Job overview
We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated senior nurse, to join the Respiratory Team at Guys & St Thomas' Hospital as a Matron for Respiratory Services. Respiratory Medicine is part of the larger directorate that includes Adult Critical Care and the Sleep Disorder Centre (PACCS). The Respiratory Service includes outpatient clinics, an Infusion Room, Endobronchial Ultrasound (EBUS) and Bronchoscopy interventions, and Pleural procedures. The Integrated Respiratory teams work across both the acute Trust and community. All of our specialist services deliver patient pathways with skill, vision, energy and the will to be the best we can be.
The post holder will support the team within each of the services, providing a vision for the nursing team including the Clinical Nurse Specialists and their deputies through their expert respiratory clinical knowledge and proven leadership and management skills. The successful candidate will also provide nursing leadership to the Sleep Service.
This is a pivotal and exciting time for respiratory care at Guy’s and St Thomas’, as we move towards managing respiratory services across the wider Heart, Lung and Critical Care Clinical Group including the Royal Brompton Hospital. The Trust is committed to delivering an integrated respiratory service that brings together multidisciplinary teams, aligns pathways across all our sites, and ensures seamless care for patients from hospital to home. You will play a key role in shaping and embedding this integrated approach, working closely with colleagues across the Trust and partner organisations.
Main duties of the job
Leadership & Visibility
Provide visible, accessible, and inspirational leadership to nursing teams, acting as a role model and upholding the Trust’s values.
Operational Management
Deliver operational matron cover across Guy’s and St Thomas’ sites, working closely with the Head of Nursing and Deputy Head of Nursing.
Collaboration
Work alongside a large multidisciplinary team (MDT) to deliver high-quality care for respiratory patients.
Clinical Governance & Quality
Be instrumental in all aspects of clinical governance, actively contributing to the development of clinical practice, research, and standards of care within the directorates.
Team Support & Development
Promote excellence in nursing care and maintaining high clinical standards.
Patient Experience
Ensure all patients are treated with compassion, dignity, and respect, valuing the diversity of the local community and beyond.
Infection Prevention
Promote best practice in infection prevention and control, ensuring a clean and safe environment.
Service Improvement
Participate in ongoing service development and transformation, demonstrating a willingness to innovate and improve patient care.
Working for our organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.
We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.
We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities.
We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Performance management:
1. To manage the delivery of all nursing aspects of the agreed outputs for their area of responsibility.
2. Ensuring effective action is taken where nursing performance is at risk of falling below expected levels and standards are not maintained.
3. Ensuring that the Trust’s Nursing and Midwifery priorities are implemented locally.
Risk & clinical governance:
4. Ensure patients are cared for in a clean and safe environment taking remedial action if standards are not maintained.
5. Be champions for driving the infection prevention and control agenda and challenging poor practice.
6. Manage and respond to complaints and adverse incidents.
7. Undertake root cause analysis and develop action plans, ensuring that this leads to change in practice.
8. Establish and maintain effective communication with patients, relatives and staff to contribute to the active resolution of potentially complex situations, conflicts and issues.
9. Lead on the implementation of patient safety strategies.
10. Share best practice and drive improvements.
11. In conjunction with the Head of Nursing, the Matron will be responsible for monitoring and maintaining excellent clinical standards within clinical teams.
Professional leadership and staff management:
12. Be a visible leader who is accessible to patients, visitors and staff.
13. Provide professional and clinical leadership.
Departmental & staff organisation:
14. Monitor and action decisions in relation to clinical areas ensuring an appropriate nursing skill mix in relation to activity and acuity.
15. Ensure nurse rostering meets service demands, cost effective and adheres to Trust guidelines.
16. Review and agree bank and agency requirements and usage and control bank and agency spend.
17. Performance manage staff with direct responsibility for the continuous performance review/appraisal of Departmental Sister/Charge Nurses.
18. Support unit/departmental Sister/Charge nurse in managing staff absence and report trends in sickness absence to Head of Nursing.
19. Oversee the process of continuous performance review within the allocated area of responsibility.
20. Empower and enable staff to perform their roles effectively.
Strategy and service improvement:
21. Participate in service improvement projects or development programmes.
22. Identify and take forward the specific contribution nursing and midwifery can make to the development of the service.
Financial management:
23. Act as an authorising signatory for nursing within agreed limits.
24. Monitor Departmental nursing budgets with the Ward Sister/Charge Nurse ensuring effective budget management.
25. Manage nursing resources on a day to day basis with particular attention to Bank and Agency expenditure.
26. Report monthly positions to the Head of Nursing and wider Management Team.
Education and training:
27. Support the development and implementation of education and training programs within area of responsibility for nurses and midwives.
28. Be responsible for developing own skills and knowledge and contribute to the development of others.
Person specification
Qualification/Education
Essential criteria
29. First Level Registered Nurse
Desirable criteria
30. Masters level Qualification
31. Leadership Qualification
32. Education Qualification
Skills
Essential criteria
33. Experience in delivering quality improvements
34. Competent in Microsoft Outlook
35. Organisational development
36. Experience in complaints management
37. Extensive experience in recruitment & retention
38. Ability to prioritise and be flexible regarding a highly intensive and varying workload
39. Experience of workforce management
Desirable criteria
40. Experience in transformation projects or codesign
Experience
Essential criteria
41. Experience of managing governance and risk
42. Development and roll out of educational packages
43. Experience in leadership
44. Quality Improvement/Change management experience
45. Significant experience in respiratory services
46. Experience of financial management
Value & Behaviours
Essential criteria
47. Demonstrates Trust values & behaviours
Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.