Senior Children's Palliative Care Nurse

Job description

Job responsibilities

Accountable to: Locality Matron

Responsible for; Mentoring, line management of junior colleagues and students Safe delivery of holistic, person centred specialist palliative care

Hours of work: 12.5 or 7.5 hour shifts

Location/primary base Keech Hospice or designated community base Hospice/Community work is inclusive for all roles within the childrens service

Job Purpose: To provide holistic nursing care and support to children and young people with life limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families. To ensure that each child and family undergoes ongoing multi-professional assessment, their needs are identified, and a plan of care is implemented and evaluated in collaboration with other agencies and services involved in their care To utilise skills, knowledge and expertise in a variety of situations and range of settings to ensure the provision of specialist palliative care To work using own initiative, provide effective leadership and contribute to the skill base and development of the wider team. Act as named nurse/key worker for to ensure delivery of comprehensive, seamless end of life care. To be actively involved in the education, training, development and appraisal of other team members Participate in the on-call service 7 days a week in conjunction with other healthcare professionals to deliver end of life care

Key relationships Patients and families Keech services External multi-professional teams

Specific Duties: To assess, plan, implement, deliver and evaluate holistic family centred care taking into account the child and familys physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs. This may take place in a range of settings Completion of clinical care plans to support efficient delivery of care and contribute to the development of individualised Symptom Management Plans. To use clinical judgement and autonomous decision making about nursing care requirements to address the needs of children and young people, which are complex and have potential to change To be involved in and support all staff in providing high quality palliative and end of life care, and bereavement support, ensuring safe delivery where care is delegated To manage and prioritise own workload, constantly reassessing to accommodate demands for crisis intervention and ensure ongoing continuity of the service To work within designated locality team and the wider childrens service to establish and maintain effective communication processes with children, young people and their families, colleagues and the broader multi disciplinary team, internally and externally. Ensure timely and appropriate referral to relevant services to enhance the care of the child and family To be actively involved in the sharing of knowledge with families and all those who care for the child in a range of settings. To encourage parental participation in care and to demonstrate, instruct and supervise parents/carers in nursing procedures, which may be safely delegated to them. Enabling families to reach their maximum potential for health and well being To be able to act as an advocate, promoting empowerment as opposed to dependence, for children and families as appropriate, facilitating informed choice and opportunity. This includes initiating and actively supporting the child/young person/family with Advance Care Planning and decisions regarding care To be able to respond to the demands of the family in a flexible way; workload is delegated within the team to maintain a healthy work/life balance in accordance with the working time directive. Take a lead role in planning discharges from hospice or hospital to the community or hospice settings so that plans are comprehensive and effective, ensuring that parallel planning takes place if a child is deemed to be nearing end of life Ensure all statutory processes following a childs death are completed efficiently and participate in the Child Death Review process Provide professional and managerial leadership and maintain an awareness of the needs of colleagues, ensuring they are supported to deliver the requirements of their roles. Participate in staff support sessions Undertake annual appraisals of childrens service staff, identifying training needs and establishing and monitoring objectives. Work with individual staff members to encourage personal and professional growth and development. Take reasonable care of the health and safety of yourself and other persons who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work and cooperate with the Hospice to ensure that statutory and departmental regulations are adhered to. Ensure comprehensive, accurate and up to date written and electronic record keeping is maintained in line with legislation and organisational standards. Participate in external teaching, training and delivery of education where appropriate. Ensure adequate and appropriate resourcing of the service including; safe staffing levels to meet the flexible needs of service delivery effectiveness of equipment in use building and maintenance - faults must reported in a timely way To participate in an On Call Rota system, which ensures; the team are responsive to families at all times, when a child is on the Red caseload. specialist telephone advice and support is available to any family or professional involved in the care of a child with a life limiting condition advice and support for staff on the childrens in patient unit In exceptional circumstances the on call nurse may be required to go into the hospice to support a childs care or in the event of staff sickness where no other staffing can be sourced Participate in recruitment and development of Childrens services staff. Participate in regular psychosocial and multi-professional meetings with acute services. Duties in common with other members of staff: To report and record accidents and incidents. To be an ambassador for the charity. To uphold the values of the charity. To maintain the best appearance of your immediate working area. To demonstrate a positive and supportive attitude to staff and volunteers. Respect confidentiality applying to all Hospice areas. To promote the safeguarding and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults Abide by your Professional Code of Conduct To adhere to the Infection prevention and Control, Management of Medicines and Record Keeping Policies and Procedures set by the charity and the Care Quality Commission. To adhere to the guidelines within the Childrens Service Standard Operating Procedure To behave at all times with complete integrity, respecting professional dignity and ensuring that actions enhance the reputation of themselves and the charity. To be effective and innovative in ensuring staff and volunteer welfare is paramount. To ensure cost-effective use of all resources and seek ways to reduce costs while maintaining quality of service and operation. To undertake projects as agreed with the operational and senior management team. To undertake any other reasonable duty that may be required from time to time. Training and Education To develop training of staff and volunteers. Create and promote a learning environment by maximising teaching and learning opportunities for all nursing and care staff caring for patients with a life limiting illness. Participate in own Individual Performance Review on an annual basis and be willing to receive further training as identified through this process. To be responsible for liaison with your line manager regarding your own development needs and maintain professional registration if applicable. Participate in education programmes within and outside the Hospice as required. To deliver wider training initiatives and promotional activity in the best interests of the charity.

Health and Safety To adhere to Fire and Health and Safety regulations and maintain a safe working environment at all times.

Policies and Procedures To take responsibility for being up to date with current policies and procedures and to adhere to these.

Equal Opportunities To treat everyone with whom you have contact through your work with equal dignity and respect regardless of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, creed, religion, disability, age, or any other factor that could be used in a discriminatory manner. The above job description is not an exhaustive list of all the duties of the post holder. It will be reviewed in conjunction with the post holder.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• RSCN
• RN Child Branch

Desirable

• Learning disabilities qualification
• Community qualification

Experience

Essential

• Symptom control in palliative care
• Current trends in nursing/paediatrics
• Child Protection Procedures
• Evidence of recent professional up-dating
• Use of reflective practice
• An understanding of the concept of clinical governance
• Minimum of 2 years post
• registration childrens nursing experience
• Caring for sick children with
• special and complex needs
• Care of the dying child and their family

Desirable

• Trends in palliative care for children
• Involvement in the development of guidelines and protocols

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Excellent clinical nursing skills in complex medical care
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to organise and manage workload priorities
• Skills in effective use of clinical
• supervision
• Good IT skills
• Teaching and presentation skills
• Ability to work in collaboration with other professionals/teams
• Belief in holistic and family centred 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.

Employer details

Employer name

Keech Hospice Care

Address

Keech Hospice Care

Great Bramingham Lane

Streatley

LU3 3NT

Employer's website

https://www.keech.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)