Important Job Application Information

Thank you for your interest in NHS Tayside vacancies

Please see below Job Description/Person Specification and General Conditions of Service

Your Application Form must be completed in full. Please note copies of Curriculum Vitae, Qualifications and Course Certificates will not be accepted at this stage.

Please return your completed Application Form to (quoting the vacancy reference number in the subject box) or to the postal address given on the General Conditions of Service.

All completed applications are held in Human Resources until the closing date. After the closing date a panel will meet to prepare an interview shortlist. Once this decision has been made, all shortlisted applicants will be emailed to invite them to attend for interview. It is important that you check your emails regularly.

This process takes approximately 6 weeks. Therefore, if you have not been contacted regarding interview within 6 weeks of the closing date, your application has been unsuccessful and you will receive no further correspondence from Human Resources.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:-

Find out more about living and working in Tayside at:

www.dundeecity.gov.uk

www.angus.gov.uk

www.pkc.gov.uk


NHS TAYSIDE – AGENDA FOR CHANGE

JOB DESCRIPTION

1  JOB IDENTIFICATION / Job Title / Associate Community Clinical Nurse Specialist
Department(s) /
Location Base / Perth & Kinross CHP
Specialist Palliative Care Services
Cornhill Macmillan Centre
Perth Royal Infirmary
Perth PH1 1NX
Number of job holders / 1
Responsible to / Head of Nursing
Specialist Palliative Care
Reports to / Specialist Palliative Care Team Leader

2  JOB PURPOSE

·  The Associate Community Clinical Nurse Specialist (ACCNS) role is to provide expert patient care in cancer and specialist palliative care in the community, by exercising high levels of judgment and decision-making in clinical care.
·  The primary concern of the ACCNS is to bring the highest standards of clinical care to patients and families through a variety of means. These include advanced clinical practice, providing a consultative service for healthcare professionals, educating, empowering and supporting professional colleagues, providing clinical leadership and contributing to research functions and working collaboratively across healthcare boundaries.
·  The ACCNS concentrates direct clinical care on patients and families with highly complex needs and has continuing responsibility for a clinical caseload, where there is a diagnosis of cancer or other life limiting disease, including assessment of care needs, development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care. They also provide specialist advice to healthcare professionals, other agencies, carers, and relatives.
·  The role encompasses bereavement support for carers and direct specialist advice to other health care professionals and agencies on bereavement issues.
·  This post will provide a development opportunity for an experienced nurse to gain knowledge and skills related to specialist palliative care nursing in the community and acute care settings with support and mentorship from an experienced Community Macmillan CNS.

3  ORGANISATIONAL POSITION

Lead Nurse
I
Head of Nursing
I
Community Macmillan and Hospital Palliative Care
Team Leader / Clinical Nurse Specialist
I
Community Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialists
I
Associate Community Clinical Nurse Specialist
(ACCNS)

4  SCOPE AND RANGE

·  The Community Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist service is nurse-led. It is part of Specialist Palliative Care Services based at Cornhill Macmillan Centre, Perth Royal Infirmary. These services provide specialist palliative care nursing intervention in the community and acute care settings for the population of the Perth & Kinross Community Health Partnership.
·  The ACCNS has responsibility for managing an individual caseload.
·  The ACCNS exercises a high level of self management and autonomy in the practice and provision of specialist palliative care nursing support to patients, families and assigned primary health care teams.
·  The ACCNS works in partnership with all agencies involved in the care of patients with specialist palliative care needs, to maintain a high standard of palliative care and quality of life for clients.
·  The ACCNS will have opportunity to participate in the delivery of educational programmes to medical and nursing staff, other professionals, patients and carers.
·  The ACCNS will have opportunity to participate in clinical research, audit and quality assurance.
·  The ACCNS will have an opportunity to participate in planning, development and evaluation of nursing services within Specialist Palliative Care Services.
·  The ACCNS has the potential to manage a wider skill mix of staff within the team as the service develops.
·  The ACCNS advises General Practitioners and District Nurses on medication prescribing within Tayside Palliative Care Guidelines
Population and Area
·  The service provides specialist palliative care for the population of Perth & Kinross
·  The CMCNS team is aligned to the Primary Health Care Teams within Perth & Kinross
·  The ACCNS will liaise and collaborate with Perth & Kinross Community Nursing Service, acute services, nursing homes and Cornhill Macmillan Centre
·  The ACCNS will liaise with diverse agencies and client groups as appropriate

5  MAIN DUTIES / RESPONSIBILITIES

Clinical

The ACCNS:
·  Takes responsibility for the management of an individual caseload or client group within cancer and specialist palliative care, ensuring that care needs are assessed and programmes of care are developed, implemented and evaluated in partnership with patients/carers/clients/relatives for patients whose needs may be predictable or unpredictable, eg sudden deterioration or emergency, to ensure delivery of a high standard of care.
·  Applies a high level of understanding of the effect of life-threatening illness and ensures the best quality of patient-centred care.
·  The ACCNS facilitates and promotes high quality care for patients and families with specialist and complex palliative care needs and provides expert clinical advice, information and support in relation to all aspects of palliative care to primary care teams and a wide range of other service providers, eg acute, voluntary, statutory and independent.
·  Acts on direct referrals from other healthcare professionals for patients and carers with complex needs.
·  Provides direct and indirect specialist nursing intervention in outpatient, primary care or community settings and telephone advice to patients, carers and other professionals.
·  Assists patients towards self-care and rehabilitation or tertiary health promotion through provision of therapeutic, educative, advocacy and supportive interventions.
·  Provides bereavement support including risk assessment and counselling skills to families and carers.
·  Promotes best practice and encourages innovation.
·  Manages change for the benefit of patient care and participates in the development of nursing staff and policymaking.
·  Promotes holistic and seamless care by liaising with primary, secondary and tertiary care providers.
·  Advises on medication and management of syringe drivers, eg T34 McKinley, for symptom management, to General Practitioners, nursing colleagues and nursing homes in primary and secondary care settings within Tayside Palliative Care Guidelines.
·  Participates in research and maintains a high level of awareness of evidence-based practice to influence and improve patient care.
·  Provides a supportive role in assisting multidisciplinary teams in dealing with and following stressful case scenarios (Significant Event Analysis).
·  Provides family and carer assessment, case conferencing, on-going support and bereavement care.
·  Inputs to Single Shared Assessment in assessing patient need.
·  Contributes to the Health Improvement Agenda.

·  Participates in regular clinical supervision.

Documentation

The ACCNS:
·  Ensures that up-to-date written and electronic records are maintained in accordance with Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), NHS Tayside and local standards.
·  Ensures that documentation reflects an accurate record of patient information whilst maintaining confidentiality.
·  Complies with relevant national legislation, eg Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act and Vulnerable Adults Legislation.

Professional Ethics

The ACNS:
·  Complies with the NMC Professional Codes, local and national policies, protocols and procedures.
·  Upholds the individuality, values, cultural and religious diversity of patients and contributes to the provision of a service sensitive to these needs.
·  Is accountable for their own professional actions.

Leadership and Managerial

The ACCNS:

·  Ensures effective systems are in place to co-ordinate, assess and prioritise workload to ensure that the interests of patients are met.
·  Ensures effective use of physical, human and financial resources for the service.
·  Reviews and reflects on own practice and performance through effective use of clinical supervision and operational appraisal.
·  Takes a role in the identification of training needs in addressing scope of practice issues and competencies around palliative care, eg health and social care staff.
·  Participates in the implementation of change in practice and initiates discussion and debate to influence and action quality improvement in practice.
·  Contributes to effective teamwork and fosters healthy working relationships through provision of consistent and visible support.
·  Participates in multidisciplinary team meetings and senior nurse meetings within Specialist Services.
·  Implements local risk management and health and safety strategies and acts on any identified risks in accordance with local policy.

·  Assists the Head of Nursing to investigate complaints, learning from experience of users to improve their episode of healthcare.

·  Contributes to the interpretation of Health and Social Policy (eg SIGN Guidelines, Palliative Care Gold Standards Framework, Partnership of Care, Joint Future, Agenda for Change) and participates in local cancer developments.

Education and Training

The ACCNS:

·  Participates in the delivery and evaluation of Specialist Palliative Care Education programmes for health and social care professionals and other agencies.
·  Participates in the delivery of study days and workshops to meet a wide range of educational needs, eg Palliative Care Workshops.
·  Participates in the induction, orientation and mentorship of new staff.

·  Contributes to learning programmes in the clinical area for pre- and post-graduate nursing and medical colleagues.

Service Development and Delivery

The ACCNS participates in professional nursing and multidisciplinary developments within Specialist Palliative Care, Perth & Kinross CHP and NHS Tayside, eg Integrated Care Pathways, Syringe Driver Policy and guideline and service audits.

Clinical Governance, Quality and Standards

The ACCNS:

·  Works within established frameworks and mechanisms to monitor standards and quality of clinical practice and facilitate quality improvement.
·  Works in partnership with the Clinical Governance department to provide appropriate information to evaluate the service and identify areas for development.
·  Encourages and participates in audit and research to support and improve care.
·  Collates and records information as required by information services, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and other statutory bodies.
·  Facilitates and promotes the use of best practice and evidenced-based nursing care.
·  Contributes to the development of NHS Tayside policies and comments on local and national policies, protocols and guidelines.
·  Complies with all relevant NHS Tayside and local policies and procedures.
·  Promotes patient and public involvement in the specialist area, leading to improvement in service.

Research and Practice Development

The ACCNS:

·  Participates in research and or audit projects relevant to the clinical area, disseminating findings at local and national level.
·  Utilises and develops research skills through participation in local research and audit projects.
·  Identifies areas for further research and development within the clinical area.
·  Disseminates and implements relevant research findings to improve patient care and treatment, reducing the theory practice gap.
·  Contributes to development, implementation and evaluation of evidenced based policies, procedures and guidelines within the service.

6  COMMUNICATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

The ACCNS:
·  Has responsibility for establishing and maintaining open communication networks with patients, carers, multidisciplinary teams, other health care workers and external agencies through a variety of means including face-to-face and telephone contact, written correspondence and email.
·  Makes contacts, which may be internal to the NHS and also with a variety of external agencies including local authority, other statutory and voluntary agencies.
·  Uses, on a daily basis, counselling skills to explore complex, highly sensitive issues identified in the patient’s disease pathway, which also impact on family, carers and healthcare professionals, and maintains therapeutic relationships with patients and carers to support them in potentially stressful and difficult transitions.
·  Participates in multidisciplinary meetings within GP practices to negotiate, motivate, educate and persuade healthcare professionals to provide the highest quality palliative care.
·  Develop and maintain relationships with allocated primary and secondary healthcare teams to ensure a coordinated approach to patient care.
·  On a daily basis, communicates sensitive and complex information to patients and carers requiring highly developed interpersonal and communication skills, eg discussion about death and dying, bereavement counselling.
·  Regularly conveys information of a sensitive and emotive nature when it is contradictory to patient and carers expectations and desires, eg breaking bad news, facilitates family communication.
·  Develops effective communication strategies for patients who have barriers to communication including, eg denial or collusion, as well as the need to use language interpreters.
·  Ensures that effective flow of communication is maintained within the organisational structure.
·  Participates in Single Shared Assessment and the Joint Futures Agenda.

7  KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED TO DO THE JOB

·  1st level nurse with current NMC registration.
·  Five years post-registration clinical experience.
·  Education to degree level within relevant field of practice and evidence of ongoing professional and personal development.
·  Experience of management of patients with cancer or specialist palliative care needs.
·  Understanding of legislation and national guidelines relating to community care, cancer and palliative care.
·  Proven management and leadership skills.
·  Highly developed communication skills.
·  Skills and experience to enable the practitioner to function autonomously and in isolation, as well as part of a team.
·  Computer literacy.
·  The postholder must be innovative, self-motivated and have the necessary interpersonal skills to motivate others and manage change.

ESSENTIAL ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

8  SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT
All records created in the course of the business of NHS Tayside are corporate records and are public records under the terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937. This includes email messages and other electronic records. It is your responsibility to ensure that you keep appropriate records of your work in NHS Tayside and manage these records in keeping with the NHS Tayside Records Management Policy and with any guidance produced by NHS Tayside specific to your employment.
·  Microsoft Office, Tayside Health Board IT systems including intranet and internet.
·  Responsible for safe use of patient-related equipment, eg syringe drivers, oxygen therapy, nebulisers, TENS machines and manual handling devices.
·  Completion of monthly statistical forms regarding caseload analysis, education and administration data for local and national information.
·  Daily use of mobile phones.

9  PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF THE JOB