Hospice Ward Nurse (1 Year Fixed Term Contract)

Are you a Registered Nurse seeking a truly rewarding role where your skills and compassion make a real difference? At St Nicholas Hospice Care, we believe in giving our team the time and space to deliver outstanding, person-centred care. Our nurse to patient ratio ensures you can focus on what matters most: supporting patients and families with dignity and compassion.

Why Choose Us?

• Supportive, Multidisciplinary Team: Work alongside experienced nurses, healthcare assistants, specialist doctors, allied health professionals, and dedicated volunteers.
• Calming, Holistic Setting: Our 12-bed Sylvan Ward is set in peaceful gardens, offering a tranquil space for palliative care with activities like afternoon teas, pizza nights, and donkey visits.
• We offer a range of contracts and a supportive 12-hour shift pattern (days and nights).

Main duties of the job

• The provision of specialist palliative and end of life nursing care, primarily on Sylvan Ward.
• The delivery of a holistic model of care, which supports the psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the patient.
• Participation in the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of person-centred nursing care for patients.
• Awareness of the importance of supporting family members through periods of death, dying and bereavement.
• Working effectively with MDT colleagues, delegating duties according to the skills and knowledge of junior team members.
• To actively support and model the SNHC Values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Equity.

About us

St Nicholas Hospice Care is a local charity providing help, advice and support to people in West Suffolk and Thetford who are living with long-term and life-threatening illnesses. Our services are not just for patients, but for their family and friends too. They include everything from specialist medical care to bereavement support and practical help. St Nicholas Hospice is dedicated to its vision that everyone in our communities has support, dignity and choice when facing dying, death and grief.

• Free onsite parking (guaranteed space).
• 25 days paid annual leave (increasing with service).
• Excellent training and development opportunities.
• NHS pension continuation or access to a group pension scheme.
• Life assurance.
• Enhanced Occupational Sick Pay.
• Social events (photography group, quiz nights, picnics, and more).
• Supportive management with regular 1:1s, appraisals, team meetings, and away days.
• Unsocial hours uplift of up to 60% for some shifts.

Job responsibilities

• Plan and provide direct nursing care for patients on Sylvan Ward, ensuring that interventions are based upon assessment and evaluation.
• Demonstrate sound clinical competencies, skills and knowledge in relation to specialist palliative and end of life care.
• Ensure that clinical quality is evident within care delivery, by adhering to evidence based interventions, working to SNHC clinical guidelines and best practice.
• Provide clinical support and advice by telephone, during out of hours periods, acting within the limits of own expertise and experience and signposting for advice, as required.
• Working with MDT colleagues, develop plans of care to support patient discharge.
• Effectively delegate care within the scope of expertise of MDT colleagues and with an understanding of registered nurse accountability.
• Promote patient safety with the use of dynamic risk assessment, mitigating identified risk and escalating this as appropriate.
• Support and promote patient autonomy by working in partnership to agree care needs and treatment plans, with an awareness of the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• Demonstrate collaborative working by seeking the support of internal and external clinical expertise, as appropriate.
• Maintain accurate and timely patient documentation at all times.
• Demonstrate a compassionate and values-led approach to care delivery and MDT interactions, at all times.
• Demonstrate high level communication skills, recognising the impact of loss, grief and bereavement upon the patient and their family, utilising the skills across the MDT to support these.
• Communicate effectively with all members of the multi-disciplinary team.
• Demonstrate an awareness of risk and ability to act upon this by managing this and reporting, as appropriate.
• Ensure awareness of clinical risk management processes, including the use of RADAR to log incidents for investigation.

Leadership and management

• Act as a professional role model at all times.
• Actively participate in the professional development of colleagues and learning, via mentorship and clinical assessor programmes.
• Utilise opportunities to share clinical expertise, knowledge and skills with colleagues and learners, both formal and informal.
• Act as a Shift Co-ordinator to direct clinical care and support operational decision-making such as planning patient admissions and supporting discharges.
• Undertake line management duties for a small number of staff in junior posts.
• Utilise opportunities to formally extend and share knowledge by engaging in Link Nurse activities.
• Actively participate in processes which support improvement programmes, including clinical governance and quality improvement activities, such as audit.
• Demonstrate willingness to participate in initiatives which support team working and resilience, such as reflective practice and group supervision.

Professional Development

• Consider learning and development needs and participate in opportunities to support these.
• Demonstrate willingness to participate in initiatives which support own practice and wellbeing, such as clinical supervision and reflective practice.
• Undertake any reasonable additional responsibilities which enhance own learning and practice, and which support the clinical team and patient care.

Qualifications

• Adult Registered Nurse (Active NMC registrant).
• Relevant Diploma or Degree in Nursing.
• A qualification in palliative care or long term conditions, or willingness to work towards this.
• Teaching and Assessing qualification (ENB 998, Practice Assessor, or similar).

Skills and Abilities

• Able to demonstrate commitment to continuing professional and development.
• Enthusiasm for specialist palliative care.
• Awareness of the principles of palliative care and a commitment to work towards these.
• Awareness of the principles of safe use of medication, including the management of controlled drugs.
• Understanding and awareness of safeguarding principles.
• Proven ability to support team members at all levels.
• Ability to recognise and learn from mistakes.
• An open approach to learning and development.
• Willingness to challenge poor practice.
• Understanding of the value and importance of volunteers.
• Contemporary evidence-based clinical skills and knowledge.
• Willingness to extend own practice by learning.
• Ability to remain calm during times of heightened emotions and use skills to de-escalate these situations.
• Willingness to learn skills which support a one team approach to care, to support business continuity.
• Working with staff across organisational and professional boundaries.
• IT literate, including Outlook emails, iRota and electronic patient records (SystmOne).
• Good understanding of high quality care.
• Ability to problem solve to support clinical and organisational need.
• Ability to work full roster (including unsocial hours).
• Robust understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion, recognising the needs of others without judgement or prejudice.
• Good knowledge of palliative care theory and practice.

Experience

• Clinical experience and experience of palliative care.

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.