Oxleas Heart Failure Service is a dynamic, highly experienced & award-winning service. This is an exciting opportunity for a highly skilled & motived nurse to join our team & develop as a heart failure specialist nurse.
This is a community based role caring for residents with heart failure living in the London Borough of Bexley. Care is provided in both clinic & home environments.
This post is ideal for a suitably skilled & trained cardiac nurse who is keen to develop as a heart failure nurse. You will be supported in this post to develop skills such as advanced clinical assessment, medication reviews & optimisation, patient education & monitoring. You will also be involved in the end of life care of the heart failure patient.
You will need excellent clinical & communication skills & an ability to work with patients with diverse health & social needs. The post holder will work closely with members of the wider multi-disciplinary team in primary & acute health care settings. The post holder will also work closely with the Cardiac Rehabilitation Team to ensure patients are provided with sufficient support with their cardiac diagnosis.
This a community post requiring travel across the Borough, the post holder should hold a full driving licence & suitable vehicle for work purposes.
Please note Oxleas posts are subject to a 3 month probation period.
Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.
The Heart Failure Specialist Nurse will be a key member of the Long Term Conditions team, responsible for the delivery of expert community cardiac care and in particular, heart failure.
The post holder will have their own caseload of patients and take on direct responsibility to deliver high quality, holistic care to local residents, ensuring that patients have equal access to services that are responsive, personalized and patient-led.
The post holder will be responsible for assessing their patients physical, emotional and psycho-social care needs.
The post holder will support patients and their carers to ensure they understand their cardiac condition and involve them in planning their care.
The heart failure specialist nurse will work alongside experienced heart failure nurses and the cardiac rehabilitation team to provide a comprehensive and individualised package of care, as well as liaising with the patients GP and any other health care professionals.
This position will require the post holder to work from an office base with regular travel to provide clinics in community settings and home visits.
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
We’re Kind
We’re Fair
We Listen
We Care
Key Task and Responsibilities
To work within the Long-Term Conditions team to ensure delivery of holistic, streamlined and patient-focused care.
To take direct responsibility for the assessment of patients’ physical, emotional, psycho-social needs.
To work with the multi-disciplinary team to plan and deliver services which are responsive to the needs of the patient and their families.
Assist in co-ordination of service provision with other agencies to ensure maximum benefit to patients.
To communicate effectively and sensitively with patients and carers to maximise their potential to understand and manage their cardiac condition involving them in planning their programme of self-care.
The post holder has personal responsibilities for working with colleagues to create good working relationships in a spirit which promotes teamwork and encourages motivation, innovation and high standards of clinical practice.
To have comprehensive knowledge of NICE guidelines and European Cardiac Society guidelines for best practice and ensure their implementation in the community heart failure service.
Keep abreast of new heart failure management and health care related developments and maintains own personal and professional development and attend regular one to ones.
Ability to prioritise and evaluate own workload
To observe the NMC Professional code of conduct and practice including up to date registration at all times.
Management responsibilities
Early informal management of complaints with the aim of a satisfactory resolution. Ensure appropriate escalation when this is not achieved.
Capability for deputising for the senior Heart Failure Specialist Nurses where appropriate.
Knowledge and understanding of the Long-Term Conditions strategy and capability for contribution to the strategy for Long Term Conditions within Oxleas NHS Trust.
To participate in the development of appropriate guidelines, protocols, audit and evaluation.
Leadership
Take an active role in the teaching and development of the multidisciplinary team in heart failure management.
To support students on clinical placement and to assist them with undertaking assessments and filling in documentation.
To participate in clinical supervision on a regular basis either by self or in a team environment.
Contribute to the implement of education programmes to meet the needs of heart failure patients.
Clinical
Use advanced clinical assessment skills, including physical assessment for assessing and formulating individualised care plans for patients with heart failure using relevant clinical protocols.
To provide advice and support on the change of medication within set protocols.
Provide an environment that encourages client centred involvement where clients are facilitated to ask for help, advice, and education.
Manage a caseload generated from a defined population requiring heart failure care.
To take part in nurse led clinics in the community for the assessment and education and active management of patients with heart failure.
To discuss with patients, relatives and carers specific aspects of care and treatment, including physical complications, drug efficacy and side effects etc.
Work closely with the patient’s family and GP practice to maximise patients’ health potential.
Liaises with both the patient’s GP and consultant cardiologist in the event of increased symptoms that need urgent investigation or possible admission to hospital.
Liaise with local secondary care providers in ensuring that patients admitted to hospital with heart failure are referred to the appropriate service for ongoing care at discharge.
Research
The post holder will contribute to monitoring and improving standards of heart failure care in accordance with NICE and ESC guidance.
The post holder will contribute to Clinical Governance within the service by contributing to audit as part of the heart failure team.
To deliver evidence-based practice in line with clinical governance, trust policies and procedures and NMC guidance.
Contribute to audit of practice, critically evaluates research findings, and contributes to clinical practice to improve outcomes for cardiac patients.
To monitor standards through the process of clinical audit in line with the Trust’s objectives, reporting all research and audit activity and audit progress of patient caseload and service development to the Directorate’s Management Team.
Communication
Effectively communicate complex and sensitive information, issues and ideas to patients and carers, where there may be significant barriers to understanding and the need for persuasion and re-assurance.
Empower patients to make appropriate decisions about their self care.
Communicate with colleagues on complex matters and issues in relation to heart failure patient management.
Ensure that communication systems are in place to cover a wide variety of different settings and to liaise effectively with healthcare professionals, carers, patients, relatives, voluntary agencies, and others.
Demonstrates capacity to communicate effectively at all levels within the organisation and in external settings.
To develop individualized care plans and ensure that innovative intervention strategies are employed to ensure goals are met.
Undertake telephone/virtual assessment and initiate specialist advice.
Support the integration of local services across primary, community and secondary care by facilitating joint working within multi organisational teams.
To maintain accurate, contemporaneous patient held clinical records in line with trust and professional guidelines.
