Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist - Breast Care

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Expertise & Excellence in Clinical Practice

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

Act as the key accessible professional for the MDT proactively managing a clinical caseload for at least 60 – 75% % of the role. This will necessitate high levels of autonomy and advocacy, using analytical and judgemental skills in undertaking differential diagnosis to ensure the delivery of appropriate care.

The post holder will provide an environment conducive to the needs of all permanent nursing and care members of staff, meeting their learning and developmental requirements.

Work as an autonomous practitioner providing an expert level of care, developing own and others knowledge within the speciality.

Proactively manage a caseload of patients within speciality and prioritise workload to meet patient and service need.

Take the lead in the development and implementation of personalised care pathways for the speciality through holistic needs assessment, planning and evaluation of care and all care interventions.

Effectively manages pathways of care, adapting to patients’ emerging needs by ensuring a planned and co-ordinated approach to care, supporting enhanced recovery and reducing inappropriate admissions to improve patient experience and safety.

Receive and act upon referrals directly from health care professionals and makes referrals to other team members and specialist departments as necessary to ensure optimal quality of care.

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 the complex disease and symptom management for patients within the speciality in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Evaluate response to interventions and advise on the adaptation of management.

Empower patients to self-manage their condition, undertaking risk stratification to determine those who can self-manage following education, those who will need guided support to self-manage and those who will need ongoing face to face support.

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

Provide clinical advice and input to commissioning in relation to Breast Care services.

Act as a resource providing clinical expertise, specialist advice and support across service boundaries to ensure optimum liaison and co-ordination of care.

Undertake clinical competencies relevant to this specialist service to demonstrate expertise in extended nursing roles. Assess and effectively manage individual psychological reactions to diagnosis, treatment and associated side effects of breast cancer.

Actively integrates theory and practice.

Management & Leadership

Work with partner agencies including commissioners and influence their strategies in health and personal care of which Breast Care will be a part.

Be a credible and visible source of clinical expertise and leadership to others across the organisation, acting as a role model demonstrating high standards of holistic care.

Supervise the patient caseloads of more junior members of the nursing team assuming overall responsibility where applicable.

Lead and line manage junior members of the team of specialist nurses including responsibility for annual appraisal where applicable.

Manage budgets as necessary.

Analyse complex information including trends to support the delivery of Breast Care services and review performance against defined targets.

Lead on operational and strategic annual service reviews and continuously review and report on performance against the plan, taking action and leading service redesign where appropriate.

Agree and implement an annual improvement plan and continuously review and report on performance against the plan, taking action and leading service redesign where appropriate.

Promote an ethos of continual service improvement and lead specific projects, monitoring progress in terms of milestones and key measures of performance.

Demonstrate transformational leadership through open communication, transparent decision making, seeking to motivate and involve others in developments in the speciality.

Supervise the work of the clinical teams addressing any issues with practice in a timely manner, and keeping the General Manager/ACNO informed

Embed public and patient involvement within the sphere of practice.

Contribute to lead on elements of the clinical governance agenda.

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

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

Work collaboratively with the GM, Matron and ACNO for the division to escalate issues and concerns, celebrate achievements and opportunities for staff and service development within nursing, patient safety, and patient experience

Communication

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

Act as a role model for excellent advanced communication skills and expertise. Demonstrate advanced 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 frequently imparting significant news or supporting patients and carers during and following such consultations.

Effectively and sensitively communicate highly 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 the Breast Care MDT colleagues and liaise with primary, tertiary, charity and volunteer sectors as required.

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.

Network both locally across the sector and nationally to ensure that services locally are at the leading edge of development in Breast Care.

Education

Lead on identifying the training needs of all staff involved in the care of Breast Care patients, their families and carers.

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

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

Influence the development of other professionals by leading or contributing to Trust wide specialist education and training.

Deliver 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 advanced 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.