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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical

• Places quality at the heart of practice by delivering evidence based individualised patient care according to patient’s changing health care needs, through holistic needs assessment, (HNA).
• Uses specialist knowledge and provides specialist advice to ensure effective continuity of care delivery to patients and their families with breast cancer from diagnosis ,treatment, survivorship, recurrence and palliative care
• Demonstrates high level clinical, technical and research skills through breadth and depth of knowledge.
• Acts as a Keyworker for a clinical caseload, working to coordinate care and provide easy access for ongoing support for patients and carers.

• Provide level 2 psychological and emotional support, advice, counselling, information and education to all breast care patients, their partners and families during diagnosis, treatment and recovery periods. To be responsible for referring onto level 3 psychological support when appropriate.
• To undertake nurse led follow up clinics.
• Autonomously provide specialist breast care nursing skills to assess patients physical, psychological and social needs
• In accordance with local protocols, order and interpret investigative procedures in a clinically effective and cost efficient manner to support patient diagnosis and ongoing treatment.
• Support the delivery of a nurse-led breast prosthesis fitting service
• Uses advanced communication skills in all aspects of patient assessment, care and support.
• Assesses people’s information needs and provides relevant information to meet those needs.
• Enables people to access, identify, appraise and interpret information to facilitate patient choice.
• Provides clinical expertise, specialist advice and support across service boundaries.
• Is able to influence the patient care pathway, refers to other professionals and sign-posts patients to other agencies as appropriate.
• Actively integrates theory and practice.
• In conjunction with the clinical team, undertakes (risk) stratification for patients having cancer follow up. Promotes self-management through education and guided support in line with National and Cancer Alliance .
• Uses creative reasoning, experience and vision to advance care and influence patient outcomes.
• Demonstrates continuous evaluation of practice and make changes where appropriate.
• Ensures the provision of care is in accordance with Bedford Hospital NHS Trust’s policies & procedures and in line with EOE Cancer Alliance & National Guidance.

Managerial/Leadership

• Support and work closely with the MDT chair and MDT coordinator (MDTC) to ensure the MDT requirements are accurate and robustly managed within specified timeframes in accordance with local and national policy.
• Support proficient pathway management including robust communication (internal and external); clinical data collection; cancer data reporting/cancer waiting time’s compliance; cancer pathway management.
• Participate in preparation and delivery of Cancer Quality Surveillance Process.

• Promotes a culture that supports patient centred care and patient empowerment.
• Acts as a role model demonstrating high standards of care and providing clinical leadership to others.
• Collates and interprets quantitative data to provide evidence of productivity, outcomes and quality. Is able to utilise data to support business cases and reports as appropriate.
• Contributes to the identification of service goals and appreciates how these link with performance targets and quality indicators.
• Supports the implementation and monitoring of adherence to relevant site specific clinical guidelines for cancer nursing practice. Works collaboratively with the clinical lead for the service and contributes to the identification of service objectives, annual report and annual work plan for the service.
• Actively participates in multi-professional meetings, acting as the patient advocate and representing nursing views.
• Actively engages with the cancer management team and other partners as appropriate to continuously raise the profile of cancer nursing and promote patient centred services for patients affected by cancer.
• Work closely with the other Clinical Nurse Specialists within the Cancer Nursing Team and provide cross cover if/when necessary.
• Supports the wider Trust nursing agenda through representation on committees/ working groups as appropriate.

Education

• Takes personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through clinical supervision, appraisal and Knowledge and Skills Framework and actively engages with learning and development opportunities and the revalidation process.
• Influences the training and development of others (MDT, nursing roles, etc.), in particular supports generic staff to care for patients with cancer.
• Provides specialist education and training to other professionals involved in patient care.
• Be appraised at least annually and contribute to own personal development plan (PDP).
• When appropriate act as a mentor for newly appointed Clinical Nurse Specialists.

Service Improvement 

• Supports the nursing contribution to service development, ensuring the pursuit of excellence in care.
• Develops new skills in response to emerging knowledge and techniques.
• Works across professional boundaries using creative reasoning and problem-solving to facilitate new ways of working to influence improvements in the patient care pathway.
• Instigates and manages change within a complex environment. Is able to evaluate the impact of change and any impact on the patient care pathway.
• Promotes patient and public experience feedback through local initiatives to drive Innovation and change.
• To maintain accurate data relating to the clinical service ensuring strict confidentiality, compiling statistical data to profile the service and inform its future strategic development.

Research & Audit

• Influences and participates in development of policy and clinical guidelines internally and externally.
• Promotes the service and clinical excellence by publishing and presenting innovations, audit and research locally and nationally.
• Participates in National Audit for specialist group.