Practice Nurse

Job description

Job responsibilities

Practice Nurse - job description & person specification

• Job Title Practice Nurse
• Line Manager Practice Manager
• Accountable to Dr S Javed Clinical Director / Nursing Lead
• Hours per week Up to 30hrs per week (flexible)

Job Summary

To be responsible for the delivery of practice nursing services, working as part of the practice nursing team, delivering care within their scope of practice to the patient population of Bury. The practice nurse will be responsible for a number of clinical areas such as health promotion, chronic disease management, health prevention, care plans, clinical audits etc., as well as supporting the management team in the reviewing of clinical policies and procedures.

Generic Responsibilities

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. Patients and their families have the right to be treated fairly and be routinely involved in decisions about their treatment and care. They can expect to be treated with dignity and respect and will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Patients have a responsibility to treat other patients and our staff with dignity and respect.

Staff have the right to be treated fairly in recruitment and career progression. Staff can expect to work in an environment where diversity is valued and equality of opportunity is promoted. Staff will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Staff have a responsibility to ensure that you treat our patients and their colleagues with dignity and respect.

Safety, Health, Environment and Fire (SHEF). This practice is committed to supporting and promoting opportunities to for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety. You have a duty to take reasonable care of health and safety at work for you, your team and others, and to cooperate with employers to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements.

Confidentiality.This practice is committed to maintaining an outstanding confidential service. Patients entrust and permit us to collect and retain sensitive information relating to their health and other matters, pertaining to their care. They do so in confidence and have a right to expect all staff will respect their privacy and maintain confidentiality at all times. It is essential that if, the legal requirements are to be met and the trust of our patients is to be retained that all staff protect patient information and provide a confidential service.

Quality & Continuous Improvement (CI). To preserve and improve the quality of our output, all personnel are required to think not only of what they do, but how they achieve it. By continually re-examining our processes, we will be able to develop and improve the overall effectiveness of the way we work. The responsibility for this rests with everyone working within the practice to look for opportunities to improve quality and share good practice.

This practice continually strives to improve work processes which deliver health care with improved results across all areas of our service provision. We promote a culture of continuous improvement, where everyone counts and staff are permitted to make suggestions and contributions to improve our service delivery and enhance patient care.

Learning and Development. The effective use of training and development is fundamental in ensuring that all staff are equipped with the appropriate skills, knowledge, attitude and competences to perform their role. All staff will be required to partake and complete mandatory training as directed by the training coordinator, as well as participating in the practice training programme. Staff will also be permitted (subject to approval) to undertake external training courses which will enhance their knowledge and skills, progress their career and ultimately, enable them to improve processes and service delivery.

Collaborative Working. All staff are to recognise the significance of collaborative working. Teamwork is essential in multidisciplinary environments. Effective communication is essential and all staff must ensure they communicate in a manner which enables the sharing of information in an appropriate manner. We are also part of a Primary Care Network and will commit to working with our neighbourhood colleagues to improve care to the patients of Bury.

Primary Responsibilities

The following are the core responsibilities of the practice nurse. There may be on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels:

1. Develop, implement and embed health promotion and well-being programmes
2. Implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for chronic disease patients
3. Identify, manage and support patients as risk of developing long-term conditions, preventing adverse effects on the patients health
4. Provide routine nursing care to patients as required in accordance with clinical based evidence, NICE and the NSF
5. Provide travel medicine services
6. Request pathology services as necessary
7. Process pathology results as required
8. Provide chronic disease clinics, delivering patient care as necessary, referring patients to secondary / specialist care as required
9. Maintain accurate clinical records in conjunction with extant legislation
10. Ensure read codes are used effectively
11. Maintain chronic disease registers
12. Chaperone patients where necessary
13. Prioritise health issues and intervene appropriately
14. Support the team in dealing with clinical emergencies
15. Assist with Minor Surgery Clinics
16. Recognise, assess and refer patients presenting with mental health needs including completing physical health checks to ensure their overall wellbeing
17. Implement vaccination programmes for adults and children
18. Support patients in the use of their prescribed medicines or over the counter medicines (within own scope of practice)
19. Liaise with external services / agencies to ensure the patient is supported appropriately (vulnerable patients etc.)
20. Delegate clinical responsibilities appropriately (ensuring safe practice and the task is within the scope of practice of the individual)
21. Support the clinical team with all safeguarding matters, in accordance with local and national policies
22. Deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate

Secondary Responsibilities

In addition to the primary responsibilities, the practice nurse may be requested to:

1. Act as the audit lead, effectively utilising the audit cycle
2. Monitor and ensure the safe storage, rotation and disposal of medicaments
3. Support junior members of the nursing team, providing guidance when necessary
4. Participate in local initiatives to enhance service delivery and patient care
5. Support and participate in shared learning within the practice
6. Continually review clinical practices, responding to national policies and initiatives where appropriate
7. Participate in the review of significant and near-miss events applying a structured approach i.e. root cause analysis (RCA)
8. Engage with the Primary Care Network

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a primary care environment
• Experience of working as a practice nurse or community nurse
• Experience of chronic disease management

Clinical Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• ECGs
• Venepuncture
• New patient medicals
• Chaperone procedure
• Requesting pathology tests and processing the results, advising patients accordingly
• Travel medicine
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Asthma
• Spirometry
• CHD
• Immunisations (routine, childhood and travel)
• Womens health (Cervical cytology, contraception, etc.)
• Understands the importance of evidence based practice
• Broad knowledge of clinical governance
• Ability to record accurate clinical notes
• Ability to work within own scope of practice and understanding when to refer to GPs
• Knowledge of health promotion strategies
• Understands the requirement for PGDs and associated policy

Desirable

• Knowledge of public health issues in the local area
• Awareness of issues within the wider health arena

Skills

Essential

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral)
• Strong IT skills
• Clear, polite telephone manner
• Competent in the use of Office and Outlook
• EMIS / Systmone / Vision user skills
• Effective time management (Planning & Organising)
• Ability to work as a team member and autonomously
• Good interpersonal skills
• Problem solving & analytical skills
• Ability to follow clinical policy and procedure

Desirable

• Experience with audit and able to lead audit programmes
• Experience with clinical risk management

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Polite and confident
• Flexible and cooperative
• Motivated, forward thinker
• Problem solver with the ability to process information accurately and effectively, interpreting data as required
• High levels of integrity and loyalty
• Sensitive and empathetic in distressing situations
• Ability to work under pressure / in stressful situations
• Effectively able to communicate and understand the needs of the patient
• Commitment to ongoing professional development
• Effectively utilises resources
• Punctual and committed to supporting the team effort

Other requirements

Essential

• Flexibility to work outside of core office hours
• Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check
• Occupational Health Clearance
• NMC registration

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse Practice Nursing Experience, Knowledge of QOF

Desirable

• Post graduate diploma or degree (Primary 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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Woodbank Surgery

Address

Woodbank Surgery

2 Hunstanton Drive

Brandlesholme, Bury

Lancashire

BL8 1EG

Employer's website

https://www.woodbanksurgery.nhs.uk/index.aspx (Opens in a new tab)