Acting as the Trust's Plastic outreach clinical nurse specialist service, you will provide expert tailored treatment, advice, consultation, support, and guidance to patients, carers, and referring trusts. You will work as a highly skilled, expert, advanced, and autonomous practitioner liaising within multi-professional teams, both within QVH and across all NHS trusts in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.
Main duties of the job
You will be expected to visit patients in all environments and offer specialist advice to other healthcare professionals, to carry out wound care checks and provide treatments for the QVH patients.
A large part of this role is collaboration with other healthcare professionals and imparting knowledge and experience to provide the best care for the patient and their wound. Providing others with education and learning is essential.
Other duties include developing the service for the future, ensuring sustainable growth whilst maintaining standards of specialist care. Innovate and change current practice through the delivery of appropriate education and training to meet service needs.
Where necessary, work closely with the Burns Outreach specialist nurse to manage patients appropriately and gain support and advice to ensure continuity of care, ensuring a tailored approach is adopted for all patients accessing both outreach services.
About us
Rated GOOD overall with outstanding care by the CQC. A specialist NHS hospital providing life-changing reconstructive surgery, burns care, and rehabilitation services across the South of England and beyond.
We specialise in conditions of the eyes (corneoplastics), hands, head and neck cancer, skin cancer, reconstructive breast surgery, maxillofacial surgery, and prosthetics, providing regional and national services in these areas of clinical expertise. Our world-leading clinical teams also treat more common conditions of the eyes, hands, skin, and teeth for the people of East Grinstead and the surrounding areas. In addition, QVH provides a minor injuries unit, expert therapies, a sleep service, and a growing portfolio of community-based services. Patients consistently rate QVH amongst the top hospitals in the country for quality of care.
Our success is underpinned by the skills and enthusiasm of our staff and a strong culture of partnership. We are fully committed to training and development of the workforce with support for continuing education and learning.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The successful candidate will be part of a small team intent on driving the implementation of national best practice guidance for lower limb care. We hold a unique position in the south east coast where lower limb traumas are referred within a day of injury, which, with a prompt assessment and implementation of a robust care plan, can reduce the risk of the development of leg ulcers.
They will be responsible for assessing, diagnosing, implementing, planning, and reviewing care needs for the lower limb patient. It is desirable that they are experienced in performing complex Doppler assessments, interpreting ABPI, and implementing treatment according to findings.
Patients are assessed initially from a photo on referral, after which a plan is formulated, putting the patient at the centre of the assessment process. You will need to use clinical expertise and work autonomously, although a weekly MDT discusses more complex patients when needed.
You will be expected to attend patients in all environments they may be in, offering specialist advice to nursing homes, district nurses, practice nurses, and acute nurses in their care of their patients. Therefore, you must be a confident car driver with UK licence experience; a car is provided during working hours.
A candidate must have excellent interpersonal skills, using communication of all forms, and be skilled in the use of information technology.
Undertake wound therapies, such as negative pressure wound therapy, larval therapy, ABPI assessment, and application of compression therapies as required.
In cases of larger lower limb wounds where good conservative management will still lead to a lengthy healing time, pre-assess patients for skin grafting and provide the initial postoperative care, handing over to community or acute teams when appropriate.
The job role also involves visiting patients at home for the QVH, if there are significant reasons the patient cannot attend to have a dressing change, so a working knowledge of a variety of plastics procedures is of benefit, but not essential as a period of supernumerary time can be spent with the dressings clinic or wards.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
* NMC registered nurse
* Working towards or master's degree to demonstrate specialist knowledge
* Facilitating learning in practice (mentorship)
Desirable
* Plastic surgery qualification
* Wound care qualification
Experience
Essential
* Specialist wound care knowledge not limited to compression therapies, ABPI assessment, negative pressure therapy & larvae therapy
* Current experience at an acute clinical setting as a band 6 or above
* Working within an MDT
Desirable
* Experience of developing clinical protocols and procedures
* Experience of working with a quality improvement framework and completing projects
Knowledge and skills
Essential
* Knowledge of the latest wound care management
* Ability to work autonomously
Desirable
* Ability to carry out sharp debridement on patients' wounds
* Excellent teaching and presentation skills to a varied audience
Additional skills
Essential
* A full UK driving licence
Employer details
Employer name
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Holtye Road
East Grinstead
RH19 3DZ
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