Practice Nurse in Tonbridge

Phoenix Medical Practice are looking for an enthusiastic, experienced Practice Nurse to join our friendly team. We are a busy rural dispensing practice with a growing list of over 6,100 patients operating out of two sites. The position is arising with the reduction in hours of one of our existing Practice nurses and will require the person to work all day on a Friday and potentially a Monday morning with a maximum of 12 hours per week.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is responsible for the delivery of basic practice nursing services care to the practice population. Supported by other nurses within the practice, they will deliver care within the boundaries of their role, focusing upon supporting patients to be healthy, monitoring of long-term conditions, health prevention and screening activities. They will work collaboratively with the general practice team to meet the needs of patients, supporting the delivery of policy and procedures, and providing nurse leadership as required.

Job responsibilities

• Clinical Practice

• Assess, plan, develop, implement and evaluate programmes to promote health and well-being, and prevent adverse effects on health and well-being.
• Able to triage by telephone and refer appropriately.
• Implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for patients with a known long-term condition.
• Identify, and manage as appropriate, treatment plans for patients at risk of developing a long-term condition.
• Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care.
• Support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that encourage patients to live healthily, and apply principles of self-care.
• Provide information and advice on prescribed or over-the-counter medication.
• Support and advise women requesting information relating to family planning needs.
• Support and manage health needs of women presenting for cervical cytology consultations.
• Recognise, assess and refer patients presenting with mental health needs in accordance with the National Service Framework [NSF] for Mental Health.
• Implement and participate in vaccination and immunisation programmes for both adults and children.
• Advise, support and, where appropriate, administer vaccinations for patients travelling abroad.
• Promote and deliver evidence-based care for patients presenting with aural conditions.

• Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles, to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment.
• Communicate with and support patients who are receiving bad news.
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating.
• Utilise communication skills to support patients to adhere to prescribed treatment regimens.
• Anticipate barriers to communication and take action to improve communication.
• Estimate and maintain effective communication with individuals and groups within the practice environment and with external stakeholders.
• Act as an advocate when representing the patients and colleagues viewpoints to others.

• Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC].
• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures.
• Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality.
• Deliver care according to the NSF and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence [NICE] guidelines and evidence-based care.
• Participate in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the organisation and its activities.
• Utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required.
• In partnership with other clinical teams, collaborate on improving the quality of health care, responding to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate.
• Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation.
• Participate in the performance monitoring review of the team, providing feedback as appropriate.
• Understand and apply legal policy that supports the identification of vulnerable and abused children and adults, being aware of statutory child/vulnerable adult health procedure and local guidance.
• Work within policies relating to domestic violence, vulnerable adults, substance abuse and addictive behaviour, and refer as appropriate.

• Take responsibility for own development, learning and performance including participating in clinical supervision and acting as a positive role model.
• Support the development of others in order to maximise potential.
• Actively promote the workplace as a learning environment, encouraging everyone to learn from each other and from external good practice.
• Understand own responsibilities and accountability in the delivery of GPN services to patients, ensuring that the needs of the patient are the priority.
• Participate in planning and implementing changes within the area of care and responsibility.
• Contribute and participate in the development of local guidelines, protocols and standards.
• Critically evaluate and review innovations and developments that are relevant to own practice.
• Keep up-to-date with new developments locally and nationally identifying those that will enhance the teams work.
• Ensure awareness of sources of support and guidance [e.g. patient advice and liaison service PALS] and provide information in an acceptable format to all patients, recognising any difficulties and referring where appropriate.

• Understand own role and scope in the organisation and identify how this may develop over time.
• Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working.
• Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence of those taking on delegated duties.
• Ensure clear understanding and utilisation of referral mechanisms within the practice.
• Accept delegation from other nurses, prioritise own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded in own practice.
• Work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery.
• Participate in team activities that create opportunities to improve patient care.
• Participate in and support local projects as agreed with the practice management team.

• Manage and assess risk within the areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to protect staff and patients.
• Monitor work areas and practices to ensure they are safe and free from hazards and conform to health, safety and security legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines.
• Ensure safe storage, rotation and disposal of vaccines and drugs is undertaken. Undertake mandatory and statutory training.
• Apply infection control measures within the practice according to local and national guidelines.
• Apply policies that reduce environmental health risks, are culturally sensitive and increase access to health care for all.
• Participate in the local implementation strategies that are aligned to the values and culture of general practice.
• Use technology as an aid to management in planning, implementation and monitoring, presenting and communicating information.
• Review and process data using accurate SNOMED codes about patients in order to ensure easy and accurate retrieval for monitoring and audit processes.
• Manage information searches using the internet and Mentor databases, for examples, the retrieval of relevant information for patients on their condition.
• Understand own and others responsibility to the individual organisation regarding the Freedom of Information Act.

• Disseminate learning and information gains to other team members in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments.
• Assess own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate.
• Make effective use of learning opportunities within and outside the workplace, evaluating their effectiveness and feeding back relevant information.
• Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning.

• Identify patterns of discrimination, take action to overcome this, and promote diversity and quality of opportunity.
• Support people who need assistance in exercising their rights.
• Monitor and evaluate adherence to local chaperoning policies.
• Act as a role model in good practice relating to equality and diversity.
• Accept the rights of individuals to choose their care providers, participate in care and refuse care. Assist patients from marginalised groups to access quality care.

Person Specification

• Qualifications: Registration with the NMC.
• Experience: Long-term conditions and vaccinations/immunisations experience.
• Evidence of good, reflective practice.
• Ability to accurately maintain patients electronic records.
• Ability to be self-directed and work on own initiative as well as working within a team.
• Ability to demonstrate and apply up-to-date clinical knowledge.
• Competent and confident in the use of IT.
• Ability to develop local and national guidelines and protocols.
• Ability to conduct telephone triage/consultations.
• Health promotion.
• Awareness of professional nursing issues within general practice.
• Management of minor ailments.
• Experience of using EMIS Web.

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.