Matron Family Health Division

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP:

To provide a visible, accessible and authoritative presence within the Trust to whom individuals can turn to for assistance, advice and support with regards to patient care and safety.

Support the Heads of Nursing to implement the quality nursing agenda, to allow robust measurement of nursing care.

To provide and develop clinical leadership across all services of the acute setting at SWFT.

Provide professional support for other nursing roles such as clinical nurse specialists and specialist practitioners.

Ensure staff have access to appropriate professional and / or clinical supervision, mentoring or coaching as appropriate.

Liaise with the Director of Nursing, Deputy Director of Nursing and the Heads of Nursing in relation to any professional practice developments or concerns.

Work within the NMC Code of Professional Conduct.

Maintain NMC PIN Registration through appropriate clinical activity and clinical development.

Participate in regular professional supervision.

To be responsible for own professional development and keep up to date with current developments in nursing practice and national NHS policy.

To provide clear direction and leadership for nurses with regard to legal, ethical and moral dimensions of nursing across the acute setting.

Undertake clinical activities as required to maintain own skills and lead by example.

Act as clinical leader and role model, sharing expertise and knowledge with colleagues.

To ensure that Trust staff live the Trust values and deliver safe, effective, compassionate, and trusted care and services.

To provide nursing representation at a strategic level on committees relevant to acute services or professional portfolio.

To foster clinical and professional leadership and support to nursing staff throughout SWFT, ensuring that nursing practice is based on current and best evidence 

COMMUNICATION:

To be an advocate for patients, their families, carers and staff.

To develop and encourage good working partnerships throughout the multidisciplinary team (MDT).

Proactively work and engage with Out of hospital colleagues to understand and make links between services to support patients to be discharged in a timely manner and remain at home where possible.  

Act as a role model; employing professional behaviour that encourages and coaches team members to challenge their current competencies, whilst seeking opportunities to expand their roles.  This includes the promotion of a culture of appraisals, and personal development whilst setting clear smart objectives to meet the needs of the individual, clinical area and organisation.

Liaise with all relevant stakeholders including Clinical Leads, Senior Management Team, Senior Corporate team, Social Care, Community Services and CCG colleagues as required to support pathway development and improved coordination of care.

Ensure processes are in place to facilitate effective communication with all disciplines, the patient, their relatives and carers.

Develop a network of links with colleagues and attend local, regional and national meetings relevant to Nursing.

ANALYSIS AND JUDGEMENT:

Handle and process highly sensitive, highly confidential information.

Ensure the environment and ward processes are responsive to the needs of patients and their carers

Promote a blame free ‘just’ culture in reporting incidents, applying any learning derived from the investigation into practice at the earliest of opportunities, supporting staff in the process.

PATIENT INVOLVEMENT AND EXPERIENCE:

To ensure that the care environment in the clinical setting is fit for purpose by monitoring, escalating and directing support services as appropriate.

Support the collection of service user, relative and carer feedback, through local and national mechanisms such as FFT and use this information to shape services and improve the experience of people using our services.

To ensure that there is effective communication and liaison between the PALS and patient experience officers, inpatient services and MDT teams.

To investigate any complaint, written or oral with department managers, general managers and MDTs and ensure a written response is recorded within time limits agreed with the complainant.

To meet with complainants as required.

To audit and improve the inpatient environment and patient experience by implementing the requirements of the Food for life, PLACE, Clean Hospitals Group, ensuring SWFT maintains its high standards.

Ensure that all staff consciously review mistakes, complaints and incidents/near misses as well as successes to improve performance and the level of customer care.

GOVERNANCE, QUALITY AND SAFETY:

To take the lead on safety initiatives as delegated by the Head of Nursing focussing on continual quality improvement

To support and develop department managers to ensure that corporate and clinical governance processes are in place and a culture of quality improvement and patient’s safety is embedded.

Help prepare the Trust in readiness for any external inspections i.e. Care Quality Commission (CQC) including the collection, cataloguing and analysis of data required for CQC compliance.

To develop, implement, monitor and evaluate clinical standards within the Trust and strive for continual quality improvement. Develop policies and protocols for use by the acute services.

To ensure that the Patient Care Indicators are consistently maintained in line with the required compliance across the Trust.

To ensure the ward accreditation process is embedded into clinical practice and is used to drive quality across services.  

Take an active role in the equality and diversity delivery plan and promote accessibility in services and within teams.

To ensure that the Trust delivers the CQUIN targets identified for the organisation.

To liaise where appropriate with Named Nurse for Safeguarding Adults, Mental Health Services, Social care and/or Learning disability leads about individual cases, to support team members and develop or update procedures.

Participate in the planning and preparation for a major incident and provide support as indicated through the call out process as detailed in the Major Incident Policy.

Attend Trust and divisional management meetings, ensuring that essential information is cascaded to staff at departmental meetings and that staff concerns and innovations are acted on

In collaboration with General and service managers ensure that corporate and clinical governance and risk management policies are effectively deployed and continuously evaluated.

Respond to incidents via the Datix system, ensure that risk assessments and identified action plans are implemented and promote a good reporting and safety culture within MDTs.

Participate in infection prevention and control activity, surveillance, environmental audits and support departmental managers in the preparing and fulfilling action plans and root cause analysis when needed.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENTS & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:

To ensure that all MDT teams and departmental managers are aware of quality performance indicators which affect their area of practice and support them in continually improving their performance against these.

To ensure staff are working towards achieving the Trust objectives and to provide reports as required.

To take the lead on quality indicators and work in collaboration with department managers and MDTs to ensure that benchmarking standards and quality improvement is integrated within the ethos of each area.

To lead and chair the stranded patients weekly meetings in order to reduce length of stay and improve patient experience, safety and flow

Ensure all of the inpatient wards keep their digital systems up to date to help maintain patient flow and patient safety including criteria to reside in the hospital.

Support the flow processes across the divisions and wider organisation for patients in our care. Attend all capacity and flow meetings when acting as Corporate Nurse of the Day

Support the embedding of National and local innovation and strategies around safe and timely discharge

To support General and Service Managers and Clinical Directors in ensuring that clinical strategy development encompasses quality and professional issues.

HUMAN RESOURCES:

To gain assurance that the training needs of the ward/department teams and managers are individually assessed.

To maximise the potential of the departmental managers and their staff, by participating in individual performance reviews, Personal Development Plans and continual professional development where appropriate.

In collaboration with the Human Resources department, ensure that all practitioners are practising according to their professional rules and maintaining their registration requirements. This will be monitored through individual performance review (IPR) and Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Liaise with Departmental Managers to gain assurance that each member of staff has an annual IPR / Personal Development Plan in relation to the Knowledge and Skills Framework.

To support the Heads of Nursing in the professional management of senior nurses throughout the Trust.