Job summary
Employer heading
Children's Hospital at Home Nurse
NHS AfC: Band 6
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.
Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.
We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.
To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here
Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.
Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.
LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.
We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
Job overview
Are you equipped with solid clinical knowledge and the experience required to manage critically ill children and young people? Are you driven by a desire to deliver outstanding evidence-based nursing care to assist children, young people, and their families?
This varied and fulfilling position is ideal for an experienced pediatric nurse with an acute care background who is seeking a transition to a community setting while still applying their specialised clinical skills. Our service is evolving quickly, aiming to broaden our ambulatory care options and enhance the role of our independent nurse practitioners.
Our 'Hospital at Home' service offers hospital-standard care to children in the community suffering from acute illnesses, thus preventing hospital admissions and facilitating earlier discharges. Delivered by a dedicated and proficient team of pediatric nurses, in collaboration with acute care providers, our service supports children, young people, and their families in managing their illnesses within the comfort of their homes.
Main duties of the job
- To work as an autonomous practitioner with responsibility for facilitating early discharge, reduce length of stay and prevent hospital admissions
- To provide high quality, specialist nursing care to children in their own homes
- To provide continuing responsibility for the assessment, development, implementation and evaluation of nursing care for patients.
- To work collaboratively with other local health care professionals/providers to maintain high quality care and promote practice that is family centred.
- To continue to develop and maintain close links between Community and Hospital based services.
- To be responsible for providing support to junior members and students, by developing their skills and providing mentorship through their practice placements.
Working for our organisation
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
- Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
- Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
- Improving the experience of staff with disability
- Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
- Making equalities mainstream
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Clinical
- To initiate appropriate work, accepting referrals and be able to work autonomously with the child and family in the community setting.
- To regularly attend and liaise with acute hospital colleagues to enable timely and safe discharge from hospital and appropriate follow-up in the community setting eg care of children with viral wheeze needing nebulisers and observation at home, fluid challenges for children with diarrhoea and vomiting
- To collect and analyse daily reports from Paediatric Accident and Emergency (A&E)and follow up any children who need further support in the home setting
- To establish contacts with GP’s who regularly send children to A&E and promote the service offered in the community
- Recognise and monitor acute exacerbations of illness and initiate appropriate nursing interventions.
- To provide a holistic, autonomous and clinical nursing service using evidence based practice. To carry out initial assessments/home visits and plan, implement and evaluate nursing care for all patients for whom he/she has continuing responsibility. Act in partnership with the child and family when assessing a child’s needs and planning. To provide advice contributing to the well-being of the patient and participate in health promotion. (eg burns advice)
- To ensure medical needs and instructions are carried out in accordance with nursing and midwifery council guidelines and ensure accurate record keeping (RIO system used for client records). To create reports for specific formal meetings such as child protection case conferences. Ensure confidentiality of information is adhered to at all times.
- To carry out specialist procedures in the community settings eg administration of intravenous antibiotics care of central venous access devices and changing of naso-gastric tubes
- To use clinical judgement and expertise in assessing and implementing change during clinical visits eg assessment of respiratory condition and management of any changes
- To use clinical knowledge and expertise in deciding appropriate administration of drugs, route to be administered and dose of the drug, within a set of defined parameters prescribed by medical colleagues e.g. inhalers
- To use clinical knowledge
- To teach, support and guide patients and those with parental responsibility in relative nursing procedures and to help them carry out effective nursing care.
- To be familiar with practices regarding the management of hazardous/biological substances and follow trust policies regarding their disposal.
- Research
- Facilitate a high quality, cost effective service through undertaking research, surveys, audits in connection with own work.
- Utilise research findings to develop new ways of working and disseminate relevant information to staff.
- To assist the lead nurse and team leaders with updating or writing new care plans, policies, guidelines and competencies.
- Set, monitor and review standards of care on a regular basis and initiate corrective action plans.
- Work force
- To manage client caseload and have the ability to work autonomously.
- Act as a professional role model and mentor at all times.
- Financial
- To demonstrate accountability in the use and management of all resources including financial.
Person specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential criteria
- RSCN/RN Child diploma level or equivalent
- Evidence of continuing professional development
- Significant experience within the field of Children’s nursing
Desirable criteria
- Community Specialist Practitioner
- Units of study and Practice within a Community Children’s Nursing Team or working towards a degree with relevant community related modules.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Broad experience of nursing sick children in the hospital/community setting
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge of paediatrics in the community
- Demonstrate a good knowledge of recent developments in paediatric care
- Good understanding of Safeguarding issues and policy framework
- Understanding of audit process and research methodologies
Desirable criteria
- Experience in Teaching
- Previous experience of research/audit/be nchmarking
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Lizzie Foyle
- Job title
- Hospital at Home Team Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07775 011661
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