Job overview

Following the retirement of the current postholder, there is an exciting opportunity for a talented and highly motivated senior nurse leader with a background in Mental Health to join the team.  The applicant should have an interest in improving the quality and safety of mental health services, be willing to work collaboratively and develop strong links with the acute wards to ensure that our patients needs are treated holistically.  

This post covers the Older Persons Mental Health inpatient wards (Cragside and Sunniside), and the Older Persons Psychiatric Liaison Team, with some flexibility as required to meet the service need.  The ideal applicant will have a background of working in older persons mental health inpatient or liaison services, although this is not essential.  

The postholder will be expected to working in partnership with the Clinical Business Manager, Clinical Lead, and rest of the senior leadership team to suppor the delivery of this service, improving quality, safety and patient experience and ensure compliance with CQC regulations and Mental Health Act. 

Informal contact to express interest in the role welcomed.  Part time hours of 30hours per week would be considered for the right candidate. 

Main duties of the job

The main purpose of the job is to lead and support the provision of high quality, safe and effective patient care and services and continuous improvement of the patient experience by providing effective, professional nurse leadership to the Division. 

·       Provide strong dynamic management and leadership working in collaboration with the Clinical Business Manager, Chief Matron, Matrons, Ward managers / Clinical Nurse Lead / Charge nurses / Specialist nurses and other clinicians. 

·       Take a lead role in developing and improving nursing practice and education throughout the service, to ensure high quality, safe and effective health care services for patients. 

·       Support the Clinical Business Manager in delivering high quality effective services within budget, identifying opportunities for cost improvement where possible.

·       Accountable for the monitoring and maintenance of professional standards within the service and contribute to the strategy for Nursing and Midwifery, which delivers excellence in nursing and midwifery care. 

·       Responsible and accountable for ensuring a safe, clean clinical environment, including leading on infection prevention and control and safeguarding priorities for the business unit.

·       Responsible and accountable, along with the Clinical Business Manager, for ensuring the service meets statutory, regulatory and legal requirements associated with the service.

Working for our organisation

Based in the North East of England we provide a range of hospital and community health services from our leading facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blaydon urgent care centre and Bensham Hospital, all within Gateshead.

Established in 2005, we were one of the first foundation trusts in the country and since then have consistently achieved the highest levels of care for patients.

We now employ around 4,800 staff and currently provide 444 hospital beds across the Gateshead region.

Our values should be the ‘golden thread’ which runs through everything we do – they are the core of who we are. Our five values can easily be remembered by the simple acronym ICORE; Innovation, Care, Openness, Respect, Engagement.

We have a number of staff networks including the Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) network, D-Ability network, LGBTQ+ Network and the Women’s Network, to challenge us and help us to constantly improve. Our Armed Forces network is one of our emerging networks.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our highest priorities, and we offer a range of support and initiatives as part of our ‘Balance’ programme balancegateshead.com to cater for our diverse workforce, so that your individual needs can be supported, allowing you a happy and healthy working experience with us.