Dementia Wellbeing Nurse

Job responsibilities

Responsibilities

Clinical:

• Main focus is to deliver education programmes to family carers of dementia patients on a daily basis and support wellbeing groups led by HCAs.
• To assist families affected by dementia in group settings, to develop skills and competencies in understanding and coping with challenges and difficulties they may face, in both individual and group situations.
• Group based work with dementia patients and their carers with diverse needs commonly including nonpharmacological symptom assessment and management of BPSD (behavioural, psychological symptoms of dementia) with MDT and palliative care approach.
• Understand and communicate complex information where emotional, social and spiritual needs are considerable with palliative care approach.
• Use advanced verbal, and non-verbal communication skills to work with patients including those in distress and those who have difficulties understanding or communicating.
• Contribute to risk assessments around patient and carer safety within the scope of your registration and governing body.
• To offer guidance to professional colleagues, the public and others in supporting family and relationship-centred approaches and best practice in dementia care.
• To meet the multiple and often complex needs of families affected by dementia through liaison with band 6 nurses for ongoing assessment of health and wellbeing with a palliative care approach.
• To offer a range of psychological and social interventions to promote quality of life and assist with the alleviation, prevention and management of stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental health needs of patients and carers.
• To maintain clinical records using EMIS and provide verbal and written feedback appropriately and as required, to carers, persons with dementia (as appropriate), referring agencies and professional colleagues.
• To liaise with GPs, case managers, primary health care practitioners, statutory and voluntary agencies regarding the best possible care for the family affected by dementia.
• To act as an advocate to facilitate access to services and influence care provision.
• To identify development options for addressing inequality and to contribute to strategies designed to improve access to services for people with dementia and carers who are socially excluded.
• To ensure that care is delivered in accordance with relevant local and national standards such as those recommended in NICE guidelines, national dementia and carer strategies/ plans and all relevant East Cheshire Hospice policies
• Ensure that all legal requirements relating to Mental Capacity Act (2005), Safeguarding and Mental Health Act (2007), and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (2015) are considered and adhered to.
• Recognise the limits of own competency and professional boundaries and make appropriate and timely referrals to other services where required.
• Undertake other duties as may be required and which are commensurate with the post and grade.

Education:

• To participate in and lead, patient and carer dementia programmes, formal training events such as courses, conferences, seminars and workshops at all levels, maintaining and contributing to higher level educational programmes in dementia care, and promoting best practice in dementia care.
• To maintain up to date knowledge base of resources, service provision, policy context, new approaches, interventions and treatments in dementia care and contribute to local policy and procedure development and review.
• Work in partnership with colleagues to provide support and information to families, particularly around advance care planning, communication skills, best interest decisions and end of life care.
• Provide in-house training for Hospice staff as part of ongoing training programmes.
• To ensure own compliance with professional bodies such as CSP, RCOT, mandatory training, revalidation requirements, continual professional development and competency development to ensure clinical effectiveness.

Evaluation and Audit:

• Support the audit and evaluation of practice and interventions, quality improvements and initiatives aimed at improving the delivery of palliative and end of life dementia care at East Cheshire Hospice.
• Be fully aware of and comply with the Data Protection Act (1998) and Caldicott principles in relation to protecting the confidentiality of patient and service-user information and enabling appropriate information-sharing.

Professional:

• To promote professional standards of behaviour and ensure personal accountability as articulated in regulating body for discipline.
• To maintain professional registration in line with regulating body for discipline.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of evidence-based palliative and end of life care recommendations on supporting people with dementia at the end of their lives and their carers/families.
• To work collaboratively with colleagues in all settings to maintain effective relationships and promote the work of East Cheshire Hospice.
• Be aware of current research related to dementia treatments/interventions and support people with dementia/carers/families to get involved in research where appropriate.
• Participate in local/ Hospice steering groups and develop and maintain positive working relationships within the local care communities.

Control of Infection:

• Prevention and management of infection is the responsibility of all members of staff and volunteers working at East Cheshire Hospice and forms an integral element of patient safety programmes. Where control of infection regimes are in force they are to be complied with at all times and staff are reminded of the importance of maintaining a high standard of personal and environmental hygiene and to follow local protocols.

Qualifications

Essential

• Diploma or degree in Mental Health Nursing
• Communication skills training (or commitment to achieve within one year)
• Registration on NMC

Desirable

• Teaching qualification
• Advanced communication skills training
• Post registration qualification / training in palliative care/or equivalent experience

Other requirements

Essential

• Commitment to professional development.
• Flexible approach to meet the needs of the service.
• Driving licence with business use to have ability to travel freely/ daily across the East Cheshire Hospice catchment area.

Experience

Essential

• Minimum 6mths dementia experience in a clinical setting
• Experience of educational programmes within a healthcare setting
• Experience of structured groups.
• Experience of working with family carers and carers needs
• Assessment and treatment using holistic approaches and/or standardised assessments as appropriate.
• Interpersonal communication skills for working with patients in collaboration with a wide range of MDT including hospice.
• Willingness to work as an autonomous practitioner with good organisational skills.
• Awareness of the principles and practice of quality assurance and service evaluation including audit.
• Strong computer literacy including Teams, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook and Excel.

Desirable

• Experience of using EMIS patient system
• Palliative care experience

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• Willingness to present dementia education to groups
• Strong communication and observational skills.
• Ability and desire to work independently and within a team.
• Commitment towards various quality and professional standards.

Desirable

• Understanding the needs of carers in dementia
• Awareness of palliative care in dementia

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).