We are seeking an experienced and motivated Band 7 Community Heart Failure Nurse to join our Oxfordshire team on a 12-month fixed-term basis. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in delivering high-quality, patient-centred care to individuals living with heart failure in their own homes and community settings.
The post holder will work autonomously and as part of a multidisciplinary team to provide specialist assessment, diagnosis support, treatment optimisation, and ongoing management of patients with heart failure. You will contribute to reducing hospital admissions, improving quality of life, and supporting patients and their carers through education and self-management strategies.
The role involves close collaboration with GPs, cardiologists, community teams, and acute services to ensure seamless, coordinated care across the patient pathway. You will also support service development, clinical audit, and quality improvement initiatives to enhance outcomes for patients with heart failure.
This position is ideal for a nurse with significant cardiology or heart failure experience who is confident in clinical decision-making, medication titration and delivering care in community settings.
Main duties of the job
* Deliver specialist heart failure care in community settings, including home visits and clinic‑based reviews, for patients with confirmed heart failure.
* Undertake comprehensive clinical assessments, including history taking, physical examination, and interpretation of relevant investigations (e.g. blood tests, ECGs, echocardiogram reports).
* Initiate, titrate, and optimise guideline‑directed medical therapy for heart failure in line with local and national protocols, using independent prescribing skills where appropriate.
* Monitor patients’ clinical status, response to treatment, and disease progression, adjusting management plans to reduce risk of deterioration and hospital admission.
* Provide expert education and support to patients, families and carers to promote self‑management, including advice on medication adherence, symptom recognition, fluid management and lifestyle modification.
* Deliver and support advance care planning, and provide palliative and end‑of‑life care for patients with advanced heart failure, working closely with patients, families and specialist palliative care services to ensure care is aligned with patient wishes.
* Work collaboratively with GPs, cardiologists, community teams, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to coordinate care and ensure timely escalation when required.
* Contribute to service development, including audit, quality improvement initiatives and implementation of evidence‑based practice.
Job responsibilities
* Demonstrate autonomous decision making at a highly specialist level whilst taking responsibility and accountability for a designated caseload of patients to optimise health and wellbeing.
* Be an expert clinical resource and role model, delivering advanced clinical nursing review and consultations within nurse‑led clinics and patients homes. This will be in accordance with the developing needs of the service.
* Have the knowledge and skill to undertake a full and thorough assessment of a patient’s health status, including physical examination, a review of their medical history and medications, determine a differential diagnosis, as well as analysis and interpretation of diagnostic test results.
* Using a holistic approach assess and evaluate, with patients and/or carers, the effectiveness of the treatment and care provided in conjunction with specialist teams, implementing necessary adjustments to management plans based on their evolving needs and response to treatment.
* Analyse and interpret complex facts and situations that enable the delivery of appropriate treatments and interventions such as medication management, symptom control, lifestyle modifications and anticipatory care planning.
* Work autonomously within the wider health care team and as a lone practitioner.
* Provide expert support and guidance to those receiving and delivering palliative care to heart failure patients (including GPs, Palliative care HCPs, Community HCPs).
Qualifications
* Registered Adult Nurse with the NMC
* Evidence of community based nursing
Education
* Advanced clinical assessment course
Skills
* Previous experience of formal/informal teaching of patients, staff and colleagues
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.
Community heart failure nurse, clinical lead
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