Specialist Nurse - Community Palliative Care Team

There is an exciting opportunity for a band 6 Specialist Nurse within the Community Palliative Care Team. The Community Palliative Care Team is a dynamic multi-disciplinary team who provide specialist palliative care services to Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire. This includes home visiting, outpatient and Attend Anywhere clinics and telephone advice. We provide a 7-day service, encompassing pro-active support, a telephone support service and a Virtual Ward. Weekend and extended hours working will be required for this post. We are looking for candidates who display excellent communication skills in supporting patients and their families and strong leadership qualities. Palliative or End of Life Care experience is essential.

As a specialist nurse within the team, the post holder will be expected to demonstrate patient focused expert clinical assessment and judgement. The post holder will also be expected to develop autonomous and multi-disciplinary team working. A full driving licence and car ownership is essential, as is the ability to work anywhere within Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire. The Community Palliative Care Team supports end of life, symptom management and communication skills training and teaching to all levels of staff.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family.

For full details, please refer to the attached job description and person specification. Specialist Nurses will be able to: Assess individuals, families and populations holistically using a range of different methods, using physical assessment and advanced history taking skills and other specialist health needs assessments. Use their expert knowledge and clinical judgement to decide whether to refer patients for investigations and discuss potential diagnoses with members of the wider multi-disciplinary team or when to consult other members of the team for advice. Ensure the provision of continuity of care. Assess and evaluate, with patients and /or carers, the effectiveness of the treatment and care provided and make changes as needed. Work autonomously within a wider health care team and as a lone practitioner Work across professional, organisational and system boundaries and proactively develop and sustain new partnerships and networks to influence and improve health, outcomes and healthcare delivery systems. KEY RESULT AREAS: Clinical Practice: Specialist Nurses will: Work within their scope of practice within the specialist area of practice, autonomously as well as within a multi-disciplinary team. Work clinically to optimise health and wellbeing, demonstrate decision making related to history taking and physical assessment of patients. Plan, prioritise and manage complete episodes of care with support from the wider team and mentor, working in partnership with others, delegating and referring as appropriate to optimise health outcomes and resource use, providing direct support to patients and clients. Act as key worker where this model exists Use professional judgement in managing complex and unpredictable care events Draw upon an appropriate range of multi-agency and inter-professional resources in their practice Appropriately define boundaries in practice and be aware of limitations. Promote a high standard of specialist nursing by initiating and coordinating the assessment, planning, delivery and evaluation of the holistic needs of patients/families through evidence based practice following agreed policies, protocols and guidelines. Practice a high standard of communication including highly sensitive and complex information to develop and sustain partnership working with individuals, groups, communities and agencies. Utilise evidence based information through a variety of communication media. Maintain adequate patient documentation to NMC requirements for all patients seen and advice given in any practice setting and contribute to clinical activity/data collection as required.