NursingNetUK

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical leadership:

As the Clinical Lead in Children’s Community Nursing is a clinical leadership role within Sussex Community Trust (SCFT) Children and Young People’s Community Nursing Service (CYPCNS) you will have both advanced and specialist expertise in clinical, children’s nursing care, research, audit, practice development and educational support. You will contribute to the development of the countywide Children and Young People’s Community Nursing Service plan and together with other senior nurses, will ensure policy and practice is developed and delivered in line with Trust and national best practice standards, and will undertake priority clinical projects to improve service provision both locally and Trust wide.

Clinical Expertise:

As a Clinical Lead you will promote the health and wellbeing of children/young people and their families to ensure the provision of high quality, safe, clinical nursing care to children and families on the CCN caseload in collaboration with the Team Lead. You will hold your own independent clinical caseload and be proficient in clinical nursing assessments and interventions for children/young people in the community. This is a dynamic role able to flex to meet the needs of children and families on the caseload. You will work closely with other health professionals within the Trust and across the health economy, as well as across statutory and third sector agencies.

This role offers a holistic, streamlined service that is easy for patients and families to access and can prevent or shorten hospital admission. You will protect, safeguard and promote the well-being of children in accordance with ‘The Children Act’ (1989 & 2004) and ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (HM Gov. 2013). You will provide education, training and competency assessment of clinical nursing skills for colleagues, students, parents, carers as well as children and young people on the caseload.

Nurse Prescribing:

The Clinical Lead within Children’s Community Nursing  is, or will undertake training to become, a Non-Medical/Independent Nurse Prescriber (V300) who can offer clinical reviews, assessments and prescribe appropriately for children in the community.  You will then prescribe within the limits of their professional competency and Trust guidelines.

Communication and working relationships

As the Clinical Lead within Children’s Community Nursing you will:

• Provide, receive and understand complex, or sensitive information relating to children and young people with a range of health needs. This will include children with highly complex long term conditions and those children with life threatening and life limiting conditions. The Nurse will be competent in providing support on particular clinical issues related to the child and family and their clinical conditions i.e. when undertaking assessments.
• Communicate information effectively with members of the multi-professional team both within the organisation and with external stakeholders and partners, to ensure specialist care is delivered to children both effectively and efficiently and ensuring that continuity is maintained.
• Work with children and families to help maintain their own health and well-being in the community by teaching them and junior staff/carers about their condition and its management, including how to carry out health care procedures at home, utilising a variety of strategies to assist the family in understanding their child’s health needs and how these can be met including competency assessment.
• Communicate complex and sensitive information effectively to children/young people and their families and other staff overcoming any barriers to understanding and providing support during distressing or emotional events using alternative and augmentative methods of communication.
• Communicate proactively with staff on the clinical condition and treatment/discharge plans of children and ensures accurate records are maintained by staff.
• Lead and support team in co-ordinating the discharge process and ensures high standards of written and verbal advice are available to the children and their families / carers.
• Ensure that the Team Lead, Matron and/or General Manager are informed of pertinent clinical and management problems in a timely manner.
• Report and escalate as necessary any safeguarding or patient safety concerns for the children on the caseload according to trust and local policy.
• Ensure systems are in place to proactively disseminate information; arranges and facilitates staff meetings, shares Trust communications, reads emails and professional/managerial literature as required to pass on relevant information.
• Work in partnership with PALS and senior management to provide resources within the CCNT, for the management and local resolution of patient related complaints.
• Work together with senior manager and HR department to support and participate in the recruitment and retention of staff.
• Act as an ambassador / role model for Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and the Nursing Profession. May be asked to give presentations to university students and other interested bodies about the work of the CCNS.

Key responsibilities

• Support the Team Lead with the recruitment of staff into the team and contribute to workforce planning with the Matron’s and General Manager.
• Support the Team lead with budgetary responsibility for the team including an awareness of cost implications and effective use of resources, working closely with the Matron and General Manager.
• Support the team lead with ensuring all Health and Safety requirements are met, including identification and management of risk and all accidents and incidents are reported via the correct channels and investigated with implementation of relevant recommendations.
• Lead the Team to take part in the ‘End of Life Care’ on-call rota as the service evolves, including supporting bespoke, 24hr direct nursing support working in collaboration with local hospice and charity organisations as appropriate.
• Support the team lead to ensure a safe and consistent service is delivered by leading and managing staff annual leave requests and allocating workload within the team, assisting with prioritisation and ensuring equity of caseloads.
• Set and maintain clinical and service performance standards, and support data collection and data analysis to enable optimum performance and service delivery.
• Lead and manage the day to day operational nursing, personnel, performance and allocation of work, reporting directly to either the Matrons or General Manager.
• Support the clinical leads on developing a countywide health needs profile and work with the Matrons and General Manager to secure funding to establish provision based on identified need.
• Work in partnership with the team lead on staff development and performance within the team and ensure that all appraisals are completed annually and ensure feedback on performance is given at regular intervals throughout the year in conjunction with clinical lead.
• Educate and support staff offering direction and leadership surrounding continual professional development and performance of best clinical practice with clinical lead.
• Lead on change management within the team and initiate development of the CYPCNS to meet the often complex and changing health care needs of children in the community based on the best available evidence, working in collaboration with the clinical leads.
• In conjunction with the service wide clinical leads, implement clinical policies, write and maintain care standards and clinical policies in line with SCFT Trust requirements, evaluate and adjust as required, in partnership with Matrons, General Manager and other senior team leads.
• Ensure health records are maintained and compliant with SCFT Trust policy and keep accurate, legible, contemporaneous records and written reports as required.
• Follow established procurement processes in relation to medical devices and consumables for children on the caseload and ensure that systems are in place to monitor training, maintenance and review of appropriateness. Support staff with managing medical devices in the community and maintain accurate information regarding the medical devises compliance audit for safety and planned maintenance.
• Assist the Named Nurse for Child Protection in co-ordinating child protection processes in accordance with Trust policy whilst supporting junior staff in understanding and exercising the Trust safeguarding policy and Sussex procedures
• Initiate, maintain and analyse relevant service data which will demonstrate activity of the team and assist with identifying service needs as well as future direction and development.
• Regularly evaluate, with the team lead, the clinical effectiveness of care and other resources being provided and make adjustments where appropriate in order to make the best use of CYPCNS
• Develop, implement, and evaluate guidelines/teaching tools for children/families/colleagues, healthcare professionals for use within the service for care of identified health needs and promotion of well-being, in conjunction with the Clinical Leads, SCFT Education Department leads and Practice Development Nurses.
• Participate in nursing research and audit projects pertinent to clinical community practice, as well as the strategic service direction in conjunction with CYPCNS quality and standards forums and Clinical Leads.

The successful candidate will join a Team which delivers excellent Children’s nursing services to the residents of Sussex, working in collaboration with our system partners across health, social and voluntary care. You will have a full valid driving licence and access to a car for work purposes.

Our key priority is the care and welfare of our patients and you will be an essential part of this dynamic service providing high quality community care to those who rely on us to enable them to return to, or remain in their own homes.