Job summary
Employer heading
Specialist Respiratory Clinician in Complex Home Ventilation
NHS AfC: Band 7
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
Are you creative, innovative, flexible and patient centered? Then a Band 7 Specialist Respiratory Outreach Clinical post is for you!
The lung division at the RBHT is looking to appoint an innovative and dynamic senior clinician to join, help support and further develop our unique Community Outreach Service for complex ventilated patients and tracheostomy patients. The outreach Service aims are to reduce hospital length of stay, reduce hospital admissions and enhance the quality of care and management for this unique group of patients. Community outreach aims to bridge the gap between acute and community care, enabling the patients to have a life of quality.
This is an exciting opportunity for any clinician who has extensive experience as a senior band 6 or band 7 within critical care, respiratory medicine or a similar environment and wishes to expand their knowledge, clinical skills, and management aspirations and be part of developing innovative practice which is truly patient centered and patient driven.
As a Band 7 you will be able to work independently within the community at the same time liaise with and support collaborative multidisciplinary teams at referring hospitals, care homes and hospices helping to co-ordinate care for this unique group of patients.
For further information or an informal visit please contact Steve Cutts on 07790 375827 Or s.cutts@[email protected]
Main duties of the job
The postholder will be responsible for managing their own caseload of complex patients requiring invasive or non-invasive ventilation. This will include;
- initiating patients on home ventilation (non-invasive or invasive) either at referring hospitals or in their own homes
- providing weaning advice to referring hospitals and assisting and supporting them with the discharge process
- following patients up in the community with complex respiratory assessments to ensure they are optimised
- liaising between community services and stakeholders and advocating for the patients
- providing regular tracheostomy tube changes in the community
- providing treatment and management algorithms for patients tracheostomy care and airway clearance regimes
- rapid response and trouble shooting for unwell complex patients in the community
- providing training to hospitals, long term care facilities, care agencies and patients
- documenting and recording activity on our electronic patient records system and databases
Working for our organisation
The Outreach Ventilation and Tracheostomy team is an integral part of Royal Brompton’s sleep and ventilation service.
Led by consultant nurse Debbie Field, this team of nurses, physiotherapists and physiologists work alongside our sleep and ventilation consultants to provide multidisciplinary input for our patients.
With over 250 patients, this service provides at-home or in-care facilities to those who have complex chronic respiratory conditions and need mechanical ventilation through a tracheostomy tube or mask ventilation.
This allows patients to be treated in their own homes and reduces the need for hospital admissions. The service is flexible and responsive to individual patients’ needs.
You will be working with a very supportive and innovative team. We will encourage and help you to improve your skills and support you to achieve your own career goals, whilst at the same time developing this important clinical service for a unique group of patients.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached job description and personal statement for full job description and responsibilities.
Please note the job description is not exhaustive and other skills and task may be required in the future. As per the aims of NHS long term workforce plan we hope to upskill our clinicians to be able to provide more assessments and treatments at patient's home as they become available.
This role involves frequent driving between patients locations, therefore a driving license and access to a car is essential for this post. We cover a large geographical area so the postholder must be comfortable driving long distances.
Person specification
Knowledge/Qualifications
Essential criteria
- BSc. in clinical specialty Registration with The Nursing and Midwifery council (NMC) Or other Professional Body Critical Care course OR Respiratory Care course
Desirable criteria
- MA/ MSc. e.g critical care, respiratory care, medical humanities
Experience
Essential criteria
- Good understanding and experience of respiratory physiology and anatomy.
- Knowledge and practical experience of respiratory physiological tests and ventilatory support (invasive and non invasive) procedures and techniques.
- A minimum of three years experience as a Senior Clinician in critical care or respiratory department managing NIV CPAP, tracheostomies and weaning patients.
- Knowledge of current national, professional and NHS guidelines
Skills
Essential criteria
- Good computer literacy (especially Word, Excel, and PowerPoint )
- Familiarity with respiratory equipment and can troubleshoot
- Good communication skills / assertiveness.
- Good supervisory and management skills.
- Good teaching and training practices.
- Good time management skills.
- Ability to maintain prolonged periods of concentration and mental effort.
- Ability to be flexible and innovative
- Full Driving licence
Desirable criteria
- Familiarity with Tosca, Embletta and Airview software
- Competent in changing tracheostomy tubes in the community
- Able to scope airway via tracheostomy tube
Personal qualities
Essential criteria
- Good interpersonal skills / ability to relate to patients, relatives, staff, technical and medical personnel.
- Good flexibility, enthusiasm, and assertiveness.
- Work as part of a team and or alone unsupervised.
- Ability to work under pressure.
- Good innovative skills.
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
- Steve Cutts
- Job title
- Outreach Ventilation team lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07790375827
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