Job summary
The Hospital Palliative Care Team provides specialist palliative care advice and support to inpatients across all hospital sites. Weekend and extended hours working will be required.
Palliative or End of Life Care experience is essential.
Main duties of the job
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A band 6 specialist nurse position is available in the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust Hospital Palliative Care Team, based at Sobell House, covering the Churchill, John Radcliffe, Horton and Nuffield sites.
We are seeking a passionate and self-motivated individual who is capable of working as part of a busy multidisciplinary team supporting the delivery of palliative care throughout the Trust.
The team provides specialist and holistic assessments and liaises with a wide range of healthcare professionals to provide compassionate palliative care and facilitate excellent end of life care for patients and their families. We are looking for candidates who demonstrate advanced communication skills and nursing leadership qualities and who are able to act as a role-model to staff across the Trust. A strong commitment to education and teaching is important.
In return we will be able to offer a supportive and friendly working environment, with access to mentorship and training and opportunities for relevant ongoing study.
About us
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. Find out more
The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.
Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via theOUH YouTube channel.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Specialist Nurses will be able to;
1. Assess individuals, families and populations holistically using a range of different methods, using physical assessment and advanced history taking skills and other specialist health needs assessments.
2. Use their expert knowledge and clinical judgement to decide whether to refer patients for investigations and discuss potential diagnoses with members of the wider MDT or when to consult other members of the team for advice.
3. Decide on and carry out treatment, which may include advice on the prescribing of medicines, or referring patients to an appropriate specialist.
4. Ensure the provision of continuity of care.
5. Assess and evaluate, with patients and /or carers, the effectiveness of the treatment and care provided and make changes as needed.
6. Work autonomously within a wider health care team and as a lone practitioner.
7. Work across professional, organisational and system boundaries and proactively develop and sustain new partnerships and networks to influence and improve health, outcomes and healthcare delivery systems.
KEY RESULT AREAS:
Clinical Practice:
Specialist Nurses will:
8. Work within their scope of practice within the specialist area of practice, autonomously as well as within a multi-disciplinary team.
9. Work clinically to optimise health and wellbeing, demonstrate decision making related to history taking and physical assessment of patients.
10. Plan, prioritise and manage complete episodes of care with support from the wider team and mentor, working in partnership with others, delegating and referring as appropriate to optimise health outcomes and resource use, providing direct support to patients and clients.
11. Act as key worker where this model exists.
12. Use professional judgement in managing complex and unpredictable care events.
13. Draw upon an appropriate range of multi-agency and inter-professional resources in their practice.
14. Appropriately define boundaries in practice and be aware of limitations.
15. Promote a high standard of specialist nursing by initiating and coordinating the assessment, planning, delivery and evaluation of the holistic needs of patients/families through evidence based practice following agreed policies, protocols and guidelines.
16. Practice a high standard of communication including highly sensitive and complex information to develop and sustain partnership working with individuals, groups, communities and agencies. Utilise evidence based information through a variety of communication media.
17. Maintain adequate patient documentation to NMC requirements for all patients seen and advice given in any practice setting and contribute to clinical activity/data collection as required.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
18. oRegistered Nurse
19. oGraduate
20. oEvidence of postgraduate study
Desirable
21. oRelevant palliative/end of life study
22. oPost graduate qualification
23. oTeaching/Assessing or mentorship qualification
Experience and Knowledge
Essential
24. oDemonstrates an understanding of palliative care
25. oDemonstrates knowledge of the key professional issues and NMC guidelines relating to professional practice
26. oSignificant experience of end of life care
27. Demonstrates knowledge of symptom management and strategies used within palliative care
28. Evidence of MDT working
29. Management experience
30. Has participated in audit and evaluation
31. Experience of acting as a mentor to others
32. Teaching and assessing experience
Desirable
33. oExperience of applying research evidence to clinical practice.
34. Understands relevant national strategy / policy and how this relates to the service
35. Specialist palliative care experience
36. Leadership role
37. Experience working across organisational boundaries
38. Used to effectively utilising clinical supervision
Skills & Abilities
Essential
39. oConfident in own knowledge base, aware of learning needs and seeks guidance when appropriate
40. oPrevious experience of formal/informal teaching of patients and staff
41. oDemonstrates skilled written and verbal communication skills; IT skills
42. Able to critically review and articulate clinical information and form a clinical plan
43. Used to using an Electronic Patient Record system and has basic computer literacy with document management and data entry
Desirable
44. oNegotiation skills;
45. Awareness of own leadership skills/style
46. Advanced communication skills training
Personal Qualities
Essential
47. oAbility to work flexibly to meet the needs of the service
48. oClinically confident
49. oCommitment to maintaining own professional practice
50. Demonstrates an ability to establish good working relationships
51. Demonstrates self-awareness with regard to professional practice and well-being