Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
This is a great opportunity to join a new innovative service within cancer care. The Acute Oncology service is looking for enthusiastic and motivated permanent band 6 nurses.
If you are a compassionate skilled cancer nurse, a skilled emergency or medical nurse with a passion for working within cancer services with the motivation to develop your skills, someone who thrives in an ever-changing environment, enjoys a fast-paced care setting, and is passionate about helping the current team shape the future, then this role is for you. You will need to have skills in leadership, be forward-thinking, innovative, and able to delegate.
You will be joining a newly revised and evolving service that supports 7-day working and provides front door assessments to patients who have side effects from their cancer and/or the treatments involved. This exciting opportunity will give you the skills to become a UKONs telephone triage nurse, where you will participate in the rota to triage patients over the phone and direct them onto appropriate pathways. Opportunities for continued learning and involvement in the UKONs AOS forum are available.
If you have a passion for cancer care and would like a career in helping to lead an innovative service for our local population, then this is the role for you.
Main duties of the job
* The AOS Cancer nurse practitioner brings together disciplines from Cancer Emergency department, acute medicine, supportive and palliative care to provide a cohesive service for people presenting with oncological emergencies. To be an active and visual practitioner to provide timely advice and guidance within the Acute setting to support the management of patients with a new or known cancer diagnosis who present as an emergency.
* The Nurse practitioner will autonomously, or with senior nurse/medical colleagues, demonstrate highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in the diagnosis and management of patients.
* Strategic planning, education, research, and audit are key components of the role. The post holder will, with support and development, exercise advanced clinical expertise, levels of judgement, discretion, and decision-making in clinical care.
This post will coordinate the acute oncology service and provide early input of specialist nursing care to oncology patients enabling:
* Efficient and focused care of patients with complications of Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT).
* NNS pathway.
* Key worker for CUP patients.
* Early recognition, intervention, and appropriate treatment of acute conditions, admission avoidance, reduce length of stay.
* Direct access to oncology input for patients with metastatic malignancy of unknown origin, supporting the use of appropriate investigations.
About us
The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust is committed to the personal and professional development of staff and services. The AOS is primarily based on the acute site, working across many boundaries and building on existing and new relationships.
We are committed to the improvement of patient care. The Cancer Clinical Nurse Practitioner role is recognised nationally within the Cancer and Palliative care nursing and medical workforce framework as key to providing focused innovative specialist care to patients with a life-changing diagnosis.
The continued development of increasingly advanced nurse-led services is key to facilitating the evolving and increasingly complex cancer and long-term condition management pathway.
Job responsibilities
Communication and working relationships
* Demonstrate at an advanced level communication skills which provide appropriate support, relevant information, and education to facilitate decision-making on all treatment options for patients and their families/carers.
* Establish close liaison and communication with all disciplines involved in the care of patients and their families/carers to facilitate a coordinated service in the hospital and ensure effective discharge into the community.
* Support new patients, identifying their psychological, emotional, spiritual, financial, and cultural needs in relation to their condition and proposed treatment pathway.
* Act as the patient's advocate when necessary and inform and educate them regarding their treatment options enabling patients to make informed choices, referring back to clinicians where appropriate.
* The post holder has the freedom to act within broad professional policies, seeking guidance from others as necessary. They are accountable for their professional actions as they will not be directly supervised and will have broad local working procedures to operate within.
* Work collaboratively and autonomously with authority, using expert knowledge and skills to help develop and deliver services across organizational, professional, and geographical boundaries.
Planning and organisation
* Reduce LOS ensuring discharge planning starts from the patient's admission.
* Support the review of policies/clinical guidelines.
* Patient safety benchmarking.
* Patient experience measures.
* Participate in the development of the service and act as a change agent, leading staff and facilitating the change process while encouraging others to be innovative and adaptable in their approach to change.
Analytical and judgement
* Be aware of own limitations and emotional effort needed and regularly attend clinical supervision.
* Collect, collate, evaluate, and report information, maintaining accurate patient records.
* Ability to recognise and respond to signs of patient deterioration in a timely manner is pivotal in the AOS role for patient outcomes.
Responsibility for patients and client care
* Make appropriate clinical decisions following assessment utilizing specialist knowledge in this specialty, underpinned by theory and experience.
* Act as a resource in providing evidence-based advice and information to promote the health and wellbeing of patients with a known cancer diagnosis and unknown primary.
* Maintain own clinical development by keeping abreast of new treatments and technologies within emergency and unscheduled care.
* Improve the quality of the patient experience by identifying and meeting the individual clinical needs of patients.
* Promote an innovative and progressive attitude to the continual improvement of patient care through audit, research, and evidence-based practice.
* Act as a role model and highly competent specialist practitioner, providing leadership in developing staff and others' knowledge and skills of patient care within wards, departments, and community settings.
* Have a visible presence with key points of entry across the trust.
* Support the coordination of the metastatic spinal cord compression coordinators and actively participate in the rota for this element of service.
* Support and promote an integrated approach to quality, always seeking to improve patient care and patient experience.
* Be conversant with all Trust policies and procedures and ensure they are correctly implemented.
* Work within the scope of professional practice and adhere to the nursing and midwifery council code of professional conduct ensuring extension of practice in line with the agreed local and national guidelines, protocols, and competencies.
Policy and service responsibility
* Provide expert support, direction, and judgment in the collection of information towards annual peer review processes and service developments, working closely with colleagues in the review and analysis of the service.
* Expand and develop the role to meet the changing needs of patients working within the parameters of the Code of professional conduct, Trust, and NMC guidelines.
* Develop evidence-based policies and procedures specifically required by the team.
* Ensure that all inpatients with complications of Oncology SACT are reviewed by the AOS Oncology team within 24 hours of admission (or next working day).
* Promote the role of the acute oncology service and ensure referral processes and trigger alerts are in place to ensure appropriate timely referrals.
Responsibility for finance, equipment, and other resources
* Ensure the effective and efficient use of physical and financial resources; make recommendations regarding supplies and equipment.
* Collect, collate, and report activity data to key stakeholders, producing regular formal reports.
* Actively manage cancer patient flow working with and advising the clinical site team.
Responsibility for supervision, leadership, and management
* Review own professional development in line with NMC guidelines on PREP.
* Identify personal training and development needs.
* Provide education and teaching to clinical staff and other colleagues on aspects of acute oncology to support the development of specialist skills and knowledge.
* Participate in teaching and assessing in clinical practice, including mentoring members of the cancer SACT team undertaking courses.
* Identify, assess, and meet the educational needs of the patient and their family, paying particular attention to public and personal attitudes to cancer and how these relate to political, social, economic, and ethical issues.
* Undertake training courses to develop, maintain, and increase knowledge, skill, and expertise while reflecting service and Trust aims.
* Work collaboratively with the Cancer Support team, the SACT team, and colleagues on education strategies to support cancer service development and promote practice development.
Information technology and administrative duties
* Utilize IT systems to maintain accurate records of all activity in a timely process.
* Assist and, as required, lead in the audit and evaluation of the service reporting back to lead clinician/matron/managers within the care group.
* Assist in the completion of national audit programs and network agreed minimum data sets.
Responsibility for research and development
* Lead and assist with the development and implementation of clinical audits and research projects in own specialist area, ensuring the findings are disseminated and good practice is shared across the trust and beyond in accordance with trust governance and clinical guidelines including Peer review processes.
* Participate in local and national R&D that can influence and support AOS developments.
Person Specification
Role
* SACT experience
* Education in relevant area
* Acute Medical Nursing experience
* Evidence of advanced communication skills
* Experience of VAD and management of
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.
Employer name
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
Address
£37,338 to £44,962 a year per annum pro rata
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Full-time, Part-time, Job share, Flexible working, Compressed hours
Reference number
388-6970647-NMC
Job locations
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