Overnight / Twilight Nurse Service in Hereford

Taurus Healthcare operates on behalf of General Practice in Herefordshire within the GP Federation. We work collaboratively with our partner organisations including Wye Valley Trust for whom we provide an extension to the District Nursing Service overnight, ensuring that palliative patients and those requiring urinary catheter care receive high quality, evidence based care. We have extended our operating hours to cover the evening period from 8pm and therefore we are needing more to join our team. We also have flexible hours available in the overnight period 10pm to 8am. Flexible working between the WVT DN Service and the Twilight Service could be an option for those who find fulfilling hours due to family commitments a challenge. We are happy to discuss your options.

We are a compassionate and caring team working alongside our Out of Hours GPs and other non-clinical staff who provide your lone worker and administrative support. There will also be a 2-hour period between 10pm and midnight where there will be an Overnight Nurse colleague available for support and handover.

Main duties of the job

You will be based out of Nelson House, Hereford but will need to be geographically mobile across Herefordshire to meet the needs of those individuals who require specific urgent clinical visits. Main duties will involve providing urgent care to palliative patients, including management of syringe drivers. Your job will also involve resolving problems with catheters, ambulant chemotherapy and dressings for simple skin tears.

You will need relevant post-registration experience (minimum 1 year in community/palliative setting) and competencies, including palliative care, syringe drivers, and male, female and supra-pubic urinary catheters, excellent communication skills and the ability to plan and prioritise your visits. This role will involve lone working. Although you can choose to have a driver for patient visits, there will be occasions when you may have to drive yourself so you will require a driving licence and access to a car, as you’ll be covering the county of Herefordshire, and well cover your expenses.

The Overnight Nurse Service is managed by an experienced Registered DN and we are committed to supporting our staff with training, personal development and supervision relevant to their role. We can support with your revalidation, uniform is provided, along with a generous leave allowance and mileage reimbursed at a favourable rate. An NHS Pension is also offered as part of the package.

About us

Taurus Healthcare was established in 2012, as the provider arm of the GP Federation serving 185,000 patients in Herefordshire. Founded and owned by the partners of the entire Herefordshire Primary Care community, Taurus is focused on providing excellent out of hospital services for patients. Our ethos is to provide high quality and cost-effective health outcomes that are delivered as close as possible to the patients home, whilst ensuring that patients who do require in hospital services are seen as quickly and effectively as possible.

Taurus Healthcare offer many employee benefits, such as:

• Access to a generous NHS pension scheme with 23.78% employer contribution.
• 33 to 38 days annual leave entitlement, including bank holidays, depending on service (pro rata for part-time staff).
• Access to an extensive Employee Benefits Programme (Vivup) offering: 24/7 access to counselling services, salary sacrifice scheme for cars and bikes, access to a wide range of discounts from national retailers, access to the Blue Light extensive discount scheme.

Due to current licence limitations, visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Applicants must already hold the right to work in the UK.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Job responsibilities

The post holder will be responsible for overnight community nursing care to patients within Herefordshire. They will be the sole nurse for home visits between 8pm and 8am based within Taurus GP hub. The shifts are split into two positions, Twilight nurse shifts which run from 8pm to midnight and the overnight shifts 10pm to 8am, nurses are able to flexibly pick up shifts between the two positions if desired. The role will include lone working and visiting patients in their own homes for specified urgent community nursing skills, including urinary catheterisation via female, male and suprapubic methods, end of life symptom management, lacerations and chemotherapy failure. The post holder will be expected to work flexibly across a 7 day rota to meet the needs of the overnight service.

Main Responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities:

• To work in a clinical nursing capacity within a community setting, primarily within a person’s home.
• To undertake necessary risk assessments/screening prior to implementing assessment and/or intervention.
• To advise, educate and give treatment, using evidence-based practice as a guideline, and using your ability to empathise, motivate, negotiate, persuade and communicate sensitively and reassuringly to those you are working with.
• To monitor progress, follow-up and evaluate nursing interventions and to effectively communicate all patient interventions with the District Nursing Team.
• To work alone, providing skilled nursing care overnight, ensuring effective handover to district nurses, GPs and other professionals involved in the patient’s day to day care.
• To treat all people (staff and patients) with dignity and respect, and ensure confidentiality guidelines and information governance principles are always adhered to.
• To plan and organise own workload and to be flexible to frequent readjustment following triage and reassessment, according to the needs of the service, and with support from the call handler.
• To cope with unpredictable work patterns and demands, dealing with urgent/complex patient issues as necessary.
• To adhere to the NMC Code.
• To travel to the individual people’s homes within the County, either accompanied by a driver or alone as required by service.
• To adhere to lone worker procedures.
• To ensure clinical incidents/near misses within the sphere of responsibility are managed in a timely manner and report actions taken to minimise risks.

Administrative Responsibilities:

• To ensure that the policy on records management is followed and complies with the NHS Code of Practice for Records Management.
• To ensure effective handover to district nurses, GPs and other professionals involved in the patient’s day to day care.

Research & Audit:

• To be able to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of your intervention and adjust clinical practice accordingly, in line with Clinical Governance guidelines.
• To participate in research and audit as required.

Training & Development:

• To undertake supervision and contribute to the induction, preceptorship and learning of/or act as sign off mentor for pre-registration Nursing Students and new team members.
• The post holder will ensure, in agreement with line manager that Continuous Professional Development remains a priority and that all mandatory training is up to date.
• Identify areas for development/training within the appraisal structure.
• Participate in in-service and external training opportunities provided by Taurus.
• Take on delegated responsibilities conducive to personal development.
• To develop IT knowledge and skills to enhance patient-centred care.
• To demonstrate specialist knowledge within sphere of practice and act as a resource.

A full Job Description & Person Specification is attached to this advert.

Person Specification

Experience:

• Community experience.

Skills:

• Palliative care.
• Catheter skills, female supra-pubic and male.
• Health and safety awareness.
• Wound care.

Other:

• Ability to fulfil the travel requirements of the post.

Personal Qualities or Attributes:

• Assertiveness and confidence.
• Ability to work autonomously.
• Ability to negotiate and influence in difficult situations.
• Flexibility to meet changing demands of the service.

Qualifications:

• RN1.
• Registered with NMC.
• 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.