Clinical Nurse Specialist

Job summary

At Hospiscare, every role helps us provide outstanding care and support to people living with a terminal illness and those close to them. We are looking for a compassionate, organised and professional Clinical Administrator / Call Handler to join our Clinical Services team.

As the first point of contact for many patients, families and healthcare professionals, you will play a vital role in delivering a welcoming and responsive service. You will handle telephone enquiries with sensitivity and care, support the management of referrals, maintain accurate records and provide administrative support to our clinical teams, helping to ensure our services run smoothly and efficiently.

Main duties of the job

Hospiscare is an independent charity providing specialist palliative and end-of-life care across Exeter, Mid and East Devon. Our teams work together to help people live well for as long as possible, offering expert care, advice and support both in patients' homes and across our hospice services. Joining Hospiscare means becoming part of a compassionate organisation where every role contributes to making a real difference to local people and their families.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. To support fair and unbiased recruitment, we use a blind shortlisting process for all candidates.

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

1. JOB DETAILS

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)

Responsible For: N/A

Accountable to: Chief Nurse

2. 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.

3. KEY RESULT AREAS/PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

3.1 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 and those close to them, carers and other professionals in order 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 Hospiscares clinical governance and audit process in order to support continuing quality improvement and learning.

Assess and identify complex bereavement and effectively communicate with the Supportive Care team to enable a seamless handover into Hospiscares Bereavement Care Services.

Infection Prevention and Control

Maintaining a safe environment for patients, visitors and employees is everyones responsibility. All staff are required to adhere to Hospiscares Infection Prevention and Control Policy and make every effort to maintain high standards of infection prevention and control at all times. This includes ensuring personal and team compliance with all relevant policies and procedures, and acting upon or reporting any identified risks.

Disclosure and Barring Service

This role requires a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Enhanced level check with Adults and Children Barred Lists.

3.2 Key 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

3.3 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
• Take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by acts or omissions at work
• Report any accidents, incidents or near misses as soon as reasonably practicable

Manage own work life balance and general wellbeing, including any relevant pressures in respect of lone working, travel, difficult environments and challenging situations

3.4 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 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

3.5 Other

Apply the Hospiscare values and behaviours to every aspect of the role at all times

Promote and maintain the brand standards of Hospiscare

Person specification

Knowledge

Essential

• 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

Personal attributes

Essential

• 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

Experience

Essential

• Substantial experience of working within a palliative care/end of life environment
• Significant experience of effective clinical governance, audit and standard setting

Desirable

• 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

Qualifications

Essential

• 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.

Desirable

• Advanced Communication Skills training
• Teaching and mentorship/supervision qualification

Additional requirements

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• Car owner and driver

Skills

Essential

• 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
• Developed IT skills