice of preferred place of care and preferred place of death. During this time, you’ll continue to treat each child and family as an individual by taking the time to understand what is important to them. You’ll help to create memories to enable as good a death as possible. A natural and experienced leader, you’ll deliver high‑quality and effective training to other members of the team and family members.

About us: We exist to help babies, children and young people with life‑limiting or life‑threatening conditions, and their families, make the most of every day. Our mission is to enable those we support to enjoy life as children, not patients; as families, not just as carers. Because everyone deserves to live life as themselves, beyond their condition or circumstances. We do this by listening to families. We know one size doesn’t fit all, so we cater our services to each individual person we support. We can do this from the point of diagnosis. Our help is available wherever it is needed. Our expert staff and trained volunteers can provide support in a families home, in the community, or at our state‑of‑the‑art building, The Ark, in Barnet. We work in collaboration with key NHS Trusts and other care providers to deliver the very best support to children and families. We have created a space where children with complex needs are accepted as they are, safe to play, explore, express themselves and build confidence.

About You: You will be either an experienced Band 5 children’s nurse wanting to take a step upwards, or an experienced Band 6 nurse looking to use your skills in the hospice sector. You will have excellent clinical and communication skills, be creative and want to make a positive difference to the charity. Kindly see attached job description for more information about this opportunity. In addition, an enhanced DBS disclosure with Child Barring will be required for this post. Our recruitment checks, induction, ongoing support and supervision reflect our commitment to safeguarding the families we support. Noahs Ark Children’s Hospice is a Disability Confident employer. Part of our commitment is to interview all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy, and consider them based on their abilities. Our Diversity Council is working hard to construct positive changes within our organisation, and we particularly welcome applications from groups who are currently under‑represented in our staff. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we kindly advise you to submit your application as early as possible.

Person Specification:

• Qualifications:
• Registered Pediatric Nurse or Registered Nurse Child Branch
• Relevant post‑qualification experience at staff nurse band 5 level
• Teaching qualification eg Mentorship SSSA or equivalent or willingness to undertake qualification
• Experience in supporting students on placement as a practice supervisor or practice assessor

• Skills / Knowledge / Experience:
• At least 2 years post registration experience, including a minimum of one year’s experience of nursing children with life‑limiting, life‑threatening, or complex medical needs
• Demonstration of palliative care experience nursing children with life‑threatening and life‑limiting conditions including children with special needs
• Previous team nursing management experience or experience supporting students, junior staff nurses or support workers
• Experience in leading a multiskilled workforce or team or evidence of leadership of a multiskilled workforce team with support from lead nurse
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Previous experience working with children with tracheostomies and/or requiring long‑term ventilation
• Experience with intravenous line care and therapies including parenteral nutrition
• Excellent clinical and mentoring support skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, transferable within a range of professional and family settings
• Ability to plan and deliver clinical training opportunities to registered and non‑registered colleagues
• Ability to critically analyse research findings and promote relevant findings in clinical practice
• Ability to work independently, autonomously and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Ability to assess, develop, implement, deliver and evaluate programmes of care across the range of the hospice setting in house and community
• Good organisational, planning and time management skills and ability to adapt and reprioritise at short notice based on the immediate needs of our young people and their families

• Behavioural / Personal:
• Respect for and understanding of the wide variety of roles within the multi‑disciplinary team
• Diplomacy and advocacy skills in relation to families, other external agencies and within Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
• Ability to work within a palliative care environment
• Positive attitude, proactive, enthusiastic, flexible, innovative and creative thinker
• Ability to meet set targets and work to deadlines
• Enthusiastic approach to work with a genuine passion to see Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice succeed in its objectives
• Proven track record of reliability
• Ability to identify and use personal support systems and use supervision appropriately
• Ability to work flexibly around the 24/7 service need/requirements. This includes short notice response to end‑of‑life care support and the nurse on‑call rota
• Live Noah’s Ark values kindness, courage and excellence

Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check will be required. Willing to undergo immunisation checks and immunisations where applicable. Full UK drivers licence and provide evidence of right to work in the UK.

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.

Pay & Benefits: £43,599 to £52,048 a year; Joining Bonus £500 on appointment.