Band 5 Registered Nurse In Patient Unit Palliative Care

Job responsibilities

Care and Quality

· To assess, plan, implement and evaluate individualised patient care in collaboration with the patient and their carers and the multi-disciplinary team.

· Ensure that patient privacy and dignity is maintained at all times, ensuring confidentiality and robust General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) practice at all times.

· To deliver all care in a caring and compassionate manner, treating patients and colleagues with dignity and respect.

· Carry our duties and responsibilities with regard to the Hospice Equality, Diversity and Respect Policy

· Recognise the importance of people’s rights and act in accordance with legislation, policies and procedures

· Act in ways that acknowledge, respect and recognise peoples expressed beliefs, preferences and choices: respecting diversity and valuing people as individuals.

· To administer medications as prescribed and monitor and report on their effect.

· To respond to all admissions effectively and within agreed standards.

· To prioritise own workload and managers own time to ensure priories are met in a timely fashion and quality is not compromised.

· Support all patients and their families, respecting their beliefs and personal circumstances.

· Understand and engage fully in the clinical governance practices and procedures at St Peters Hospice.

· To contribute to practice improvement and clinical audit, implementing any recommended changes. In so ensuring evidence based quality palliative care is being delivered to patients, carers and their families.

· Ensuring that you work in a way that complies with legislation and trust policies and procedures on health and safety and risk management. Be able to challenge others in practice if health and safety or other policies/procedure breeches occur or at risk of doing so.

· Contribute to maintain Health and Safety standards and Risk Assessment within the IPU.

· Work within SPH Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Policy to ensure you safeguard the interests of all patients.

· Support bereaved families after the patient’s death, informing them of the after death processes that need to occur.

· Work within own scope of practice, taking professional accountability for clinical competence.

· Use resources economically and efficiently.

· To report accidents, incidents and complaints as per policy, participating in investigations as required.

· Able to deal with emergencies and challenging situations by own actions, knows escalation procedures and familiar with information resource.

Communication

· To communicate with patients and families in a sensitive, supportive and caring manner, taking account of individual personal beliefs, culture and understanding.

· Identify barriers to communication, contextual factors that might affect communication and other cultural or personal preferences when communication and take these in to account.

· Maintain integrity when communication with others.

· Be a representative of the St Peters Hospice at all times.

· To communicate professionally and in a timely way with all internal and external allied health care professionals to ensure the patient and family receive coordinated care of a high quality.

· To ensure all documentation is completed accurately, legibly and in a timely manner in accordance with hospice policy, NMC standards and in line with Information Governance requirements

· To help patients/ relatives overcome barriers to understanding when English is not their first language or they have other language/communication barriers.

· Deliver shift handovers in a concise and efficient manner.

Teamwork

· To work as an open and honest member of the multidisciplinary team to ensure a co-ordinated and defined management plan/plan of care for each patient.

· To develop effective and supportive working relationships with other members of the Hospice multi- disciplinary team.

· Contribute to the morale of the team, acknowledging it can be a highly emotive work environment and to ensure your own resilience and those of others. Motivate and encourage others and feel confident to raise concerns of both yourself and others.

· To supervise Health Care Assistants and Volunteer staff working in the IPU, and allocate appropriate patients under their supervised care.

· To work with and support the IPU management team, including shift leadership as required.

· To attend and contribute to debriefing sessions, reflective case reviews and contribute to the ongoing development of the service as required

· To actively contribute to multi-disciplinary meetings and team meetings

· Make constructive suggestion’s to improving services in a professional manner, working with the senior management team to express theses and look at them in context.

· Provide both positive and negative feedback to colleagues and contribute positively to the culture of the IPU

Personal and professional development of self and others

· To actively participate in, and contribute to the individual performance review and development process. Ensuring that you have undergone an annual individual performance review.

· To keep up to date with all mandatory and statutory training, and apply learning to practice. Ensuring that you are compliant with the expectations and raising any issues with your line manager should there be a legitimate reason for non-compliance.

· To take responsibility for own individual professional development by keeping up to date with current advances in nursing practice and research, particularly in the field of palliative care.

· Take account of own behaviour and its effects on others.

· Assist in the orientation, and mentorship of new staff and student nurses. Be an excellent role model and representative of St Peters Hospice.

· Work towards NMC revalidation and support that of colleagues.

· Demonstrate a commitment to developing research/audit skills and contribute to the research/audit plans of others.

· Be flexible and adaptable to clinical and operational changes.

· Actively work on your own reliance in relation to working within palliative care and the positive and challenges that may bring to you as an individual.

Additional Responsibilities (for Personal Development Planning when fully competent in core role)

· To be willing to be trained and supported to carry out the Individual Performance Review of Health Care Assistants.

· To develop leadership skills to take shift responsibility for the IPU.

· Develop and lead an area of special interest and share expertise and practice development with MDT colleagues as a link role.

· Demonstrate competency in a broad range of clinical competencies as outlines in your job description and/or part of your Individual Performance review.

· To regularly take charge of a shift - dealing with staff allocation and task delegation and ensuring standards are met through effective use and co-ordination of resources..

· To participate in the training and mentoring, of student nurses and external placements

· To monitor practice and competence for Bank RNs and Health Care Assistants by regularly working with them as part of a shift.

Qualifications

Essential

• NMC RGN Registration
• Evidence of further study and continuous professional development
• Willingness to further develop palliative care knowledge

Desirable

• Module in palliative care
• Advanced communication skills training
• Mentoring or teaching qualification

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of one year post qualifying experience as a band 5
• Sound knowledge of current developments in palliative care
• Desire to work in palliative care
• Excellent interpersonal skills, verbal and written. To include report writing and record keeping.
• Sound knowledge of the guidelines set out in the NMC code of professional conduct and current nursing issues.
• Ability to organise own workload.
• Time management/basic problem solving skills

Desirable

• Recent acute hospital, community, palliative care or oncology experience
• Long term condition nursing experience
• Knowledge of the role of audit in relation to clinical governance.
• Knowledge of risk assessment

Skills

Essential

• Competent IT skills
• Good organisational skills
• Knowledge of Health and Safety
• Person centred approach to patient care
• Recognise when something is wrong/safety has been breached and having the courage to rectify the problem or escalate to a senior member of the team
• Keeping the environment safe clean and tidy.
• Taking responsibility for own actions/responding to errors and engaging in any investigative process.
• Emotional robustness to cope with the psychological demands of the role.
• Ability to communicate information to patient, families and carers

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Resilient, due to frequent exposure to difficult/complex situations such as dealing with dying patients and their families/carers.
• Ability to work an internal rotation shift pattern to cover a 24/7 service.
• Flexibility/punctuality.
• Works well in a team, being open and honest..
• Being positive, approachable and engaging with the common goals and strategy of the hospice.
• Sharing of good ideas and best practice to encourage and promote excellent standards of care, staff morale and a positive environment
• An understanding and empathy for the work of the Hospice
• High level of motivation
• Ability to stay calm at a time of crisis
• Appreciates diversity, non-judgemental in approach.
• Willing to work within the Hospice values, policies and procedures.
• Committed to Continued professional Development and sharing of good ideas of best practice.
• Driving licence and own transport or means of getting to your work place in time for your shift.

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).