Job overview
Are you driven and motivated to play a pivotal role in service improvement? Are you committed to providing excellent bereavement care with compassion?
We are looking for a dedicated Specialist Nurse to join our Bereavement and Donation Support team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. If you feel you have the skills and professional commitment to support this service and help us deliver high-quality bereavement care and facilitate tissue donation, then we would welcome your application.
We are seeking someone who is compassionate, emotionally resilient, and committed to developing and delivering bereavement and end of life education within the Trust. This will ensure all staff are supported to reach fundamental levels of knowledge and skills in relation to end of life care.
The role of the Bereavement Specialist Nurse is to provide dedicated support in bereavement care, meeting the unique needs of individuals and their loved ones at end of life and after death. If you feel you have the expertise and personal qualities to support and further develop this vital service, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Main duties of the job
This role will provide excellent individualised care to every patient and their families providing immediate and ongoing emotional support to the recently bereaved throughout the trust. The role also involves staff supervision, practice development and case work management and ensuring clinical staff are competent in this specific area of practice.
You will be a clinical member of the Bereavement & Donation Team, and will ensure bereavement care is provided to patients, families and staff. You will support the Bereavement & Donation Lead Nurse in the development of all strategic and operational provision of bereavement care.in the provision of excellent care with compassion within Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. You will work collaboratively to develop strong relationships with the palliative care team, ward managers / senior nurses, chaplaincy, MEO’s, mortuary and community teams, voluntary and partner organisations regarding bereavement support needs and priorities. You will facilitate the choice of tissue donation for those medically suitable and perform eye retrieval
You will ensure that the CARING model is at the heart of end of life and bereavement care for all patients and their families. You will work with all Trust staff to empower them to act together to do all we can to achieve for everyone what we would want for our own families and to develop a culture that bereavement and end of life care is everyone’s business.
Working for our organisation
We have 10,000 fantastic people working hard to deliver quality services to our patients. Whatever your role, you help look after 370,000 people in our local area & give specialist care to 1.5 million people across Lancashire & Cumbria.
Working with us gives you the knowledge and sense of pride that every activity you do genuinely does make a difference to support our patients & staff, ensuring we keep thriving & delivering outstanding healthcare right across our local towns.
You’ll have access to varied development opportunities, learn new skills, meet fab people & do things you’d never have done. You’ll learn about working in a hospital, interacting with people from all different roles to build skills & enhance your career path.
You’ll make an impact, be challenged to think differently, be bold & help innovate to keep improving things. Everything we do centres around patient care and enhancing their experience which means your role is pivotal and something really to be proud of.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. Supporting the Bereavement and Donation Lead Nurse to maintain strong links with NHS Blood and Transplant ensuring that compliance with key performance indicators are upheld by the team
2. To work autonomously communicating sensitive and complex information working in partnership with multi agencies and organisations involved in end of life and bereavement care
3. Working alongside the Bereavement and Donation Lead Nurse to represent the Bereavement & Donation services at meetings within the trust and with key stakeholders as part of the wider Bereavement Regional Network. Acting as line manager to the bereavement Support assistants
4. Contribute to the development and maintenance of a robust educational programme to be delivered multi-professionally, ensuring that team members are equipped to deliver quality education in keeping with evidence based practice and national standards and guidance, auditing content delivered to ensure relevant information is cascaded.
5. Ensuring the development of core bereavement training for defined staff groups to ensure staff are competent and up to date in the knowledge and practice that enable them to play their part in outstanding end of life care
6. Perform eye retrieval and maintain competency
7. Maintaining a high standard and quality of care through the use of evidence based practice
We know our application form can seem onerous, but its so important we have as much information about you as possible to help us decide who to invite to interview. Our application video can help you understand how to complete it:
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Person specification
Qualifications and Education
Essential criteria
8. Appropriate NMC Registration or HCPC registration
9. Mentorship qualification
10. Post Registration Qualifications relevant to the role
11. Degree level qualification
12. Education/Teaching Qualification
13. Successful completion of a leadership and development programme
14. Advanced communications course
Desirable criteria
15. Leadership and Management qualification
16. NHSBT Eye retrieval competence
17. Counselling skills course
18. Quality improvement qualification
19. MSC or other post grad qualification
Knowledge and Experience
Essential criteria
20. Experience performing clinical duties commensurate to that of the role
21. Experience of working in bereavement care at a senior level
22. Evidence of appraising others
23. Knowledge of the Human Tissue Act
24. Experience of change management
25. Experience of mentorship and ability to identify learning and development needs
26. Experience of line management
27. Understanding of the role of HM Coroner and the Medical Examiner role
Desirable criteria
28. Experience of recruitment and selection
29. Medical certificate cause of death completion experience
30. Budget management experience