Matron for Bedded Care in Ipswich

We are seeking a registered nurse with palliative care experience to join our team. You will have a passion for improving the lives of patients and their families. St Elizabeth Hospice is an independent charity and hospice, which improves life for people in the East Suffolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney areas living with a progressive or life-limiting illness. Rated Outstanding from the Care Quality Commission, our work is centred on an individual's needs, which means specialist support, whenever and wherever it is needed, whether at home, in the community or at the hospice. We are well respected and praised for our responsiveness and expertise by people we serve. Established in 1989, the hospice has built a reputation for delivering high-level care to patients and the community it serves. Through medicine and therapy, they ease pain; give life purpose and make life liveable. Last year the charity supported over 4,000 patients and their families.

Main duties of the job:

• Reporting to the Associate Director of Care Operations, the post holder will have a key leadership role across the organisation working at an Advanced Practice level and will provide specialist knowledge and skills to ensure the delivery of outstanding inpatient care, working across all four pillars of practice.
• To thrive in this role, you will need a minimum of 3 years clinical experience at a senior level in palliative care or related area and have a proven track record of leadership and management experience at band 7 level or above.

About us:

The hospice offers a generous benefit package, including:

• 27 days annual leave entitlement
• Life Cover
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Car Leasing Scheme
• Health Service Discounts
• Occupational Sick Pay
• Blue Light Card
• Employee Assistance Programme

St Elizabeth Hospice is committed to safeguarding and protecting the adults and young people that we work with and has a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, neglect and discrimination of any person. As such, all posts are subject to a rigorous safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks. We have a range of robust safeguarding policies in place which promote safeguarding across the hospice and staff are expected to undertake regular, mandatory safeguarding training to equip them with the knowledge and skills to identify and respond to potential risks.

Job responsibilities:

• Provide professional and effective clinical leadership and accountability for the Inpatient Unit with a focus on patient safety and quality care.
• Proactively lead on all patient experience and patient safety initiatives to include the reduction of healthcare acquired infection, falls and pressure ulcers.
• Monitor infection prevention and control (IPC) standards within practice via regular audit and observation of practice, working to identify and resolve any IPC related issues, seeking advice when appropriate.
• Directly lead and support across the hospice with patient safety, understanding, involvement and improvement activity and ensure systems thinking, human factors understanding and just culture principles are embedded in all patient safety processes.
• Manage and develop the service in line with national and local requirements ensuring the delivery of performance targets, development of best practice, and modernisation agenda in conjunction with other key stakeholders.
• Work as part of the clinical leadership team, to provide leadership support to care staff, representing at meetings where required and acting on behalf of in periods of absence.
• Be accessible to patients/families and staff, ensuring all patients have the opportunity to seek information, help and support or to communicate problematic or celebratory issues.
• Ensure documentation is completed contemporaneously and is completed in line with national and local guidance.
• Promote clinical expert practice, facilitating the development of skills of the team to act as a role model, mentor and supervisor in practice, also providing advice to the wider care team.
• Lead and implement quality improvement projects.
• Ensure staff work within the NMC Code of professional conduct and other statutory guidance relevant to role.
• Be responsible for the clinical effectiveness of the service through the development of evidence-based practice, promotion and dissemination.
• Lead and participate in research, integrating research-based evidence in all aspects of specialist palliative care into clinical practice.
• Develop audit tools to monitor progress and action plans to address shortfalls in care.
• Maintain clinical credibility and visual presence within area of practice.
• Provide the clinical lead for complaints management on IPU.
• Ensure the culture of safeguarding is everyone's business is embedded within the IPU team.
• Ensure adherence with relevant Infection Prevention and Control policies and procedures, raising any risks to the IPC group/service lead.
• Work collaboratively with the estates team to ensure all standards of cleanliness are agreed.
• Oversee the co-ordination of total patient experience, clinical standards of nutrition, infection control, cleanliness, environment and safety.
• Support the implementation of the principles of the NHS patient safety strategy and use this to develop hospice safety policy in collaboration with the Director of Care.
• Ensure that staff are reporting all clinical incidents and near misses using the Vantage system and ensure that relevant staff are investigating, regularly reviewing and updating progress on incident management in line with policy.
• Deploy staff to enable work to be carried out as effectively as possible within allocated budgets.
• Implement a safer staffing tool to ensure staffing capacity can be accurately reported.
• Initiate a timely response to clinical incidents/patient safety alerts to expedite the investigative process and development and completion of measurable action plans as appropriate.
• Advise the Senior Leadership Team on local and national policies, which influence or may impact on the IPU and patient safety, contributing to the delivery of local and national policy initiatives.
• Take lead to develop protocols, policies, and guidelines to develop practice and services in line with available evidence and current best practice.

Person Specification:

• Registered Nurse
• Masters level award or equivalent that encompasses the four pillars of practice.
• Palliative care qualification or equivalent.

Personal Qualities:

• Ability to work autonomously.
• Ability to use own initiative.
• Ability to work as part of a team.
• Flexible approach to work and shift system.
• Role model who can influence, motivate and encourage others.
• Commitment to quality and best practice.
• Positive, self-motivated and committed to achieving results and solving problems.
• Good time management and organisational skills.
• Innovative and creative.
• Demonstrates resilience and adaptability in challenging or emotionally demanding environments.

Experience:

• Minimum of 3 years clinical experience at a senior level (band 7 or equivalent) in palliative care or related area.
• Proven track record of leadership and management experience at band 7 level or above.
• Working knowledge of relevant national strategy.
• Working knowledge of CQC standards and inspection regime.
• Experience of working in Community & Inpatient setting.

Specific Skills:

• Expert current knowledge within own profession related to palliative care, which underpins theory, usually gained through recent clinical practice at a senior level.
• Commitment to clinical excellence through regular professional updating.
• Computer literacy sufficient to input patient records and work efficiently and effectively.
• Knowledge of patient safety assessment and measures.
• Proven ability to deal with situations of conflict.
• Proven written and oral communication skills.
• Advanced interpersonal skills and communication ability, both written and verbal.
• Well-developed presentation and teaching skills.
• Effective liaison with other professionals to uphold good specialist palliative care practice.

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.