Clinical Lead - Lymphoedema

Job responsibilities

Main Duties & Responsibilities

1. Demonstrate the ability to exercise a high degree of personal and professional autonomy in to make decisions and provide advice for patients and professionals concerning the management of lymphoedema.
2. To ensure that the views of the service users and their carers are effectively sought, and passed through appropriate channels for appropriate action, including taking action regarding complaints of the service user or their carer in accordance with the Trust policy.
3. To oversee the triage of patient referrals with lymphoedema including complex problems and utilise advanced clinical skills to assess the patients oedema within the context of their long-term health needs.
4. To plan and provide an individualised plan of care for the patient with lymphoedema incorporating patient focused goals and outcomes based on sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and knowledge. This should include the ability to provide appropriate levels of intervention for the patient in keeping with the four cornerstones of care namely skincare, exercise, compression, and Manual Lymphatic Drainage
5. To assess the psychosocial impact of lymphoedema and plan care interventions to enable patients to live well with their long-term condition.
6. Provide highly specialist lymphoedema advice and support to generalist nurses, care agencies and health professionals including doctors and consultants, to ensure high quality individualised patient care. This will include training and education on specific and expert clinical treatments to support continuity of care for patients
7. To manage, monitor and support all team members within the lymphoedema service, ensuring good team relationships, appraisals and mandatory training are maintained.
8. Maintain accurate records of patients by documenting all communication with them and recording all relevant information whenever they have been seen in their individual lymphoedema record.
9. To monitor and manage the waiting lists, utilise the team resources effectively and to cover team lead role within the team where required.
10. Assess, report, and manage any risk, clinical and non-clinical, for the benefit of self, colleagues and patients, in line with the Risk Management Policy in support of or absence of Team lead
11. Be competent in the use of Email, Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, Excel and SystmOne
12. Chair MDT meetings with regards to the support and management of highly complex patient care, negotiating and compassionately challenging decision making of attendees.
13. The post holder will provide and receive highly complex and sensitive information in relation to patient care and will have the ability to advise and support others to communicate information in an understandable, empathetic and reassuring way
14. Demonstrate the ability to overcome barriers to communication, supporting Service Users understanding by adapting the approach used (eg use of Interpreters where English is not a first language, alternative and augmentative communication methods), to ensure that they can access and engage effectively with services
15. Organise own and the teams clinical workload in accordance with service needs and requirements.
16. To participate in and monitor business activity and other reports in line with Trust and ICBrequirements in support of or in absence of team lead
17. To ensure that all duties are performed in keeping with practice guidelines Trust and national standards and legislation.
18. To establish and maintain effective relationships with patients, carers and the multi-disciplinary team in order to facilitate patient choice and independence.
19. To support self-care and health promotion as much as possible, including hospital admission avoidance where appropriate.
20. Provide information and advice at all stages of the patient pathway, communicating complex condition related information to patients/carers and relatives within scope of professional practice.
21. Demonstrate negotiating, empathic and motivational skills to manage situations within clinical practice, patient appointments, case discussions and MDTSs where highly complex and highly sensitive material/information is being discussed, ensuring professionalism is maintained.
22. Actively contribute to interdisciplinary meetings, supervisory sessions, and case conferences to ensure seamless services for patients.
23. Provide accurate, relevant, and timely electronic care records and written communication to support ongoing oedema management.
24. To develop and implement patient information leaflets alongside other team members.
25. To deal with highly complex, sensitive, and contentious information
26. Liaise with other members of the professional multi-disciplinary and social care teams as needed to support the management of the patients needs as necessary.
27. To have an awareness of and engagement with the strategic aims of long-term conditions pathways within Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS trust, whilst demonstrating the ability to innovate and continuously improve the delivery of patient care and outcomes in support of and in conjunction with leads across the wider services and with the lymphoedema team lead.
28. To support the Tissue Viability Services Leads with strategic and service development, vision and direction for the tissue viability services within the Integrated Care System where required and where appropriate.
29. To review national information, guidance and best practice and recommend how this can be implemented locally.
30. Contribute to the gathering of required and appropriate information including support with report writing and providing evidence around service delivery in conjunction with team lead and pathway lead for long term conditions.
31. Identify the health needs of patients with lymphoedema. Chronic oedema and lipoedema within the served populations and develop strategies for prevention, treatment, self-care and maintenance of long-term care and management.
32. To utilise the trust information systems to supply statistical evidence required for resource management and clinical audit of the service.
33. To participate in research, clinical audit, and standard setting within the service and to monitor and review practice regularly.
34. Actively identify areas for service development and lead in the planning and delivery of these within the lymphoedema and wider health care team independently and jointly with the team lead.
35. Attend clinical and management supervision and use reflection skills to demonstrate improvement in own clinical practice.
36. Positively participate in and promote clinical Governance, thus ensuring the highest quality of practice is maintained, within the service.
37. Demonstrate the use of evidence-based practice and participation in clinical audit.
38. Contribute to the development of clinical and management policies and procedure and to monitor and regularly review these within the service.
39. To embrace digital and virtual/remote care supporting systems and integrate this into caseload management strategy where appropriate.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered adult nurse or allied HCP
• Qualification in lymphoedema management
• Evidence of significant experience in lymphoedema
• Evidence of further academic or practical study at a higher level eg level 7 or relevant experience
• Non-medical prescribing qualification or willing to undertake

Desirable

• Teaching qualification
• Previous management course/qualification Palliative Care Course

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience of leadership & management
• An understanding of, or experience in cancer management and its impact on lymphoedema
• Evidence of experience in teaching and mentoring within your role
• Experience of cross boundary working in partnership and collaboration with health, social and voluntary sectors
• Knowledge and understanding of clinical governance and the implications to their own service area.
• Expert clinical knowledge in all aspects lymphoedema management and current best practice
• Proven leadership and management skills in some aspect of service development
• Experience of using advanced communication skills

Desirable

• An understanding of, or experience in managing long-term conditions
• Experience of leading change and innovation.
• Research and Audit
• Be able to demonstrate a high personal commitment to the development of improving patient care, e.g. participation in research, audit and education.
• Experience of managing complaints
• Community experience

Skills

Essential

• Ability to appraise complex situations and facts and take appropriate action.
• Ability to use own initiative and take responsibility
• Knowledge and experience of budget management
• Computer literate
• Good organisational and time management skills

Communication

Essential

• Ability to deal with highly sensitive and complex information where agreement and co - operation is required with patients, carers, colleagues and other professionals.
• Ability to communicate highly complex information where there may be barriers to understanding

Personal and People Development

Essential

• Motivated - able to motivate self and others to deliver a quality service

Personal Attributes / Behaviours

Essential

• Ability to cope with the physical effort required to perform lymphoedema treatments
• High motivated
• Flexible
• Good interpersonal skills
• Confidence to work alone whilst supporting the rest of the team
• Able to identify with the Trust's commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults.

Other

Essential

• Willingness to uphold the Trust's values
• Eligible to live and work in the UK
• Must have access to a vehicle & be able to commute to meet the demands of the role and remain flexible - to meet the demands of the service
• Some roles require additional level of checks as part of the employment process i.e. roles which come into contact with children, vulnerable adults or their families.
• Able to communicate effectively in written and verbal English Language

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).