The Lead General Practice Nurse is responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe and effective nursing care to the entire practice population. As the team leader for the general practice nursing team, the post holder is accountable for nursing service delivery. They will lead and manage all nursing resources, working closely with the GPs and practice manager to deliver the practice priorities. The role focuses on delivering evidence-based practice for patients with acute and chronic conditions and providing preventative nursing interventions. The Lead Nurse will work collaboratively with the general practice team to meet patient needs, support procedures, and provide leadership and direction for the nursing team.
Main duties of the job
* Develop the nursing services offered by the practice.
* Provide clinical leadership within the nursing team.
* Ensure the highest standards of care for patients.
* Manage and develop a clinical acute and chronic caseload.
* Review medication for therapeutic effectiveness.
* Prioritize health problems and intervene appropriately in complex, urgent, or emergency situations.
* Deliver high standards of patient care using specialist practice nurse skills.
About us
Waterfield House Surgery is a unique practice. We are frequently trying to develop ways of recruiting and retaining a team of clinicians to maintain and develop the service we provide. We would welcome a candidate who not only has experience and solid clinical and management skills but who has an interest/vision for service development and delivery sustainability in the 21st century.
Job responsibilities
Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility
Clinical Role
* Make professionally autonomous decisions for which he/she is accountable and provides safe, evidence-based, cost-effective, individualized patient care.
* Where necessary evaluate patient test results in conjunction with the patient and their GP and ensure the appropriate course of treatment is initiated.
* Make appropriate referrals to other members of the primary, community, and secondary care teams.
* Help the practice develop and deliver specialist primary nurse-led services including chronic disease management. Initiate the role of diagnosis for patients suspected to have a chronic disease e.g. diabetes, COPD, asthma, and CVD, referring to other clinicians as appropriate.
* Manage programmes of care for patients with chronic diseases by planning, providing, and evaluating care under agreed guidelines and patient group directions. Maintain disease registers in liaison with administrative staff. Undertake annual review of patients' understanding and ability to self-manage.
* Undertake regular medication reviews for groups of patients deemed suitable by the clinical team.
* Provide comprehensive travel health advice for patients prior to travel including malaria prophylaxis, safe sex, sun protection, food hygiene, first aid and emergency medication, health insurance, and vaccinations.
* Administer child and adult immunisations and vaccinations in accordance with national and local programmes. Competent in anaphylaxis and resuscitation techniques. Ensuring safe storage, rotation, and disposals of vaccines and drugs and that adequate stock levels are maintained.
* Be able to undertake procedures including: venipuncture, glucose tolerance tests, BP management, urinalysis, peak flow, spirometry, pregnancy testing, cytology, wound management, and cryosurgery.
* Provide support and chaperoning to the doctors for minor surgery and other procedures.
* Promote health and wellbeing, giving general education advice on diet, contraception, smoking chronic disease management, exercise, etc.
* Initiate and carry out programmes of health screening as agreed with the practice clinical team.
* Enable supports and encourage individuals, families, and groups to address issues which affect their health and social wellbeing.
* Contribute to the practice achieving its GMS contract obligations.
* Where the post holder is an independent prescriber: to ensure safe, effective and appropriate medication as defined by current legislative framework and local and practice guidelines.
* Maintain accurate records according to NMC rules.
* Ensure all data protection requirements are met when gathering, recording, and storing patient data.
* Liaise and maintain good working relationships with all members of the practice team. Work within the multi-disciplinary team within the practice and across the wider health system.
Teaching and Mentoring Role
* Promote a learning environment for patients, nurses, and other health professionals.
* Assist with the planning and implementation and teaching for practice staff including medical students, nurse students, nurses, and health care assistants.
* Act as mentor for more junior staff and students, assessing competence against set standards.
* Disseminate learning and information to other team members in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments (e.g. courses and conferences).
* Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families, and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning.
* Undertake regular appraisals for the practice nursing team.
Professional Role
* Attend and contribute to relevant internal and external meetings as required including practice clinical meetings, nurse team meetings, and gold standard framework meetings.
* Maintain a personal progress and training plan to keep up-to-date with current thinking and developments as well as identifying own training deficiencies and attending suitable courses as appropriate.
* Promote evidence-based practice through use of the latest research-based guidelines.
* Monitor the effectiveness of their own clinical practice through quality assurance strategies such as the use of peer audit and review.
* Maintain professional registration.
* Work within the latest NMC Code of Professional Conduct.
* Record accurate consultation data in patients' records in accordance with NMC guidance and other standards.
* Keep up to date with pertinent health policy and work with the practice team to consider the impact and strategies for implementation.
* Work collaboratively with colleagues both internally and externally.
* Demonstrate leadership.
* Pro-actively promote the role of specialist nursing expertise within the practice and with the public.
* Use technology and appropriate software packages as an aid to the planning, implementation, and monitoring of care, presenting and communicating information.
* Act as a role model in the observance of equality and diversity good practice.
Managerial Role
* Understand own role and scope in the practice and identify how this may develop over time.
* Work as an effective and responsible team leader, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working.
* Assess, plan, develop, implement, and evaluate treatment programmes that promote health and well-being and participate in protocol development in conjunction with other health care professionals.
* Work with other health care professionals to diagnose, monitor manage and treat chronic conditions, including using non-drug-based treatment methods, in line with national and local policies and practice needs.
* Participate in management meetings, taking on responsibilities and reporting back as required.
* Prioritize own and others' workload and ensure effective time management strategies are embedded within the culture of the team.
* Review medication for therapeutic effectiveness, appropriate to patient needs and in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and practice protocols.
* Act as a role model to support members of the nursing team to undertake mandatory and statutory training requirements.
* Provide clinical educational advice to support development of the team and range of services provided.
* Manage the nurse rotas/holiday/study leave.
Working Conditions
* Exposure to body fluids, blood, wounds, etc.
* Occasional exposure to aggressive behaviours.
Terms and Conditions
* Superannuation: This post is superannuable.
* Health Assessment: This post is subject to a satisfactory pre-employment health assessment.
* DBS Check: The successful applicant will be required to complete a DBS Check.
* NMC: The post is subject to the successful candidate holding a current, full NMC registration.
* Data Protection: All members of staff are bound by the requirements of the Data Protection Act 198 and any breaches of the Act of the confidential nature of the work of this post could lead to dismissal.
* General: The postholder must comply at all times with the Practice Health and Safety Policies and report any incidents to the Practice Manager.
Person Specification
* Well-motivated and able to work as part of a team.
* Comfortable working in a multi-disciplinary environment.
* Consultative approach to work.
* Leadership in managing chronic diseases and QOF.
* Ability to work under pressure.
* Willingness to learn new skills.
Experience
* Minimum 5 years post-registration experience.
* At least 2 years recent primary care nursing experience.
* Experience in nurse-led management of chronic conditions.
* Experience in implementing protocols and clinical guidelines.
* Clinical leadership skills.
* Skills in management of staff and teams.
* Good time management and ability to prioritize workload.
* Clinical skills in cervical cytology, immunization, cryotherapy, and minor surgery assistance.
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
* Ability to work unsupervised.
* IT literacy and keyboard skills.
* Team leader experience.
* Interest in education within a primary care setting.
* Experience of teaching or mentoring.
* Understanding of the role of the practice nurse.
Qualifications
* Qualified to degree level.
* Clinical supervision training and experience.
* Qualifications in family planning, asthma, diabetes, CVD, and/or cervical screening.
* Independent and/or supplementary nurse prescribing qualification.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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