Practice Nurse

Job responsibilities

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:

a. Develop, implement and embed health promotion and well-being programmes

b. Manage patients presenting with a range of acute and chronic medical conditions, providing expert advice to patients

c. Implement and evaluate individual specialised treatment plans for chronic disease patients

d. Identify, manage and support patients as risk of developing long-term conditions, preventing adverse effects on the patients health

e. Provide advanced, specialist nursing care to patients as required in accordance with clinical based evidence, NICE and the NSF

f. Provide wound care (ulcer /Doppler etc.) to patients

g. Undertake the collection of pathological specimens

h. Provide travel medicine services

i. Request pathology and provide phlebotomy services as necessary

j. Process and interpret pathology and other test results as required

k. Provide chronic disease clinics, immunisation, contraception etc delivering patient care as necessary, referring patients to secondary / specialist care as required

l. Maintain accurate clinical records in conjunction with extant legislation

m. Ensure read codes are used effectively

n. Maintain chronic disease registers and embed an effective call/recall system

o. Chaperone patients where necessary

p. Prioritise health issues and intervene appropriately

q. Support the team in dealing with clinical emergencies

r. Support patients in the use of their prescribed medicines or over the counter medicines (within own scope of practice), reviewing annually as required

s. Contribute to practice targets (QOF etc.), complying with local and regional guidance

t. Liaise with external services / agencies to ensure the patient is supported appropriately (vulnerable patients etc.)

u. Support the clinical team with all safeguarding matters, in accordance with local and national policies

v. Understand practice and local policies for substance abuse and addictive behavior, referring patients appropriately

w. Deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate

Secondary Responsibilities

In addition to the primary responsibilities, the Practice Nurse may be requested to:

a. Act as the IPC lead for the practice, ensuring compliance, undertaking audit as necessary

b. Effectively utilising the audit cycle

c. Monitor and ensure the safe storage, rotation and disposal of medicaments

d. Participate in local initiatives to enhance service delivery and patient care

e. Support and participate in shared learning within the practice

f. Continually review clinical practices, responding to national policies and initiatives where appropriate

g. Participate in the review of significant and near-miss events applying a structured approach i.e. root cause analysis (RCA)

h. Drives the development of nursing services within the practice, liaising external agencies and professional organisations as required

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse

Desirable

• Qualified Nurse Prescriber

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working as a practice nurse or community nurse
• Experience of chronic disease management: Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, CHD
• Clinical Knowledge & Skills:
• Wound Care / Removal of sutures & staples
• ECGs
• Venepuncture
• New patient medicals
• Requesting pathology tests and processing the results, advising patients accordingly
• Travel medicine
• Spirometry
• 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 and Personal Qualities

Essential

• Skills
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral)
• Strong IT skills
• Clear, polite telephone manner
• Competent in the use of Office and Outlook
• EMIS
• 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
• 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
• Flexibility to work outside of core office hours
• Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check

Desirable

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

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).