Job overview
We are looking for an innovative, dynamic, hardworking clinician to come and work within our friendly and high performing Long- term Ventilation team, based in a beautiful part of North West England. We cannot wait for you to be part of our team delivering high-quality care to our long term and acute patients.
This role is an exciting opportunity for an excellent Nurse or Allied Health Professional (AHP) to further develop their skills as a Ventilation Clinical Specialist (Band 7). Your role will be to work together with the team to meet the growing number of patients under the care of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Long Term Ventilation Service (LSCLTVS).
Our team consists of a Consultant Respiratory Physicians, a Consultant Physiotherapist, Ventilation Nurse Specialists, and Ventilation Secretary. We have strong working relationships with the specialist multidisciplinary services within respiratory, neurology, paediatrics and nutrition as well as the multitude of other specialities.
Main duties of the job
Your role will be responsible for the management of long-term ventilated patients, assessing potential patients for LTV in both the hospital, community and clinic setting and caring for patients established on LTV. On a day-to-day basis you will help troubleshooting difficulties experienced by our patients and supporting teams, you will remotely review data and be part of MDT discussions to focus on the best care and outcome for our patients. You will provide support and specialised care for tracheostomy patients and for patients requiring support with airway clearance by assessing clearance techniques and using interventions such as cough assists and lung volume recruitment bags. You will ultimately work as part of a team to support patients under the care of the LSCLTVS across the region working with a variety of key stakeholders across primary and secondary care, including inpatient teams, community care providers, GPs, commissioners and families.
Working for our organisation
We are a national award-winning team with numerous opportunities for career development. We manage the care of people in the Lancashire and South Cumbria region who have ventilatory failure or are at risk of developing problems. We are a rapidly growing service meaning we offer the opportunity to be involved in developing the service to continue to provide exceptional care in a manner that bests suits our patients.
Within our team we would like to offer the opportunity to you to develop your clinical knowledge and skills and to lead as an autonomous practitioner. You will also have opportunities to lead and be part of service audit, evaluation and data analysis as a way of assessing and demonstrating positive outcomes to patients, families, care providers, commissioners and the wider health and social care economy. This will include being part of the team to present this work back in a range of forums within the organisation, to commissioners and in national interest and speciality groups.
If you have a strong clinical background in acute and long ventilation, tracheostomy care and airway clearance and are looking to truly promote the power of nursing and AHP services then we want to hear from you.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical Duties
●To act as a specialist practitioner demonstrating advanced knowledge and skill in the specialty of long-term ventilation, including the integration of research evidence into practice by clinical reasoning and decision-making.
●Plan, implement and evaluate the care of patients requiring respiratory management and interventions across the continuum of care providing appropriate information to patients, their carers, staff and relatives where appropriate. Care will be delivered in a variety of settings including within the acute trust, external hospitals, clinic and community settings.
●The post-holder will spend a minimum of 80% in clinical practice. They will manage a caseload of patients requiring long-term ventilation, the care associated with this, and management of their presenting conditions.
●To utilise advanced clinical reasoning skills and evidence-based knowledge in the management of patients.
●To make clinical decisions and initiate investigations, care/treatment and technological intervention.
●Deliver care using medical technology with advanced skill and competence including but not limited to use of capnography, point of care blood gas machines, ventilators, humidifiers and cough augmentation adjuncts and all their associated consumables.
●To plan, order, interpret and act upon the results of tests and investigations.
●To interpret and act upon other clinical and non-clinical information.
●Set up invasive and non-invasive ventilation, monitor titrate and support the long term care including support for secretion clearance.
●To undertake extended supplementary and extended nurse/AHP prescribing (once qualified) or work within patient group directives to ensure the appropriate prescription and administration of all medicines used within the service with reference to the Trust’s medicines management policies.
●The post holder will provide Clinical Nurse Specialist Support to the Ventilation / Respiratory multi-disciplinary team and the Respiratory Services as a whole, taking an active role in the creation and delivery of developments of high standards of care.
1. ●Deliver education across a range of settings to support patients, families and carers with the clinical management of their conditions.
Provision of Effective Leadership
Responsible for ensuring that the nursing team and care support team are adequately resourced and organised to deliver excellent care with compassion
·Leading and developing the department nursing and admin and support teams by being a visible and strong role model providing leadership and direction to the team, capitalising on research and development opportunities in order to support them in reaching their full potential.
·Generate and use appropriate learning opportunities and apply own learning to the future development of practice.
·Contribute to the development of others enabling them to make realistic self-assessments and apply their knowledge and skills in practice.
·Actively promote the workplace as a learning environment encouraging everyone to learn from each other and from external good practice.
·Alert managers to resource issues which affect learning, development and performance.
·Implement governance initiatives by acting as a change agent and taking a proactive role in service development at Trust and local levels to deliver a patient focused service.
Service Improvements
·Responsible for supporting the development of the ward nursing team, the ward administration AHP and support teams by being a visible and strong role model providing leadership and direction to the team, capitalising on research and development opportunities, providing clinical supervision and advice for staff and students in order to support them in reaching their full potential.
·Support education across and range of platforms, face to face, virtual and media based around the delivery and care of patients within a complex ventilation service. Education may be on an individual, local, regional or national basis.
·To develop, establish, implement and evaluate guidelines for nurse/therapy led initiatives.
·To take an active role in the policy and service development of Ventilation clinic.
·Contribute to ensuring the implementation of national and local guidance and frameworks specialising in respiratory disease, namely ventilation.
·To contribute to the development of care pathways for people specialising in respiratory disease namely Ventilation, with the multi-disciplinary team and partners from health, social care and acute trusts to identify patients most at risk of a hospital admission.
·Develop new ventilation clinical services to enhance the Trust’s ventilation service and evolve education and training resources for these services.
·Monitor and develop standards of care within the Trust’s Governance framework and agreed priorities, contributing to and leading audit where necessary.
Research and Development
·Ensure research, audit and bench-marking are key components of all service delivery and patient care.
·Post holder can demonstrate they evaluate service delivery, identify areas for improvement and initiate and manage change process.
·Participate in regular audit of clinical and organisational standards.
Governance
The post holder will operate at all times to high standards of probity. This will include compliance with:
2. Health and safety regulations
3. All policies and procedures approved by the Trust
4. Trust Standing Financial Instructions
5. Working within the Data Protection act 1984, Health & Safety at work Act 1974, Maintain confidentiality at all times, as required by legislation and Trust Policy
6. Working to defined policies and procedures, actively implementing the development of the electronic solution
7. Work within the limitations of the role
8. Demonstrate legal and professional accountability within the role.
9. Professional codes of conduct including the NHS Managers Code of Conduct (where these apply)
10. All policies and procedures related to infection prevention and control as relevant to their post
·To raise any concerns as soon as possible, as per whistle blowing policy, relating to any:-
·Healthcare matters, e.g. suspected negligence, mistreatment or abuse of patients; the quality of care provided
·Concerns about the professional or clinical practice or competence of staff
·The treatment of other staff, including suspected harassment, discrimination or victimisation
·Health, safety and environment issues
·Suspicion or knowledge of theft, fraud, corruption, bribery allegations or other financial malpractice
·Employment standards and/or working practices
·Criminal offences or miscarriages of justice
·Failure to comply with any other legal obligation
·Deliberate concealment of any of the above
Information Governance
11. To be fully aware of and committed to all Policies, Procedures and Initiatives relating to Information Governance - this will include, but not limited to, Data Quality improvements, Confidentiality and Information Security.
12. To take personal responsibility for safeguarding and ensuring the quality of information.
Behaviour
The post holder will be expected to:
13. Support the aims and vision of the Trust
14. Act with honesty and integrity at all times
15. Be a positive ambassador for the Trust
16. Demonstrate high standards of personal conduct
·Act as a role model, presenting a positive image of self, team and the organisation
·Value and respect colleagues, other members of staff and patients
17. Work with others to develop and improve our services
18. Uphold the Trust’s commitment to equality and diversity
19. Take personal responsibility for their words, deed and actions and the quality of the service they deliver
Person specification
Qualifications & Education
Essential criteria
20. Registered General Nurse / HCPC registered physiotherapist
21. Diploma in Nursing / BSc (hons) Physiotherapy
22. Willing to work towards: Clinical Examination and Non-medical Prescribing qualifications if not already obtained
23. Degree in health-related subject
Desirable criteria
24. Mentorship qualification
25. Clinical Examination Qualification
26. Non-Medical prescribing qualification
27. Spirometry Interpretation Qualification
28. Ventilation Qualification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
29. Experience in and knowledge of Respiratory Medicine and ventilation (acute and long term).
30. Experience of Band 6 or equivalent working, such as supervising and mentoring team members, rota planning, managing sickness and service planning.
31. Knowledge of Clinical Governance and its implementation
32. Professional accountability
33. Knowledge of local/national Health and Social Care policy
Desirable criteria
34. Experience in the treatment of acutely ill respiratory patients
35. Research experience
36. Experience in telephone advice clinics
37. Experience in nurse/ AHP-led clinics
38. Experience in developing guidelines or protocols
39. Experience in managing complex respiratory patients