Lead Chemotherapy Clinical Nurse Specialist

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will be able to find a full Job description and Person Specification attached within the supporting documents or please click “Apply now” to view in Trac

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical and Patient Care Responsibilities
• To work as an autonomous expert practitioner
• To provide up to date evidence based care.
• To be an expert resource, providing expert clinical advice to all members of the interdisciplinary team, patients, carers and other agencies. 
• To utilise advanced nursing skills and extensive knowledge base to undertake specialist assessments, critically analysing complex information to make informed 
decisions regarding appropriate treatment/intervention to ensure the delivery of highly specialist care.
• To be responsible and accountable for legible and contemporaneous records.
• To devise, prescribe, evaluate and document care and treatment and outcomes 
• To assess patients condition and appropriately advise/prescribe and/or administer 
medication within UHB, Local and National best practice guidelines as accordingly. 
• To have a positive influential role and impact on care across the clinical area
Clinical Practice 
• To have an active role in devising and participating in the development and implementation of policies, protocols and clinical pathways to improve care within the clinical area of expertise in line with UHB/ National strategic policy and implement where required throughout the UHB. 
• To actively participate in benchmarking with other specialist services across local/ national/ international organisations. 
• To autonomously manage individual caseload, using expertise in devising, 
providing and implementing highly specialised programmes of clinical care 
spanning primary, secondary and/or tertiary care. 
▪ Provide highly specialist advice to patients, carers and other health professionals.
• To have a highly specialised knowledge base within clinical sphere and become an advice resource for other healthcare professionals from the multi-disciplinary team across primary and secondary care and, where required, tertiary care.
• To ensure consultations and changes in treatment are communicated to all, (internal and external) involved 
• To assess and critically analyse complex health information to implement and evaluate ongoing care management plans and to change as necessary to ensure prompt, effective and appropriate patient care. 
• Using highly specialist knowledge, interpret complex clinical information to educate and advise patients, encouraging them to participate in informed decision making and informed consent 
Communication and Relationships Skills
• To be the lead clinical link between specialist services and other care providers 
• To ensure effective communication with patients and their carers, including the provision of patient and carer education, emotional support and health promotion 
• To ensure adequate communication that is empathetic and reassuring to patients and families especially when information is complex, sensitive and highly emotive
• To provide patients and their carers/families with highly complex information providing empathy and reassurance while ensuring any barriers to understanding have been overcome
• To provide psychological and practical advice/support to patients’ carers/ families whilst respecting patients’ confidentiality 
Professional
• To act as a positive role model within and outside the Health Board
• To work in accordance with Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Professional 
Conduct, Standards for Conduct, Performance and Ethics
• Maintain own professional development in nursing and midwifery locally, 
nationally and seek opportunities to develop role
• Maintain confidentiality under the Data Protection Act
• Be accountable for own professional actions and decisions
• Ensure professional registration/revalidation is up to date
• To undertake Values Based PADRs within the team
• To actively participate in own Values Based PADR process
• To be responsible for annual update of independent prescribing scope of practice
• To continue ongoing professional development by participating in professional forums throughout the UHB/ locally and nationally. 
• To undertake study days and self study to ensure continued development in the area of specialism.
• To encourage innovation in clinical practice (by motivation and example).
• Ensure there are processes in place to receive feedback from 
patients/carers/families with regard to their experience
Education
• To develop highly specialist knowledge base and be an expert resource for members of the interdisciplinary team regarding specialist care management. 
• To apply highly specialised knowledge attained via MSc level of education to support clinical practice.
• To proactively engage and lead where appropriate in devising, planning and delivering specialist training programmes to a range of health care professionals in a range of settings (e.g. ward/clinic based/lecture theatre/conference) ensuring knowledge of caring for these patients is cascaded and UHB/local/national polices 
on the care of these patients is implemented throughout the UHB 
• To actively consult local/national Universities as a specialised expert resource to devise and deliver educational sessions/ programmes for pre and post registration students across the MDT. 
• To supervise and support the education and development of individual nurses caring for patient group in the clinical area
• To identify and ensure personal educational requirements are met at all times to support advanced clinical practice and skills.
• To set up, implement and manage professional interest groups within various specialities to ensure and maintain the profile of the field throughout the Health Board, using these forums as a platform to provide specialist professional teaching to allow the cascade of information throughout the UHB / local and national forums
• To be responsible for providing ongoing education, training and support for staff to develop new advanced skills. 
Research
• To be able to understand, analyse and disseminate current research and be able to critically analyse its significance to practice. Implementing findings to improve care for service users where needed and share up to date practice with other nurses/health care professionals in the clinical area 
• Actively devise and undertake research projects within specialist field
• To participate and/or co-ordinate UHB, local and national research activity within the specialist area of practice. Ensuring GCP (Good Clinical Practice) certification is 100% up to date
• To provide teaching, support and supervision to allow others to understand and participate in the research process.
• To formulate and/or implement research protocols for NHS/Commercial studies 
in accordance with UHB Research and Development polices.
• To publish and disseminate research conclusions. 
• To present research findings at appropriate meetings locally/nationally/ 
internationally 
Management
• Ensure concerns by staff/ patients/families are appropriately noted, investigated and reported. 
• Using specialist knowledge and extensive clinical expertise be responsible for and manage own caseload 
• Formulate/develop/implement care management policies, protocols and 
guidelines to improve patient pathway / care.
• To identify clinical areas requiring policy/protocol development and support those areas. 
• To develop clinical interventions to improve patient pathway and patient flow and lead on the roll out of these interventions
• To develop and actively participate in service improvement initiatives for specialist client group
• To ensure awareness and where appropriate become involved in directorate / divisional / UHB / National service developments 
• To be responsible for initiating, encouraging and evaluating change whilst 
improving clinical practice and service development within the specialist clinical area.
• To actively participate in the management of concerns, complaints and incidents within your clinical speciality
• To possess IT skills to facilitate the use computer packages to analyse data, results of investigations etc.
• To produce an annual report outlining activity and changes throughout previous year. 
Audit
• To regularly plan, initiate and participate in clinical audits regarding care/patient management.
• To analyse audit data and disseminate/present information at clinical governance meetings, seminars, link nurse meetings etc, on a local, national and international arena. 
• To become a resource to other health professionals undertaking care/patient management audits.
Quality and Safety 
• To be responsible for the immediate identification and response to clinical risk issues within specialist area by instigating measures/action plans to protect patients and staff health and safety.
• To maintain accurate, easily accessible records of all clinical incidents (including the monitoring of trends). 
• To agree action plans (when appropriate) to prevent recurrence of critical 
incidents.
• To raise concerns regarding clinical risk/poor practice within specialist area to 
Lead/Senior Nurse/Directorate Manager/Clinical Director/Clinical Risk 
Department.
• To comply with the University Health Board policies and protocols. 
• To present clinical risk issues at Health Board Quality and Safety meetings when necessary.