Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Job responsibilities

The Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) will act autonomously within their professional scope of practice providing care for patients face to face, telephone consultations and home visits.

The postholder will operate within their own sphere of competence and agreed acceptable limits of practice to provide expert professional clinical advice to patients, carers and colleagues, ensuring clinical safety and excellence.

The Advanced Nurse Practitioner will need to prioritise and triage the needs of patients accordingly, making any necessary referrals for investigations in the appropriate manner.

The postholder will use skills, knowledge and competencies as a qualified Advanced Nurse Practitioner in order to be responsible and accountable for managing patient caseloads for treatments, referral, admission and discharging patients as appropriate.

Job responsibilities:

Clinical Nursing Practice

• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver safe and high quality care.
• Carries out clinical nursing practice at an advanced level using expert clinical skills, critical judgements & knowledge to deliver appropriate and safe care.
• Delivery of care in line with NSF, NICE guidelines and evidence-based care

• Triage and treat patients, performing specialist assessment of their needs and make referrals as necessary to other members of the primary and secondary health care teams as appropriate.
• Co-ordinate the planning and delivery of care ensuring patients and carers/relatives are involved.

• Prescribing and reviewing medication that is appropriate to patient needs and in accordance with latest evidence-based practice, national and practice protocols and within the scope of qualified practice.
• Diagnose and manage acute and chronic conditions, including drug and non-drug based treatment methods into a management plan.
• Request diagnostic investigations and interpret within agreed protocols e.g. x-ray, blood tests, scans, etc.

• Assess, diagnose and treat patients in practice premises or their own home who require medical attention and/or refer to appropriate agency.
• Refers patients to other members of the multi-disciplinary practice teams, secondary care organisations and other organisations as necessary.

Care Management

• Communicates confidential and sensitive information to patients, relatives and carers in relation to their condition.
• Provide highly specialised care advice beyond the scope of normal Nursing practice e.g. care treatment plans, making referrals as appropriate (including fast track referrals).
• Contribute to local and national practice targets clinical remit e.g. QOF, prescribing incentive scheme, National benchmarking.
• To monitor and meet care outcomes against standards and recommend or initiate changes as necessary.

Health Improvement

• Management of health screening programmes and ensures other team members are aware of health priorities and screening objectives and programmes.
• Innovation in practice to meet ongoing demands on the practices delivery of care.
• Improve health outcomes for patients by introducing new developments, and can demonstrate them as reports and presentations where appropriate.
• Supports practitioners in reporting the practice population to promote health improvement and disease prevention.
• Makes referrals to appropriate agencies (statutory and voluntary) where necessary
• Providing assessment, screening services, health education advice:

These may include (but not restricted to);

• Blood pressure checks
• Urinalysis
• Ear syringing
• Dressings
• Contraception/ fitting contraceptive devices
• Routine immunisations and vaccinations
• Removal of sutures / clips
• First registration checks / health surveillance / general health advice
• Assisting with minor procedures in the treatment room

Organise and plan the provision of nursing services for the practice to include the delegation of duties to other members of the practice nurse team as appropriate

Administration and professional responsibilities

• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures
• Participate in the administrative and professional responsibilities of the practice team
• Accurate and legible notes of all consultations and treatments are recorded in the patients notes
• Ensure clinical systems kept up to date, recording and/or amending accurate details
• Ensure appropriate items of service claims are made accurately, reporting any problems to the practice administrator
• Ensure accurate completion of all necessary documentation associated with patient health care and registration with the practice
• Attend and participate in practice meetings as required
• Restocking and maintenance of clinical areas and consulting rooms

Training and personal development

• Training needs will be monitored by yearly appraisal and will be in accordance with practice requirements. Personal development will be encouraged and supported by the practice.
• Assess effectiveness of care delivery through self-reflection and peer review, as well as benchmarking and formal evaluation.
• Contribute to the identification and assessment of learning needs of staff and other professionals and assist in planning effective programmes of education.

• Participate in the education and training of students of all disciplines and the introduction of all members of the practice staff where appropriate.
• Develop and maintain an in house nurse-training programme reporting to the practice manager.
• Act as a mentor for junior staff, assessing competence against set standards.
• Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work and ensure own educational commitment is at least sufficient to maintain revalidation requirements.
• Develop and maintain a Personal Learning Plan.
• Regularly participate in clinical supervision.

• Maintain up to date skills and knowledge, maintaining awareness of professional issues at an advanced level.

• Leadership personal and people development

• Act as a clinical leader in the delivery of practice nursing services ensuring that the needs of the patient are a priority

• Support staff development in order to maximise potential

• Actively promote the workplace as a learning environment, encouraging everyone to learn from each other and from external good practice

• Critically evaluate and review innovations and developments that are relevant to the area of work

• Work with practice management to ensure sufficient staffing to provide a safe service, and that staff have the appropriate ability, quality and skill-mix to meet current and future service delivery

• Take part in recruitment processes where appropriate.

• Maintain effective communication and active involvement in the planning and processes of practice-based commissioning or similar initiatives

• Promote the role of the advanced nurse practitioner in general practice.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered General Nurse (Currently registered with the Nursing & Midwifery Council)
• Recognised ANP qualification at minimum of degree level or equivalent
• Independent Nurse Prescriber

Desirable

• Teaching / Mentoring experience and /or qualification

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of appropriate continuing professional development activity to maintain up-to-date knowledge and ongoing competence in all aspects of the ANP role
• Experience in management long term conditions e.g. asthma,
• COPD, diabetes, CHD
• Evidence of working autonomously and as part of a team
• Proven ability to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their own clinical practice
• Experience of minor illness, clinical management and patient referrals

Desirable

• Minimum of several years post registration experience
• Minimum of several years experience working in General Practice

Skills

Essential

• Ability to assess and manage patient risk effectively and safely
• Well developed word processing/data collection/IT skills
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
• Reflective practitioner
• Time management and ability to prioritise workload
• Able to analyse data and information, drawing out implications for the individual patient/impact on care plan
• Able to establish and maintain effective communication pathways within the organisation, the local CCG and with key external stakeholders

Desirable

• Experience of use of SystmOne clinical system
• Proven record of effective use of networking and influencing skills
• Ability to think strategically
• Experience of presenting information to wider audience

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of systems to gain an understanding of the health needs of the Practice population as they relate to primary care
• Understanding of evidence based practice
• Knowledge of national standards that inform practice (eg National Service Frameworks, NICE guidelines etc
• Understanding and accountability arising from the NMC Code of Professional Conduct (2004) and medico-legal aspects of the Nurse
• Practitioner role
• Understanding of equal opportunity and diversity issues

Desirable

• Interpreting and implementing local and National policy agendas for health
• Understanding and knowledge of policy developments related to
• the delivery of primary care services including General Practice, the GMS/PMS contract, Clinical Governance, Quality & Outcomes Framework

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).