ENT Clinical Nurse Specialist

 Key Result Areas:

Expertise & Excellence in Clinical Practice

Contribute to the delivery of evidence-based personalised and compassionate care which places quality at the heart of specialist practice.  Care will responsive to individual needs and reflect current local protocols and national guidelines.

Act as an accessible professional for the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) supporting the management of a clinical caseload for at least 80% of the role.  This will necessitate a degree of autonomy and advocacy to ensure the delivery of appropriate care.

Contribute to the management of a caseload of patients within speciality and prioritise workload to meet patient and service need.

Use knowledge of the speciality and treatment to support the development of personalised care pathways for individuals and assist with holistic needs assessment, planning and evaluation of care and all care interventions.

Act as a patient advocate to facilitate the process of shared decision making in respect to health, choice of treatment and care.  Use interpersonal and communication skills where there may be significant barriers in order to build confidence.  Ensure that patients’ individual needs are expressed and valued and individual care plans are understood.

 Advise on disease and symptom management for patients within the speciality in both inpatient and outpatient settings.  Evaluate response to interventions and cascade to relevant colleagues.

 Support patients to self-manage their condition where deemed appropriate.  Provide education for those who will need guided support to self-manage and those who will need ongoing face to face support.

 Assist in the development and delivery of nurse led or parallel clinics in line with National guidance and local service need.

Act as a resource providing specialist advice and support across service boundaries to ensure optimum liaison and co-ordination of car

Undertake clinical competencies relevant to this specialist service to demonstrate expertise in extended nursing roles.  Assess and assist in managing individual psychological reactions to diagnosis, treatment and associated side effects of including giving advice and support to patients with Head and Neck Cancer, attending clinic/ward when diagnosis is given and acting as the communication link between Health care staff at SWFT / UHB / UHCW and the patients.

Management & Leadership

Act as a role model demonstrating high standards of holistic care and provide clinical leadership to others across the organisation.

Provide support to ensure public and patient involvement is embedded within the sphere of practice.

Assist in setting measurable outcomes for the service and continuous evaluation of practice supporting changes where necessary.

Contribute to the clinical governance agenda.

Participate in operational and strategic planning for the development and delivery of the specialist service.  Support service improvement activities.

Attend Trust senior nurse meetings and contribute to the agenda and strategic nursing vision.

Represent the Trust by contributing to and participating in meetings locally, regional and nationally relating to the speciality.

 Contribute to an annual service review, gathering information to support the annual report.

Communication

Take personal responsibility for ensuring effective communication between all service providers.

Act as a role model for excellent communication skills.  Demonstrate empathetic interpersonal and communication skills in supporting, informing and advising patients and carers through diagnosis, treatment, disease progression, prognosis and supportive and palliative care where applicable.  This will involve occasionally imparting significant news or supporting patients and carers during and following such consultations.

Effectively and sensitively communicate complex and sensitive information to emotionally distressed patients and family/carers at key points along the care pathway on a frequent basis.

As a core member of the MDT provide professional advice to members of the MDT and liaise with inter-hospital departments and personnel across organisational and professional groups.

Refer to other health professionals and outside agencies to ensure optimum care and ongoing support for individual patients/carers, and to ensure the seamless transition from primary to secondary care appropriate to patients’ individual needs and circumstance

Maintain links with local and national organisations, which support the care of patients within this speciality.

Education

Identify and use educational strategies to deliver information to patients and carers.

Participate in the development of patient focused education including training to support self-management and health promotion activities

Assist in the development of other professionals by contributing to Trust wide specialist education and training.

Support the delivery of formal and informal teaching initiatives as part of the Trust’s education strategy as agreed with the appropriate senior nurse to ensure practice development, staff empowerment and improved care for patients.

Act as a mentor/clinical supervisor as appropriate.

Take personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through clinical supervision and appraisal.  Actively engages with learning and development opportunities needed to work as an advancing practitioner and take appropriate action to ensure these needs are met

Contribute to promoting educational links with local providers of higher education and deliver lectures on a range of courses.

Quality, Audit, Innovation and Research

Assist in the development of written patient information and use existing appropriate resources to inform users, according to individually assessed need.

Work within the NMC code of professional conduct.

Contribute to the development of policies and clinical guidelines to support the specialist service

Collaborate with other MDT members to develop and update multi-professional Trust operational policies and guidelines.

Maintain patient records and ensure an effective documentation system to reflect the activity and delivery of specialist nursing care

Promote the service were applicable.

Use creative reasoning, experience and vision to support advancement of care.

Develop new skills in response to emerging knowledge and techniques

Supports management of change as required.

Maintain membership and attendance at national and local forums to network and debate issues to inform the specialist nursing role and service delivery where applicable.

Assist with the collation of data to provide evidence of productivity, outcomes and quality through audit and research.

 Contribute to the identification of patients eligible for trial entry.  Provide support to patients considering entry to clinical trials in relation to informed consent and advocacy.

 Participate in clinical research relevant to practice area.

 Assist in the development of links and system to seek the views of patient and carers to ensure service development is in line with user need. 

Additional Responsibilities

Receive referrals via a variety of sources, including direct patient referrals. Triage caseload and clinic priorities according to agreed protocols and working practices

Coordinate and perform tracheostomy and indwelling voice prosthesis changes for long term outpatients and maintain accurate databases. Work with consultants to develop and deliver a nurse led ear de-waxing clinic

 Work with the multidisciplinary team at Central England Rehabilitation Unit to advise and educate on tracheostomy care.

 Post-operative monitoring of calcium levels for Thyroid and Parathyroidectomy patients and liaise with the consultant.

 Carry ENT first on call bleep when the VTS trainees are off site.