Infection Prevention and Control Nurse in Nottingham

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a 12 month fixed-term / secondment position within the Infection Prevention and Control Service in Nottingham CityCare. The post is for a band 5 Nurse working 30 hours per week. The successful candidate will join an established highly motivated and proactive team and will report directly to the Clinical Nurse Specialists for IPC.

The team are involved in provision of practical support and expertise to CityCare staff, patients and Independent Contractors across a wide range of infection prevention and control issues. The role will involve supporting the annual programme of work involving following up of patients with infection, swabbing patients, supporting outbreaks of infection within care homes, audit and some training. The successful candidate must have excellent communication skills and be an ambassador for Infection prevention and control and CityCare partnership. An interest in IPC is essential. A professional registration is essential for this role and the candidate must be a car owner with a current driving license.

Main duties of the job

• Review the alert lists from Microbiology and follow up individuals with positive swab/sample results such as MRSA, clostridioides difficile, panton valentine leucocidin, E.coli blood stream infections, and group A strep to ensure they are aware of the positive swab and sample and have been commenced on the correct treatment.
• Attend outbreaks of infection in care home settings to provide advice and support regarding prevention of spread.
• Answer queries and calls from health professionals, patients, carers and other Infection Prevention and Control teams in relation to specific patients and infections.
• Audit CityCare services, care homes and GP practices to review IPC practice and support the implementation of standard IPC precautions.
• Provide some IPC training to providers of care.

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

To provide practical support and advice to CityCare staff, patients and independent contractors across a wide range of Infection prevention and control issues. This will include supporting the infection prevention and control annual programme of work along with some of the wider quality and safety initiatives such as support with patient safety incident response framework reviews, patient public engagement, clinical audit and effectiveness. To maintain and promote working relationships with all the local infection prevention and control teams across the health economy.

A main focus of this role is to support with outbreak management and prevention in care homes, home care and domiciliary care settings, hostels and other areas with reported outbreaks of infection.

Dimensions

The post holder will develop and maintain relationships with CityCare staff and independent contractors to ensure all patients with alert organisms are managed appropriately and that learning from incidents and infection reviews is shared across CityCare and other organisations where appropriate. The post holder will be required to support the service in the day to day management of the infection prevention and control workload. The post holder will work closely with the rest of the Infection Prevention and Control team to deliver the annual programme of work for IPC. Whilst reporting to the IPC matrons the post holder is expected to work both autonomously and as part of the wider Quality and Safety Team using their own initiative but to seek support and guidance from other members of the team when appropriate.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical practice

• Provide guidance for those working in CityCare Partnership in relation to infection prevention and control concerns and issues raised.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies and guidelines and suggest areas of improvement.
• Work with individuals and colleagues to support the development of clear and robust policies, guidelines and standard operating procedures that prevent and control infection.
• Provide advisory support for the implementation of policies and guidelines to prevent and control infection.
• Highlight to the infection prevention and control team where infection prevention and control policies and guidelines are not being implemented appropriately.
• When necessary, visit patients in order to provide information regarding infections or to take swabs/samples.
• Understand how infection is spread and communicate to others the practices required to break the chain of infection.
• Promote hand hygiene (including social hand hygiene, antiseptic hand hygiene, surgical scrub).
• Promote the safe management of invasive devices and prevention of device-related infections and educate CityCare staff in relation to aseptic non-touch technique.
• Promote antimicrobial stewardship - prudent prescribing of antimicrobials and the surveillance of antimicrobial-resistant organisms.
• Collate, analyse and communicate data relating to preventing and controlling infection for surveillance purposes.
• Identify areas that may require further investigation or analysis in relation to potential risks.
• Analyse potential risks and reach conclusions appropriate to the risks.
• Act upon the risks identified, communicating them effectively to the appropriate people.
• Enable health and social-care staff to understand the data and make the necessary changes to achieve improvement outcomes.
• Take appropriate action when surveillance methods can be improved.

Manage incidents and outbreaks

• Assess the information available on the incident/outbreak and seek any necessary further evidence to establish its nature and scale.
• Establish the appropriate response using local incident/outbreak/emergency planning guides.
• Communicate clear, accurate and timely information with colleagues, partner organisations and others throughout the incident in a manner that effectively manages risk and supports effective team working.
• Ensure accurate records of the investigation and management of the incident/outbreak are maintained throughout the process.
• Input to a review of any incident/outbreak where learning is identified.

Improve quality and safety through the application of improvement methodologies

• Identify the need for change in practices and environments through the annual programme of audit.
• Work in partnership with others following audit to develop solutions to improve safety and quality.
• Input data accurately following audits and communicate findings to those involved.
• Support the infection prevention and control team with improvement programmes.
• Work in partnership with individuals, populations, staff and others to develop improvement programmes.
• Take the necessary action to elevate concerns when there is a failure to act which compromises safety and quality.

Develop own knowledge, skills and practice

• Identify own development needs and set own personal development objectives, including professional development.
• Develop own knowledge, skills and practice through active engagement in a range of learning and development opportunities.
• Participate in regular clinical supervision in accordance with CityCare policy.
• Participate in regular management supervision in accordance with CityCare policy.
• Influence and persuade others to see infection prevention and control as an integral part of the learning and development culture in health and social care and essential to safety and quality.
• Effectively communicate key messages to wider audiences to influence the wider safety and quality agenda through supporting the delivery of the annual training programme for CityCare staff and independent contractors.

Person Specification

Special Requirements

• Ability to work at a desk and use general office equipment.
• Ability to lift and carry general office equipment e.g., laptop, projectors, training materials and to assist with the movement of furniture in training rooms.
• Requirement to deal with telephone calls.
• Ability to be flexible over hours worked within contracted hours to meet the needs of the service.
• Ability to work out of hours.
• Full driving licence or the ability to travel between locations.

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse and current registration on NMC or equivalent clinical qualification (e.g., AHP).
• Competent in using Microsoft Office packages including Microsoft Word, Excel, Microsoft Outlook Email.
• Post registration study or experience in health and/or infection control related subjects.

Experience

• Post registration experience where the following skills have been developed:
• Evidence of knowledge in area of specialism underpinned by relevant practical experience.
• Proven ability in decision making and problem solving.
• Experience of audit processes.
• Experience of carrying out or being involved in investigations/reviews.
• Recent experience of delivering training to individuals and groups.

Knowledge and skills

• Demonstrate skills in working with difficult groups and individuals.
• Good organisational skills with ability to meet deadlines and prioritise own workload.
• Knowledge of current national Infection Prevention and Control Legislation.
• Flexible and adaptable to changes in working patterns.
• Able to communicate and work in a diplomatic and tactful manner if required.
• Ability to self-motivate.
• Ability to manage conflict.
• Ability to work well in a team.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.