Job summary
The post holder will principally work on Critical Care but will also be expected to look after critically ill patients throughout the Trust. As part of the consultant led team they will assess, plan and implement care of critically ill patients from admission to discharge. They will actively contribute to all aspects of the assessment, resuscitation, diagnosis, and treatment. The post holder will follow up patients after their discharge to general wards, providing teaching and support for ward staff. They will provide safe transfers of critically ill patients to other hospitals and for in-hospital investigation (for example CT scan). They will hold highly developed practical skills, independently providing a range of vascular access as well as basic airway skills. The post-holder will be expected to work flexible hours to meet service demand. As the role develops this may include working alongside or independently from junior doctors on the medical resident on-call rota.
Main duties of the job
The Advanced Nurse practitioner will:
- Support the clinical management of critically ill patients admitted from accident and emergency, general wards, operating theatres, and other hospitals, encompassing the initial assessment & resuscitation, subsequent care in ICU / HDU and until safe discharge to general wards.
- Provide a professional portfolio of skills including clinical assessment, basic diagnosis, treatments and advanced practical skills.
- Provide an independent and safe intra- and inter-hospital transfer service for stable critically ill patients.
- Provide follow up and specialised supportive advice as required for nursing staff caring for patients discharged to general wards.
- Hold a defined formulary and prescribe independently within agreed limits.
- Work in collaboration with nursing and medical staff to promote quality care, participating in audit and assisting in developing unit protocols.
- Work to reduce the incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia and catheter related infections by providing expert knowledge, skills and teaching.
- Facilitate communication and handover within the multi-disciplinary team and ensure patients' relatives are fully informed.
- Support and assist with training of nursing staff and junior doctors as they induct onto the ICU rota.
- Exercise complex levels of judgement, discretion and decision making in clinical care demonstrated through the National Education and Competence Framework for Advanced Critical Care Practitioners.
About us
We hold a unique position in the Stockport community as the provider of healthcare and we are one of its largest employers.
Our mission is to make a difference every day. Our values are that we care, we respect, and we listen
We believe that the best organisations are those that reflect the communities they serve. We are therefore seeking to improve the diversity of our workforce to make it truly representative of our local population.
We actively encourage applications irrespective of race, age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marriage & civil partnership, or pregnancy or maternity. Recognising those communities that are underrepresented within our workforce, we would particularly welcome applications from you.
We recognise that flexible working is important. We take requests for flexible working seriously, consider any request we receive and try to work with you, so we can explore if your request may fit with the needs of the service.
The salary for the role is only one part of the excellent package of benefits we offer to you:
- Between 27-33 days of annual leave plus bank holidays
- NHS pension scheme membership
- Salary sacrifice schemes for lease cars, home electronics and more, to make your salary go further
- NHS Staff discounts
- Cycle to work scheme
- Salary finance - for loans, savings, budget planning and tips on managing debt
- Stockport Credit Union- for local financial advice
Job description
Job responsibilities
Clinical Responsibilities & Skills
The post holder will work as part of a consultant led team and actively contribute to all aspects of the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the critically ill patient by;
- Acting as patients advocate at all times.
- Applying the skills of history taking and notes assimilation, collating medical information, if necessary, by contacting the patients general practitioner or other hospitals.
- Applying the skills of cardio-respiratory, abdominal, basic neurological and mental state examination.
- Applying the skill of settling a patient on to a ventilator and the use of recruitment manoeuvres to improve oxygenation.
- Requesting or performing diagnostic tests as indicated by patient needs, including ECG, chest X-rays and blood tests.
- Interpreting ECG, chest X-ray & blood results and acting accordingly.
- Making initial assessments of referrals of critically ill patients at the request of the ICU consultant.
- Providing immediate resuscitation of critically ill patients.
- Assessing and clerking patients as they are admitted to the ICU / HDU.
- Making daily assessments of existing critically ill patients and participating fully in the daily consultant led ward round.
- Providing expert nursing treatment as identified and required.
- Independently providing prompt and safe peripheral and central venous vascular access via peripheral, subclavian, internal jugular and femoral routes as requested by the ICU consultant.
- Independently providing prompt and safe radial or femoral arterial cannulation as requested by the ICU consultant.
- Providing basic airway skills including intubation and tracheostomy change.
- Assist with bronchoscopy for the insertion of tracheostomy as directed by the consultant.
- Completion of discharge summaries and ensuring adequate medical and nursing handover at patient discharge, liaising directly with the patients medical team as required.
- Provide adequate pain relief with the Bolus of analgesia through epidural catheters / local wound catheters.
- Facilitating ICU & HDU ward rounds ensuring all patients have up to date results and clinical information available.
- Referring to other health professionals directly or at the request of the ICU consultant.
- Obtaining informed assent from relatives and consent from patients when practical procedures are planned.
- Providing expert information to patient's relatives, liaising at all times with the ICU consultant so that advice is accurate and consistent.
- Independently prescribing medications from an agreed formulary and ensuring appropriate medication is prescribed by means of transcribing.
- Independently prescribing blood and blood products as required.
- Working with the ICU team to reduce the incidence of ventilator pneumonia by promoting the use of the ventilator care bundle in all patients.
- Providing a highly visible clinical profile having both an advisory and direct input into patient care.
- Working to reduce the incidence of catheter related and hospital acquired infections by promoting the use of hand hygiene protocols and evidence-based care bundles
- Ensuring appropriate, accurate, accountable, defensible documentation is maintained at all times.
- Holding highly developed specialist knowledge of modes of ventilation, haemofiltration, vascular access techniques and cardiovascular support.
- Assisting in the development of clinically effective standards, protocols and guidelines to improve quality of care.
- Actively promoting a clinical environment that is conducive to high quality patient care and high standards of service delivery.
- Work independently and a manage patients within clearly defined policies, protocols, and codes of conduct.
- Planning and managing own workload and the workload of the service, in a flexible manner ensuring that service provision meets the needs of patients.
Communication, Leadership and Personal Skills
- Ability to deal with complaints as per trust policy.
- Be highly visible in clinical areas.
- Ensure effective communication to all staff, patients and visitors to the unit, using skills in empathy, reassurance, motivation and negotiation.
- Demonstrate good leadership skills by being a good role model.
- Champion professionalism by high standards of behaviour and commitment to the integration of policies and procedures within role and workplace.
- Demonstrate ability to communicate effectively under pressure and with all levels of health professionals.
- Ability to present complex information to a large group of staff.
- Liaise with Professional Development Lead to identify areas where changes of practice are required.
- Undertake the teaching and training of qualified nursing staff, junior doctors and medical students where appropriate.
- Ability to make judgements, analyse and interpret highly complex clinical situations effectively communicating these to consultant colleagues.
- Ability to cope with frequent exposure to highly distressing or highly emotional circumstances.
- Flexibility and adaptability able, at times, to work out of normal environment.
Responsibilities for Human Resources
- To act as an expert advisor / resource for those caring for critically ill patients.
- Participate in unit training sessions.
- Perform presentations regarding area of expertise.
- Support / teaching Specialist Trainees, Foundation Doctors and Medical Students in a range of critical care subjects.
- Assist in development of specific competencies for Advanced Nurse practitioners.
- Attend meetings and cascade information.
- Provide expertise, as required, to Trust committees which impact on service delivery.
- Hold meetings to improve care of patients.
- Assist when required in the production of business proposals.
- Assist when required in the recruitment of staff.
- Development of additional skills within team members, ensuring competencies are gained and maintained. Advancing boundaries of nursing.
ProfessionalDevelopment
- Keep the medical and nursing teams up to date on developments in Advanced Nursing practice.
- Maintain an up-to-date clinical knowledge base in order to inform development within the division.
- Keep fully up to date with changes in resuscitation protocols and attend updates annually.
- Attend regional and national conferences relevant to Critical Care as appropriate / required.
- Identify own development needs in line with service requirements within personal development plan.
- Ensure individual objectives and personal development plan are obtained.
- Participate in the development of the Advanced Nurse practitioner role at local / national level.
- Attend mandatory updates as required.
- Maintain accountability at all times.
- Uphold code of conduct of relevant professional body (e.g., NMC), working within and accepting responsibility for maintaining an agreed level of competence.
- Maintain professional registration and practice through CPD
- Assist in the development of systems and practices that optimise compliance with applicable statutory legislation, trust policies and clinical guidelines in order to minimise the risk to staff, patients and visitors to the site.
- Assist with / contribute to the writing of polices and protocols to meet the on-going development of the Advanced Nurse practitioner role in critical care.
Responsible Finance Resources
- Assist with / contribute to the writing of business proposals to meet developments of the Advanced Nurse practitioner role.
- Contribute and assist with budgetary management of the directorate and ward.
Research and Development and Governance
- Identify clinical research questions and contribute to clinical research. Contribute to the units participation in national research projects as required.
- Identify and participate in audit to improve quality of care and develop the service.
- Assist with the development and implementation of strategies to promote evidence-based practice within the clinical area.
- Identify, develop, implement and evaluate clinical guidelines, and protocols to ensure high standards of care are maintained.
- Actively promote a clinical environment that is conductive to high quality patient care and high standards of service delivery.
- Development of service to provide highest level of care to patients.
- Participation in achieving trust governance objectives
- Assist in achieving Trust / local / national targets.
- Contribute to the clinical governance process, including adverse incident reporting and investigation.
COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination is not a condition of employment at this time, we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated. We will be checking the vaccination status of all new starters so that we can manage individual and environmental risks, and so that we can support those who may be undecided about vaccination. If you are unvaccinated and you would like some advice or information, including how to get vaccinated, please email mandatory.vaccine@stockport.nhs.uk. There is a current Government consultation underway which will determine whether some new starters may need to be vaccinated.
The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment and promote safeguarding by implementing the Trusts policies and procedures, acting promptly on concerns, communicating effectively and sharing information appropriately.
- If successful this vacancy will require an enhanced DBS check at a cost of £43.50. This cost will be deducted from your first Trust salary
In addition to this it will be a condition of your employment that you will join the DBS update service and pay the annual subscription fee of £13.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Clinical Responsibilities & Skills
The post holder will work as part of a consultant led team and actively contribute to all aspects of the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the critically ill patient by;
- Acting as patients advocate at all times.
- Applying the skills of history taking and notes assimilation, collating medical information, if necessary, by contacting the patients general practitioner or other hospitals.
- Applying the skills of cardio-respiratory, abdominal, basic neurological and mental state examination.
- Applying the skill of settling a patient on to a ventilator and the use of recruitment manoeuvres to improve oxygenation.
- Requesting or performing diagnostic tests as indicated by patient needs, including ECG, chest X-rays and blood tests.
- Interpreting ECG, chest X-ray & blood results and acting accordingly.
- Making initial assessments of referrals of critically ill patients at the request of the ICU consultant.
- Providing immediate resuscitation of critically ill patients.
- Assessing and clerking patients as they are admitted to the ICU / HDU.
- Making daily assessments of existing critically ill patients and participating fully in the daily consultant led ward round.
- Providing expert nursing treatment as identified and required.
- Independently providing prompt and safe peripheral and central venous vascular access via peripheral, subclavian, internal jugular and femoral routes as requested by the ICU consultant.
- Independently providing prompt and safe radial or femoral arterial cannulation as requested by the ICU consultant.
- Providing basic airway skills including intubation and tracheostomy change.
- Assist with bronchoscopy for the insertion of tracheostomy as directed by the consultant.
- Completion of discharge summaries and ensuring adequate medical and nursing handover at patient discharge, liaising directly with the patients medical team as required.
- Provide adequate pain relief with the Bolus of analgesia through epidural catheters / local wound catheters.
- Facilitating ICU & HDU ward rounds ensuring all patients have up to date results and clinical information available.
- Referring to other health professionals directly or at the request of the ICU consultant.
- Obtaining informed assent from relatives and consent from patients when practical procedures are planned.
- Providing expert information to patient's relatives, liaising at all times with the ICU consultant so that advice is accurate and consistent.
- Independently prescribing medications from an agreed formulary and ensuring appropriate medication is prescribed by means of transcribing.
- Independently prescribing blood and blood products as required.
- Working with the ICU team to reduce the incidence of ventilator pneumonia by promoting the use of the ventilator care bundle in all patients.
- Providing a highly visible clinical profile having both an advisory and direct input into patient care.
- Working to reduce the incidence of catheter related and hospital acquired infections by promoting the use of hand hygiene protocols and evidence-based care bundles
- Ensuring appropriate, accurate, accountable, defensible documentation is maintained at all times.
- Holding highly developed specialist knowledge of modes of ventilation, haemofiltration, vascular access techniques and cardiovascular support.
- Assisting in the development of clinically effective standards, protocols and guidelines to improve quality of care.
- Actively promoting a clinical environment that is conducive to high quality patient care and high standards of service delivery.
- Work independently and a manage patients within clearly defined policies, protocols, and codes of conduct.
- Planning and managing own workload and the workload of the service, in a flexible manner ensuring that service provision meets the needs of patients.
Communication, Leadership and Personal Skills
- Ability to deal with complaints as per trust policy.
- Be highly visible in clinical areas.
- Ensure effective communication to all staff, patients and visitors to the unit, using skills in empathy, reassurance, motivation and negotiation.
- Demonstrate good leadership skills by being a good role model.
- Champion professionalism by high standards of behaviour and commitment to the integration of policies and procedures within role and workplace.
- Demonstrate ability to communicate effectively under pressure and with all levels of health professionals.
- Ability to present complex information to a large group of staff.
- Liaise with Professional Development Lead to identify areas where changes of practice are required.
- Undertake the teaching and training of qualified nursing staff, junior doctors and medical students where appropriate.
- Ability to make judgements, analyse and interpret highly complex clinical situations effectively communicating these to consultant colleagues.
- Ability to cope with frequent exposure to highly distressing or highly emotional circumstances.
- Flexibility and adaptability able, at times, to work out of normal environment.
Responsibilities for Human Resources
- To act as an expert advisor / resource for those caring for critically ill patients.
- Participate in unit training sessions.
- Perform presentations regarding area of expertise.
- Support / teaching Specialist Trainees, Foundation Doctors and Medical Students in a range of critical care subjects.
- Assist in development of specific competencies for Advanced Nurse practitioners.
- Attend meetings and cascade information.
- Provide expertise, as required, to Trust committees which impact on service delivery.
- Hold meetings to improve care of patients.
- Assist when required in the production of business proposals.
- Assist when required in the recruitment of staff.
- Development of additional skills within team members, ensuring competencies are gained and maintained. Advancing boundaries of nursing.
ProfessionalDevelopment
- Keep the medical and nursing teams up to date on developments in Advanced Nursing practice.
- Maintain an up-to-date clinical knowledge base in order to inform development within the division.
- Keep fully up to date with changes in resuscitation protocols and attend updates annually.
- Attend regional and national conferences relevant to Critical Care as appropriate / required.
- Identify own development needs in line with service requirements within personal development plan.
- Ensure individual objectives and personal development plan are obtained.
- Participate in the development of the Advanced Nurse practitioner role at local / national level.
- Attend mandatory updates as required.
- Maintain accountability at all times.
- Uphold code of conduct of relevant professional body (e.g., NMC), working within and accepting responsibility for maintaining an agreed level of competence.
- Maintain professional registration and practice through CPD
- Assist in the development of systems and practices that optimise compliance with applicable statutory legislation, trust policies and clinical guidelines in order to minimise the risk to staff, patients and visitors to the site.
- Assist with / contribute to the writing of polices and protocols to meet the on-going development of the Advanced Nurse practitioner role in critical care.
Responsible Finance Resources
- Assist with / contribute to the writing of business proposals to meet developments of the Advanced Nurse practitioner role.
- Contribute and assist with budgetary management of the directorate and ward.
Research and Development and Governance
- Identify clinical research questions and contribute to clinical research. Contribute to the units participation in national research projects as required.
- Identify and participate in audit to improve quality of care and develop the service.
- Assist with the development and implementation of strategies to promote evidence-based practice within the clinical area.
- Identify, develop, implement and evaluate clinical guidelines, and protocols to ensure high standards of care are maintained.
- Actively promote a clinical environment that is conductive to high quality patient care and high standards of service delivery.
- Development of service to provide highest level of care to patients.
- Participation in achieving trust governance objectives
- Assist in achieving Trust / local / national targets.
- Contribute to the clinical governance process, including adverse incident reporting and investigation.
COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination is not a condition of employment at this time, we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated. We will be checking the vaccination status of all new starters so that we can manage individual and environmental risks, and so that we can support those who may be undecided about vaccination. If you are unvaccinated and you would like some advice or information, including how to get vaccinated, please email mandatory.vaccine@stockport.nhs.uk. There is a current Government consultation underway which will determine whether some new starters may need to be vaccinated.
The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment and promote safeguarding by implementing the Trusts policies and procedures, acting promptly on concerns, communicating effectively and sharing information appropriately.
- If successful this vacancy will require an enhanced DBS check at a cost of £43.50. This cost will be deducted from your first Trust salary
In addition to this it will be a condition of your employment that you will join the DBS update service and pay the annual subscription fee of £13.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
- Hold an MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice
- First Level Registered Nurse
- Higher Education/Post Registration Degree
- Advanced Life Support Qualification
Desirable
- Mentor Qualification
- Non-medical prescribing qualification (or working towards).
Knowledge
Essential
- Demonstrate knowledge of evidence based practice
- Demonstrate knowledge of Advanced Practice
- Demonstrate familiarity with research and understanding of research methodology.
- Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of acute assessment
- Demonstrate knowledge of change management
- High level of knowledge relating to Critical Care
- Knowledge of clinical policies and procedures
- Knowledge of the current clinical evidence base in Critical Care
Experience
Essential
- Significant post registration experience with substantial experience at a senior level.
- Evidence of professional development in relation to personal development and decision making.
- Experience of Clinical Audit
Desirable
- Risk management and clinical governance experience
- Experience of research
Skills and abilitites
Essential
- Highly developed analytical and judgement skills
- IT literate
- Motivation, team building
- Excellent communication skills
- Planning and organisational ability
- Ability to work in a self-directed manner
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
- Hold an MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice
- First Level Registered Nurse
- Higher Education/Post Registration Degree
- Advanced Life Support Qualification
Desirable
- Mentor Qualification
- Non-medical prescribing qualification (or working towards).
Knowledge
Essential
- Demonstrate knowledge of evidence based practice
- Demonstrate knowledge of Advanced Practice
- Demonstrate familiarity with research and understanding of research methodology.
- Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of acute assessment
- Demonstrate knowledge of change management
- High level of knowledge relating to Critical Care
- Knowledge of clinical policies and procedures
- Knowledge of the current clinical evidence base in Critical Care
Experience
Essential
- Significant post registration experience with substantial experience at a senior level.
- Evidence of professional development in relation to personal development and decision making.
- Experience of Clinical Audit
Desirable
- Risk management and clinical governance experience
- Experience of research
Skills and abilitites
Essential
- Highly developed analytical and judgement skills
- IT literate
- Motivation, team building
- Excellent communication skills
- Planning and organisational ability
- Ability to work in a self-directed manner
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
