Infection Prevention and Control Specialist Nurse
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHSFT
The post holder will manage the day-to-day activities of the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Team, ensuring that staff comply with IPC policies to reduce healthcare-acquired infections. The post holder is responsible, along with other members of the IPC team, for prevention, surveillance, investigation, and control of infection in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), King's Lynn. They will provide advice and education to staff to promote best clinical practice across the QEH and guidance when required. The post holder will participate in mandatory surveillance programmes and will be required to audit and monitor IPC practice using recognised audit tools, feeding back information and data to staff to improve IPC standards. The post holder will support the Director of IPC (DIPC) and the Head of IPC in developing infection prevention and control strategies, ensuring engagement of all groups of staff, patients, and external organisations where appropriate.
Main Duties of the Job
1. Officially deputise for the Head of IPC and have delegated authority for decision-making.
2. Manage some members of the IPC team, providing clinical and professional leadership.
3. Work autonomously within a wider healthcare team.
4. Participate in the collection, collating, and analysis of surveillance data and clinical benchmarking.
5. Develop and deliver complex risk assessments of patients infected/colonised with alert organisms or with confirmed or suspected infectious disease.
6. Provide IPC advice and support to all levels of staff promoting best practice.
7. Interpret laboratory reports and convey them to clinical and non-clinical staff across the QEH.
8. Identify, investigate, and monitor hazardous practices in relation to IPC, planning actions to minimise risks.
9. Participate in the investigation and control of outbreaks of infection and maintain accurate records.
About Us
There's never been a more exciting time to join TeamQEH. We're working on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a new state-of-the-art hospital to open in 2030 and we are also carrying out one of the biggest pieces of digital transformation work we've ever undertaken. Our new electronic patient record (EPR) will replace paper-based patient records from 2026 and will lead to better, safer, joined-up care at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and beyond. At QEH, we provide a comprehensive range of specialist, acute, obstetrics, and community-based services to around 331,000 people across west and north Norfolk, North Cambs, and South Lincs. We are an ambitious organisation that upholds our values of kindness, wellness, and fairness. We strive for continuous quality improvement, recently demonstrated in our 2024 CQC maternity inspection rating our services as 'Good', and we are proud to be a place to learn and grow through recognised learning and apprenticeships. We recognise and reward our 4,000 staff and volunteers, priding ourselves on a community atmosphere and positive team spirit. We have approx. 530 beds across 33 wards and have newly built education and training facilities, a range of modern award-winning centres alongside a talented team of people ready to give you a warm welcome. We love working here and think you will too.
Job Responsibilities
For further details about this vacancy, please see the attached job description and person specification.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Registered Nurse with relevant experience at a senior level
* Educated to degree level or equivalent
* Teaching Qualification
* Degree in IPC, working towards or willingness to undertake
Experience
* Knowledge and experience of IPC
* Experience of working in an Acute Trust
* Experience of management and leadership
* Experience of undertaking audits and writing reports
* Experience of leading and managing projects across differing clinical areas
* Experience of teaching large groups of staff with differing roles
Skills/Ability
* Effective communication skills, able to communicate effectively and confidently across multi-disciplinary teams
* Understanding of current IPC policies, guidance, and national standards
* Ability to manage own workload and prioritise effectively
* Understanding of operational issues in an acute trust and relationship to IPC and patient safety
* Highly motivated with knowledge of change management
* Knowledge of clinical governance, IPC objectives and relationship with the wider NHS
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.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHSFT
£46,148 to £52,809 a year per annum pro rata
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