Key Result Areas:

Expertise & Excellence in Clinical Practice

Contributes to the delivery of evidence-based personalised and compassionate care which places quality at the heart of specialist practice.  Care will responsive to individual needs and reflect current local and national guidelines.

Acts as an accessible professional for the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) supporting the management of the VTE & anticoagulation clinical caseload.  This will necessitate autonomy and advocacy to ensure the delivery of timely and appropriate care to meet patient and service needs.

Participates in the ongoing development and delivery of nurse led clinics in line with local service need covering newly diagnosed VTE’s, vitamin K antagonists and Direct Oral Anti-Coagulation therapies. Clinics may be face to face or telephone and will incorporate the use of agreed protocols and clinical and professional guidelines.

Assesses patients together with their medical and drug history to determine suitability for anticoagulant therapy. 

Uses knowledge of the speciality and treatment to support the safe, appropriate, effective and timely assessment, implementation, delivery and evaluation of evidence-based practice.

Organises their own workload and adjust priorities in response to changes or issues arising within the workplace. 

Proficient in phlebotomy. Undertakes both venous and caplillary blood testing and analysis of blood results.  Calculates doses of anticoagulant treatments within the service under the guidance of local protocols.

As a non medical prescriber, prescribes relevant anticoagulant therapy to patients from a limited formulary (only for practitioners registered as non medical prescribers on the NMC register).

Acts as a patient advocate to facilitate the process of shared decision making in respect to health, choice of treatment and care.  Uses interpersonal and communication skills where there may be significant barriers in order to build confidence.  Ensures that patients’ individual needs are expressed and valued and individual care plans are understood.

Advises non specialist clinicians on the management for patients within the speciality in both inpatient and outpatient settings.  Evaluates response to interventions and cascades to relevant colleagues.

Supports patients to self-manage their condition, where deemed appropriate.  Provides education for those who will need guided support to self-manage and those who will need ongoing face to face support.

Act as a resource providing specialist advice and support across service boundaries to ensure optimum liaison and co-ordination of care.

Undertake and achieves clinical competencies relevant to this specialist service to demonstrate expertise in extended nursing roles with annual evaluation. 

Management & Leadership

Acts as a role model including a specialist resource for clinical staff, patients and carers and relevant external agencies.

Provides support to ensure public and patient involvement is embedded within the sphere of practice.

Assists in setting measurable outcomes for the service and continuous evaluation of practice supporting changes where necessary.

Contributes to the clinical governance agenda.

Participates in operational and strategic planning for the development and delivery of the specialist service.  Support service improvement activities.

Represents the Trust by contributing to and participating in meetings locally, regional and nationally relating to the speciality.

Contributes to an annual service review, gathering information to support the annual report.

Communication

Takes personal responsibility for ensuring effective communication between all service providers.

Acts as a role model for excellent communication skills.  Demonstrate empathetic interpersonal and communication skills in supporting, informing, educating and advising patients and carers through their journey

As a core member of the MDT, provides professional advice to the VTE and anticoagulation team. 

Refers to other health professionals and outside agencies to ensure optimum care and ongoing support for individual patients/carers, and to ensure the seamless transition from primary to secondary care appropriate to patients’ individual needs and circumstance.

Maintain links with local and national organisations, which support the care of patients within this speciality.

Education

Supports and participates in the development of VTE and anticoagulation training programmes and seminars.

Participates in the development of patient focused education including training to support self-management and health promotion activities.

Assists in the development of other professionals by contributing to Trust wide specialist education and training.

Supports the delivery of formal and informal teaching initiatives as part of the Trust’s education strategy as agreed with the appropriate senior nurse to ensure practice development, staff empowerment and improved care for patients.

Ensures staff and where appropriate patients and carers are fully trained on anticoagulation equipment and consumable products 

Acts as a mentor/clinical supervisor as appropriate.

Takes personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through clinical supervision and appraisal.  Actively engages with learning and development opportunities needed to work as an advancing practitioner and take appropriate action to ensure these needs are met.

Contributes to promoting educational links with local providers of higher education and deliver lectures on a range of courses.

Quality, Audit, Innovation and Research

Assists in the development and evaluation of written patient information and use existing appropriate resources to inform users, according to individually assessed needs.

Works within the NMC The Code.

Contributes to the development, implementation and evaluation of policies and clinical guidelines to support the specialist service.

Collaborates with other MDT members to develop and update multi-professional Trust operational policies and guidelines.

Maintains patient records and ensure an effective documentation system to reflect the activity and delivery of specialist nursing care.

Promotes the service across all adult wards and departments.

Uses creative reasoning, experience and vision to support advancement of care.

Develops new skills in response to emerging knowledge and techniques

Supports management of change as required.

Maintains membership and attendance at national and local forums to network and debate issues to inform the specialist nursing role and service delivery where applicable.

Assists with the collation of data to provide evidence of productivity, outcomes and quality through audit and research.

Assists in the development of links and system to seek the views of patient and carers to ensure service development is in line with user needs.

Additional Responsibilities

To undertake health assessment training.

To undertake phlebotomy.