Band 5 Nurse - Trauma and Orthopedics

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Participate with senior nursing staff to support in practice service developments, audit and benchmarking against agreed standards.
• Have a vision for the area/service and be able to work collaboratively with others and implement the vision in practice
• To participate in Clinical Supervision.
• To promote and support an environment through a multi-disciplinary approach and facilitate the development of staff.

To participate actively in all aspects of SafeCare.

• Applies effective communication/leadership skills in clinical practice with a caring and compassionate attitude at all times.
• Establishes and maintains effective communication with individuals, the wider nursing team, and other health professional regarding patient’s conditions, care planning and treatments.
• Be part of the nursing team to ensure effective communication with patient’s relatives and carers, explaining medical conditions, progress and investigations taking into consideration level of understanding, culture and background.
• Develop and maintain effective channels of communication within the team, engaging, staff at all levels.
• Actively manages barriers to communication across all areas of responsibility to ensure positives outcomes.
• Effectively responds to dealing with  difficult and/or complex communication situations e.g. breaking bad news, dealing with concerns and complaints and appropriate escalation where further support is required.  
• Actively participate in professional groups and forums within, and where appropriate external to the organisation eg recruitment open events/ nurse conference.
• Produces accurate and complete records of communication consistent with legislation policies and procedures.
• Communicates regularly and effectively with the senior nurse team regarding all aspects of clinical care and service delivery, including environmental issues.

Communicates with a range of stakeholders and key links e.g. nursing and medical colleagues, ward sisters, matrons, allied health professionals and voluntary organisations.  Across primary and secondary care, professional and technical support staff, PPF, Social Services, Facilities, Administrative and Technical staff

• Analyse and make clinical decisions based on clinical information through detailed Nursing assessment and evaluation.
• Ensure that patient care is planned and delivered to meet individual patient need
• Make clinical judgements involving a range of facts and situations which require analysis or comparison of a range of options.
• Respond to situations and plan short and longer tem adjustments to own workload and that of the team to ensure safe delivery of care.
• Respond to information gained from audit and research in area of practice to implement change where necessary to ensure best practice.
• Take an active in role risk assessment, ensuring incidents and accidents are reported as per Trust policy and that appropriate risk management structures are in place.

• In the absence of the senior nurse team ensure safe staffing and skill mix within the ward/dept is adhered to i:e efficient and safe rostering.  
• Support the senior nurse team with the planning and implementation of audits to meet the needs of reviews, service development and improvements in specialist area of practice.

• Deliver clinical care which may involve a range of expertise in physical skills e.g. IV cannulation and phlebotomy, drug administration, manual handling, delivery of personal care, recording and interpreting vital signs,
• Competence in the use of all medical devices.
• Competent in the use of specialist equipment relevant to the role e.g non-invasive ventilation equipment,
• Accurate IT skills required for e-mail, report writing, presentation and use of end user software such as SMART, Medway.

• Contribute to the provision of individual patient care by personal participation in order to maintain skills as health care professional and provide an effective role model for the nursing and multi-disciplinary teams.
• Demonstrate knowledge and skills through nursing practice of the highest standard in accordance with the NMC Code of Conduct and registration, and local and national policies and guidance.
• Act as patients advocate in all matters relating to his or her care, treatment and welfare acknowledging and incorporating cultural preferences, health beliefs and behaviours.
• Facilitate an environment where health promotion and informed patient choice is encouraged and developed to its maximum potential within the available resources.
• Be part of a team that evaluates clinical practice within the area by monitoring standards of care and ensuring that nursing practice is evidence based and audited regularly in order to provide a continually improving service in accordance with the clinical governance agenda.
• Promote and maintain a culture where staff actively contribute to the clinical governance agenda.
• Ensure accurate clinical records are kept in line with current NMC guidelines on records and record keeping and Trust Policies
• Respond to enquiries from relatives, carers, deal with concerns, formal complaints, including PALS concerns, and actively problem solve to improve the patients experience, escalating to seniors where further support is required.
• Be pro-active in risk assessment and clinical incident reporting and participate in root cause analysis where required,
• Constantly promote the importance of the patient experience within the team, and actively seek the views of patients and carers in the process of evaluating and developing care delivery on the ward/dept.