Lead Nurse
Job Description
Job summary
We are looking for a qualified and experienced, dynamic, highly organised and enthusiastic senior general practice nurse, with outstanding clinical and leadership skills and a large heart for people with excellent communication and a team working ethos. You will have vision, be adaptable, and conscientious. The successful candidate will work closely with the wider clinical team, GP Partners and managers, supported by excellent administrative team, to deliver patient care of the highest quality.
Main duties of the job
Working as part of the practice multidisciplinary senior leadership team, the post holder will lead and develop the practice nursing team to ensure nursing services are delivered effectively and efficiently in line with NHS contract requirements. The lead practice nurse will be responsible for a number of clinical areas such as infection prevention and control, health promotion, chronic disease management, health prevention, as well as supporting the practice management team in the reviewing and delivery of Health & Safety requirements along with clinical policy and procedure.
About us
Lambert Medical Centre is a well-established practice offering patient services from its partnership owned premises in Thirsk town centre, a semi-rural market town. We offer services to those living in Thirsk and the surrounding villages. We have a stable patient list size of 8,600 and we dispense medication to approximately 40% of our list. There is an excellent range of housing and schools nearby with many local activities and the Yorkshire Moors and Dales on our doorstep.
We are a stable 4 partner GMS practice with an enthusiasm to develop our practice further. We are rated good by CQC (with an outstanding in 'caring'). We have a strong patient focus, with our ethos and values being rooted in delivering care for our community that we and our families would be happy to receive. We consider ourselves a forward-thinking practice and enjoy good links with other organisations. We work in collaboration with our PCN (Hambleton South), neighbouring practices, our GP Federation and our local community to ensure we deliver high quality healthcare services in a safe environment which is welcoming, caring and accessible to all. We are a training practice, and we also have good links with Hull York Medical School who we partner with to deliver medical student teaching. Some of our GP partners have additional outside interests which we feel adds further value and experience to our leadership team. These include: GP Appraiser, GP Mentor, PCN Clinical Director, LMC Chair.
Job responsibilities
Management responsibilities:
- Enable the nursing team to work efficiently and effectively to provide a high-quality service to patients
- Identify the workforce that is required to provide services to meet the needs of the patient population and negotiate with the practice management team for this workforce
- Monitor and advise on the effective use of physical and financial resources by the practice nursing team
- Enable the practice nursing team to apply and improve clinical governance and risk management systems
- Lead and monitor the development and implementation of policies, standards and guidelines across the practice nursing team
- Lead on CQC compliance, QOF and other agreed areas
- Analyse, interpret and report data on health and well-being, related needs and service use
- Allocate, co-ordinate, monitor and assess the work of the nursing team and individuals
- Recruit and select staff to meet the health and well-being needs of the practice population
- Supervise and assess staff performance and development
- Offer and provide clinical supervision to other members of the practice nursing team and act as a clinical ''expert''
- Develop a working environment that promotes healthy, safe and effective work outcomes
Clinical responsibilities:
- Identify, assess and diagnose patients with complex health needs across the practice population
- Lead the introduction and use of technical and specialist nursing treatments for patients with complex healthcare needs
- Prescribe products to meet the needs of patients within the practice population
- Lead and develop programmes to improve health and well-being and meet the specific needs of communities, groups and individuals
- Work with others to change policies and improve health and well-being and reduce inequalities
- Lead the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based practice to improve the services offered by the practice nursing team
- Lead the team in quality assurance, development and clinical governance.
- Work with other members of the practice team in the implementation of specific aspects of the NSFs.
Management of chronic disease:
- Diagnosis, monitoring and development of individual management plans; agreeing these as appropriate with the patient and other health professionals
Therapeutic monitoring:
- Checking compliance with and adherence to appropriate treatments, using an holistic patient-centred approach
- Recognising abnormalities
- Identifying the impact of treatment and implementing or recommending changes as appropriate.
Wound care and management:
- Assessing routine wounds including trauma
- Assessing [and prescribing] to support good wound management in complex situations (e.g. use of Doppler technique)
Patient health checks:
- Working with patients to develop a management plan where health problems or potential health problems are identified
- Identifying health trends and public health issues and working with the team and others to combat these.
Risk assessment:
- Recognising issues and gathering sufficient information to refer (eg drugs; domestic violence; child protection; vulnerable adults; senior patients; social problems)
Health screening:
- Providing in-depth monitoring and advice as appropriate and working with the patient in deciding on management plans
- Considering the issues in the light of the practice population.
Travel health:
- Provision of specialist and evidence based support to the team
- Working with public health initiatives, ensuring the work of the team is up to date.
Immunisation (adult and child):
- Working with public health initiatives, ensuring the work of the team is up to date.
- Leading the team in achieving the immunisation guidelines and targets
First contact:
- Working as an autonomous practitioner on more complex cases.
Minor surgical procedures:
- Leading the development of the nurses role in the delivery of the service.
Mental health:
Ensuring that appropriate systems are in place for effective patient monitoring.
Person Specification
Skills
Essential
- Ability to work within own scope of practice and understand when to refer to GPs
- Understanding of infection prevention and control measures
- Knowledge of health promotion strategies
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Good organisational skills
- Comfortable and confident working with colleagues at all levels
- Attention to detail
- Ability to manage conflicting workloads
Knowledge
Essential
- Broad knowledge of clinical governance
- SystmOne
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office Programmes including, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.
Desirable
- Knowledge of other information technology systems such as intranets like TeamNet, SMS messaging systems etc.
Qualifications
Essential
- Education and Qualifications:
- Adult nursing qualification
- Qualified to degree level
- A minimum of 3 to 5 years post qualification experience
- NMC registration
- Chronic disease management
- ECGs
- Spirometry
- Travel medicine
- Immunisations (routine, childhood and travel)
- Women's health (cervical cytology, contraception, etc.)
- Venepuncture
- Wound care
Desirable
- Non medical prescribing
- Management qualification
- Complex wound care
- Frailty
