Operational Team Lead

The post holder will work with the Clinical Lead to support the delivery of a safe and high quality community nursing service in a defined locality working alongside the District Nurse to effectively manage the Community Nursing team.

Main duties of the job

• To provide operational support across Guildford and Waverley Community Nursing, working with the District Nurses and Clinical Leads to manage staffing including return to work, sickness, formal reviews and appraisals.
• To manage off duty for Guildford and Waverley Community Nursing.
• To lead on Datix and investigations delegated from the Clinical Lead.
• To be clinical up to 40% of the role as required.
• To provide highly visible managerial leadership to the Community Nursing team and support staff development in these areas.
• To ensure patient safety and clinical effectiveness, providing expert evidence based clinical advice and support to all staff within the locality.
• The post holder will use an electronic patient held record system, EMIS as a record of care and all our nurses are provided with a work iPhone and iPad for mobile working.

Working for our organisation

The Procare Chief Operating Officer is a Nurse by background, who has a real passion for all aspects of Community working. Our board is clinically led with a Director of Nursing and GPs who have vast community experience, ensuring that Procare has the expertise and knowledge base needed to develop sustainable integrated services. With a strong emphasis on high-quality care, patient safety, and a positive patient and carer experience as the core of our strategy, our goal is to ensure excellent care for our local community. We aim to achieve this by creating a supportive and highly skilled workforce, making Procare a great place to work. We are an innovative, ambitious, friendly, and supportive local team. We take pride in our clinically led and flat management structure, which ensures transparent leadership from all directors. We are in search of an individual with the requisite skills and attributes, someone who is pragmatic and solution-focused, and who desires to be a part of our local Community Nursing Services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Patient Care / Safety / Quality

• Ensures a seamless service to patients and carers from referral through to discharge, where individuals are involved in decisions about their care and treatment with privacy and dignity needs are met.
• Maintains strong working relationships and communicates effectively with GPs, practice nurses, Social Services, Mental Health, acute/community hospital colleagues, Borough Council staff and the local voluntary sector - particularly for patients receiving shared care to ensure an effective flow of patient information to ensure high quality care.
• Utilises a range of effective communication skills, tools and techniques that meet the needs of the patients and carers and can effectively overcome any barriers to communication and understanding, dealing with sensitive and complex information.
• Helps to identify and deliver service improvement opportunities to achieve quality standards and best practice.
• Supports the Clinical Lead in investigating incidents and complaints within required timescales ensuring that learning is shared, and actions are implemented.
• Takes prompt action and escalates when professional standards fall short of standards of care delivery.
• Has clinical competency relevant to adult community nursing as the post holder may work clinically 40% of the week, through providing clinical care or providing staff with the support and guidance they need to deliver care.
• Monitors the safety of equipment/environment and ensures that all areas of clinical risk are identified and reported in accordance with legislation and policy as requested.
• Undertakes and documents holistic nursing assessments of patients, including those with multiple pathology and complex health and social needs with a plan of care agreed with the patient.
• Provides skilled and effective nursing care in a compassionate, caring and professional manner.
• Recognises own limitations in the provision of clinical care and urgency of patient’s needs, referring to other health care professionals accordingly and is accountable for his/her/their own actions often without direct supervision.
• Accountable for own professional actions in line with the NMC code and local policy and guidelines.

Personal and people development

• Acts as a role model demonstrating a level of knowledge and competence of the highest professional and personal standard.
• Responsible for the self-development of skills and competencies through participation in learning and development activities, and to maintain up to date technical and professional knowledge relevant to the post.
• Participates in own annual appraisal and undertakes continuing professional development, clinical supervision, and peer review for self to maintain and develop knowledge and skills.
• Access regular 1-1 meetings with line manager.
• Provides specialist clinical and supervisory leadership to junior team members, non-registrants, new employees, and students within the team.
• Involved in teaching, supervising and mentoring team members, colleagues and pre-registration students undertaking formal student assessments.
• Responsible for assessing team and individual performance against agreed service standards and individual objectives at least annually through meaningful and achievable personal development plans.
• Keeps up to date with professional nursing and regulatory requirements, health care developments, clinical evidence, National Service Frameworks for practice, national and local policies, and guidelines to maintain up to date technical and professional knowledge relevant to the post.
• Responsible for the self-development of skills and competencies through participation in learning and development activities and continuing professional development to maintain up to date technical and professional knowledge relevant to the post.
• Involved in the effective induction, competency achievement, supervision and mentoring of new team members and supporting pre-registration student nurses.
• Supports the Clinical Lead in the operational management of locality-based teams and employees in line with policy and procedures.
• Support the Clinical Lead to ensure effective workforce planning and off duty management within the locality ensuring a lead nurse, appropriate skill mix and cover in the Care Coordination Centre each day, involving authorising bank shifts within a defined budget.
• Ensures compliance with mandatory training for self and across the designated locality, ensuring action is taken where standards are not met.
• Works to resolve issues locally and at an operational level, escalating moderate and significant risks and issues in a timely manner through the appropriate systems and to the appropriate people.
• Produces and delivers written reports and presentations as required to support communication and decision-making across the adult community nursing service.
• Supports staff on any work related issues and feedback to Clinical Lead.
• Effectively manages sickness/absence and HR issues as identified by the Clinical Lead.

Service Development and Innovation

• Manages change and implements strategy and new developments across defined Community Nursing teams.
• To be responsible and accountable for all aspects of performance within the community nursing teams in regard to delivery to service users.
• Works collaboratively with community nurse colleagues to ensure equity of service provision, promotion of good practice and the sharing of resources.
• Supports the development and implementation of technology and new ways of working within teams.
• Contributes to the future development of Community Nursing by participating in working groups, committees and planning groups as required.
• Actively participates, advocates and helps design local improvement initiatives that drive forward leadership and change strategies within the service e.g. Service Improvement Projects, QI projects.
• Responsible for auditing own practice and for undertaking audits in line with annual clinical audit plan, and national requirements including environmental audits (infection control), NICE etc.
• Promotes personal, professional and clinical expertise through regular evaluation and updating practice, research and audit findings.
• Disseminates research findings and the application/relevance to clinical practice.
• Ensures findings and recommendations from clinical audits are shared and supports strategies for implementing required actions are in place and monitored.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Level 1 Nurse with current Nursing and Midwifery Council registration.
• Evidence of recent continuing professional development relevant to Community Nursing.
• Completion of DN SPQ Professional Nurse Advocate Clinical Supervisor.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Keeps up to date with evidence-based practice and research related to community nursing and health care in the community.
• Broad range of clinical skills relevant to community nursing, including but not limited to Compression Bandaging, Dopplers, Venepuncture, Male & Suprapubic Catheter, Syringe drivers and Palliative care symptom management.
• Experience of managing people, undertaking appraisals, investigations, formal and informal reviews, supporting staff through HR processes.
• Demonstrable evidence of service improvement/implementing local change following audit/policy/research/service evaluation.
• Experience of undertaking audits, presenting feedback and owning action plans.

You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.