A high profile, accessible and responsive leader with managerial responsibility for nursing service delivery and advice across our inpatient units & Myton at Home service. To provide compassionate, inclusive leadership & management to promote high standards of clinical care, patient safety & experience; prevention and control of infections; workforce management; finance & budgeting; education & development; patient flow; performance management; digital technology; and research. To work as a nursing lead, demonstrating & developing collaborative working within & across the multi-disciplinary team. To help create the best experiences and opportunities for our staff with the patient at the centre of everything we do. The modern Matron's role is to empower others to strive for continuous evidence-based improvements & to motivate staff to always deliver the highest quality care to all who access our services. The matron will be able to make informed decisions within their speciality areas & scope of professional practice, involving patients & public to ensure agreed standards, targets & objectives are met. The key focus is on quality improvements in safety, effectiveness & patient experience in addition to organisational responsibilities which include being the Infection Control Lead, supporting other colleagues and senior nurse on call duties. Digital expertise can transform healthcare, freeing time for patient contact, conserving resources & delivering high quality care. We recently transferred our electronic patient records to EMIS & the matron will be pivotal in continuing digital development both in supporting staff & providing benefit to patients. Main Duties & Responsibilites The Matron's role focuses on the 10 key responsibilities outlined in the Matron's Handbook (2019): Inclusive leadership, professional standards & accountability Governance, patient safety & quality Workforce planning & resource management Patient experience & reducing health inequalities Performance & operational oversight Digital & information technology Education, training &development Research & development Collaborative working & clinical effectiveness Service improvement & transformation Inclusive leadership, professional standards & accountability To be a visible leader, ensuring a physical presence, providing a professional nurse leadership & demonstrating through personal behaviours The Myton Hospices' values. Ensuring a professional appearance, maintaining professional standards & leading by example. To work clinically a minimum of 2 days per week, working alongside the nursing team to develop & gain assurance of clinical practice. To work across all units & departments within areas of responsibility & to be accessible to staff via face to face or other forms of communication, ensuring time is provided to staff to discuss concerns, inequalities or clinical issues that may affect clinical effectiveness. To act as an expert resource, providing advice on nursing issues in relation to policies, protocols, service delivery & the adoption of the organisation's aims. To demonstrate inclusive leadership, embedding local & national standards to ensure the delivery of safe care, working collaboratively with the wider multidisciplinary team. To be the organisation's Infection Control Lead, to ensure policies & procedures are up to date and maintained, be a source of support & advice to ensure maintenance of cleaning standards, environmental cleanliness, infection prevention & control compliance locally, ensuring this is everyone's responsibility. To foster a self-awareness in own leadership style & be open to feedback, using reflection as a tool to facilitate personal development. To be involved in succession planning, enabling staff to shadow other professionals for their development & to deputise for the Deputy Director of Nursing and Care for own department. Governance, patient safety & quality To partake in clinical duties as required, practising within the agreed scope of practice as a registrant. To use & develop innovative systems & monitoring processes to maintain governance, providing assurance of patient safety & quality of care across area of responsibility, working closely & in conjunction with the Clinical Governance and Quality Lead. To conduct nursing quality & safety audit & rectify findings of the audit, ensuring improvement is monitored & evaluated. To participate in other audits as required & appropriate to areas of responsibility such as: 15 steps, medicine management, environmental audits. Provide disciplinary support & performance management to ensure safe & quality care delivered by engaged staff. To ensure safeguarding policies are embedded within areas of responsibility. To be responsible for maintaining safe & harm-free care by ensuring prompt review of incidents & early management of local harms. Facilitating root cause analysis & incident reports, including appropriate recommendations & actions to preserve patient safety. Assess, manage, review, mitigate & escalate departmental risks with oversight and leadership and local as well as national risks. To attend & participate in relevant meetings to ensure safety and learning is shared as appropriate. Workforce planning and resource management To drive recruitment & retention, where appropriate implementing new & innovative roles such as Nurse Associates, to create & grow a flexible workforce fit for the future. Undertake workforce establishment reviews & ensure staffing levels and skill mix are safe to deliver high quality care, including the assurance that ward budgets are managed effectively & that costs relating to bank & agency staff are kept at a minimum. To have a clear understanding of workforce related issues such as recruitment & selection, sickness review, daily staffing, training & education. Build a diverse workforce by supporting processes of fair recruitment. Implement & embed processes locally to enable development of staff & fair progression into senior roles. Support staff retention by ensuring new starters are supported, considering ways of flexible working, supporting experienced workforce & staff health & wellbeing. Patient experience & reducing health inequalities Promote compassionate and approachable, inclusive leadership, advocating for respect, dignity and inclusivity for staff, carers, patients & service users, safeguarding Equality & Diversity. Work with Ward Managers & Service Leads to set standards and ensure quality of patient experience, including prompt responses to feedback, utilising themes from feedback to rectify any shortfalls & share results with teams. Performance & operational oversight Leading & supporting staff to achieve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by working with the senior management team in monitoring practice to preserve quality of care, contributing to planning the next steps in service and patient care delivery to meet those operational indicators. Be active in the positive approach to admissions & discharges to support the capacity & demand of the organisation, ensuring access to our services. Ensure there are robust processes for admission & discharge utilising technology, in reach, outreach & a lean approach. Understand the financial approach & meet the forecast plan for departmental & service budgets. Support organisation initiatives & with the support of the finance team, contribute to achieving the financial plan for the areas of responsibility. Digital & information technology To act as a central conduit for staff, ensuring that nursing input is provided to projects within the organisation & that information about digital projects are shared with all staff. To support the advance & compliance of the electronic patient record within the areas of responsibility. To oversee IT training provision for staff, to ensure they know how to navigate the IT systems. Education, training & development Participate in self-development which may involve accessing in-house training relevant to palliative care, identifying external learning opportunities & peer support. Work alongside the Clinical Education Team to support & develop staff, completing training needs analysis to ensure equal access to training & development. Works in collaboration with the clinical education team to monitor & assure compliance with mandatory training for the Inpatient Nursing & Hospice at Home in conjunction with the Service Leads. Research & development Support research being undertaken by the organisation as appropriate, ensure information is disseminated to teams. Support staff to access research activities, for example, attending journal clubs or participating in external research projects. Collaborative working & clinical effectiveness Use clinical experience & leadership skills to collaborate with staff and senior team to ensure patients & families receive quality, inclusive care, by identifying and developing local initiatives that contribute to clinical effectiveness, such as matron drop in sessions, sharing improvement projects. Ensure patients receive effective clinical care every day and lead staff to deliver this, e.g. engaging with wider campaigns, using measures and guidelines, developing strategy to meet local objectives. Identifying relevant meetings to attend to provide and receive updates on care delivery, lead incident & root cause analysis meetings. Service improvement & transformation Empower staff to take on a wider range of clinical skills to introduce service improvement and transformation, with support from senior management team where appropriate. Encourage continuous quality improvement. Be a change agent. Motivate others to give the highest quality care which may involve shared learning & knowledge from other organisations. Undertake quality improvement by measuring current practice against best practice. Encourage staff to suggest improvement ideas which can be shared with the senior management team to identify together those to be taken forward.