Palliative Care Nurse

Palliative Care Nurse Job Overview

At Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust we provide a specialist palliative care and end‑of‑life care coordination hub. The service operates 24/7 providing care to patients in hospital and community.

Main Duties

• You must be a registered nurse with the appropriate qualifications and experience.
• The incumbent will coordinate a caseload of patients and staff on a shift, ensuring that all calls from palliative and end‑of‑life care patients are responded to in a timely manner.
• The post includes rotation between the Palliative Care Hub and the Urgent Response Team, offers development opportunities, and requires a solid clinical knowledge of end‑of‑life care, including symptom control and community services.
• Shift pattern involves 12‑hour rotations between day and night.

Person Specification

• 1st Level Registered General Nurse (adults)
• Qualification in palliative / end of life care or relevant experience
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Holds a teaching / assessing qualification
• Qualified Nurse Prescriber

• Experience of working within a community team or acute ward.
• Experience of caring for patients at the end of life / palliative care needs.
• Change management.
• Experience of forging excellent relationships across professional boundaries.
• Experience of working with professionals from health and other sectors including social care and the 3rd sector.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills with an ability to adopt a number of ways to influence diverse parties.
• Well motivated.
• Ability to exercise initiative.
• Able to prioritise own workload.
• Able to work effectively with a wide range of people.
• Ability to influence, negotiate, facilitate, motivate and support staff, clients and carers.
• Aware of own limitations.
• Demonstrate self‑belief, self‑awareness and ability to self‑manage.
• Be adaptable across all care settings 24/7.
• Ability to lead others and demand the respect of colleagues.
• Ability to deal with complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible.
• Ability to give constructive feedback.
• Ability to lead and implement successful change management.
• Alert management if skill mix is incorrect.
• Able to supervise and support other staff.
• Demonstrate good leadership and team building skills.

• Able to work in a wide range of environments.
• Able to deal with difficult situations e.g. aggression.
• Identifies own coping strategies.
• Able to access support with difficult situations.
• Able to have difficult conversations.
• Be able to deal with highly emotive situations with palliative care patients/families.
• Advanced communications course or equivalent.

The Trust is committed to equality and diversity within our workforce and encourages applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds.

Collaborative Engagement

There may be an expectation to work flexibly across the four partner trusts to better meet patient and service needs: Better protect elective / planned care service delivery across the system by organising on a 'hot and cold' arrangement. Consider the optimal use of resources through consolidation and specialisation. Seek to reduce unwarranted variance, level up / standardise care through a 'Networked Service Solution' approach across the four sites.

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) and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.