As a Registered Nurse with experience in palliative or specialist care, you'll play a vital role in supporting people living with complex, life‑limiting illness. Working as part of our friendly multidisciplinary team, you'll provide compassionate, evidence‑based care that's shaped around each person's needs, wishes and wellbeing.
Main duties of the job
In this community‑based role, you'll manage your own caseload, offering skilled clinical advice, thoughtful interventions, and meaningful support to patients and those close to them. You'll work closely with local GPs and Community Nurses to ensure everyone receives the right care, at the right time, from the people they trust.
About us
Hospiscare has been supporting people in Exeter, Mid and East Devon with terminal illnesses for over 40 years. Our services include support at home, a specialist palliative care ward, out‑patients clinics, and supportive therapies.
We support close to 2,200 local people each year, in some of the hardest times possible. As a local charity, we raise around £10 million each year to continue to provide our care. Our staff, volunteers and supporters help us to care for people when they're most in need, no matter what their individual circumstances may be.
We're proud to be rated as ‘five star’ by patients and families and as ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, to have been awarded a Mind Bronze Award for wellbeing at work and to be a Disability Confident employer.
Job responsibilities
Job Description
* Job Title: Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS)
* Band: 6
* Location: Community
* Hours: As on contract, to include on‑call
* Team/Directorate: Community Cluster
* Responsible To: Community Cluster Team Leader (CCTL)
* Accountable to: Chief Nurse
Job Purpose
To deliver an excellent standard of evidence‑based specialist palliative nursing care and clinical advice. To promote dignity, encompassing a person‑centred approach, to positively enhance the lives of patients in the community with complex life‑limiting illnesses.
Key Result Areas / Principal Duties and Responsibilities
Main Responsibilities
* Provide advanced specialist palliative care by contributing highly experienced clinical judgement and knowledge in complex palliative and end‑of‑life care in order to promote best practice for adults with life‑limiting illnesses.
* Demonstrate advanced communication skills and professionalism in all interactions with patients, carers and other professionals to promote and maintain Hospiscare values.
* Contribute to the daily clinical leadership of junior staff within the community team to ensure team effectiveness, cover and cohesion.
* Deliver education and learning, both internally and externally, for all those involved in palliative/end‑of‑life care to ensure evidence‑based practice.
* Attend and contribute to multi‑disciplinary, complex care and Gold Standards Framework (GSF) or End of Life meetings to promote best practice.
* Contribute to Hospiscare’s clinical governance and audit process to support continuous quality improvement and learning.
* Assess and identify complex bereavement and effectively communicate with the Supportive Care team to enable a seamless handover into Hospiscare’s Bereavement Care Services.
* Maintain a safe environment for patients, visitors and employees – all staff are required to adhere to Hospiscare’s Infection Prevention and Control Policy and make every effort to maintain high standards of infection prevention and control at all times.
* Perform Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Enhanced level checks with Adults and Children Barred Lists.
Contacts
Internal: CCTL and Community teams, Chief Nurse, Ward Manager and IPU team, Medical team, Supportive Care Services, Clinical Governance, Clinical Administration, Learning & Development team.
External: Patients and those close to them, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Community Services, General Practitioners, Residential and Nursing Homes, Social and Domiciliary Care Workers, Providers of out‑of‑hours services.
Health & Safety
* Ensure that Health and Safety guidelines and fire regulations are strictly adhered to.
* Comply with safe working practices as defined by Hospiscare.
* Complete online training as and when required.
* Treat yourself in a reasonable way regarding health and safety and that of others affected by acts or omissions at work.
* Report any accidents, incidents or near‑misses as soon as reasonably practicable.
* Manage your own work‑life balance and general wellbeing, including any relevant pressures in respect of lone working, travel, difficult environments and challenging situations.
General
* Be aware of and adhere to Hospiscare policies and procedures at all times.
* Take part in progress/ performance reviews throughout the year.
* Cooperate with other Hospiscare departments.
* Attend training courses and complete online training modules as required to meet the requirements of the post.
* Take responsibility for your own personal development, seeking out opportunities to learn new skills.
* Undertake any other duties as requested by management which are reasonably deemed to be within the scope of the role.
Other
* Apply Hospiscare values and behaviours to every aspect of the role at all times.
* Promote and maintain the brand standards of Hospiscare.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Registered Nurse with current Nursing and Midwifery Council registration.
* Diploma in Palliative Care or diploma level qualification in associated field.
* Evidence of ongoing professional development.
* Advanced Communication Skills training.
* Teaching and mentorship/supervision qualification.
Knowledge
* Detailed understanding of the complexities of working with individuals at times of distress and conflict.
* Understanding of key issues relating to End of Life Care including policy developments.
* Detailed understanding of theoretical nursing models and of their impact on delivery of care.
Skills
* Developed ability to act as an expert practitioner.
* Developed ability to manage a caseload effectively, including discharge planning.
* Highly developed communication and interpersonal skills.
* Developed ability to demonstrate knowledge and expertise through formal/informal teaching and educational programmes.
* Developed ability to manage challenging circumstances effectively, to understand and disseminate multifaceted information.
Personal attributes
* Ability to lead and work as part of a team, prioritise workload and manage time effectively.
* Ability to work autonomously, problem solve and act on own initiative.
* Flexible and adaptable with the ability to respond positively in a rapidly changing environment.
* Commitment to continuing professional development.
* Awareness of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in all aspects of work.
Additional requirements
* Able and willing to contribute to the 7 days/week specialist palliative care service.
* Able to travel and work throughout the area covered by Hospiscare.
* Able to fulfil physical and manual handling aspects of the role.
* Car owner and driver.
Experience
* Substantial experience of working within a palliative care/end of life environment.
* Significant experience of effective clinical governance, audit and standard setting.
* Experience of policy and/or standards development.
* Experience of multi‑agency partnership working in order to deliver service improvements.
* Experience of coaching/mentoring and of facilitating clinical supervision.
* Experience of working in the community setting.
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.
Salary
£38,682 to £46,580 a year (Pro rata per annum)
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