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Job summary

Main area
Cardiology
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract
Fixed term: 18 months (None)
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week (5-day week)
Job ref
196-NM12253
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Harefield Hospital
Town
Harefield
Salary
£51,883 - £58,544 p.a. inclusive of Outer London HCA
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
30/11/2024 23:59

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Clinical Nurse Specialist in Trans-catheter Aortic Valve

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

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Heart, Lung and Critical Care Clinical Group for an experienced and innovative nurse to join the trans-catheter aortic valve implantation team (TAVI) at Harefield Hospital for a fixed term of 18 months. 

This clinical role will enable you to develop your skills in a variety of aspects of managing patients with aortic valve disease who are being assessed for and undergoing TAVI. The role will involve working closely with the consultants who undertake TAVI and surgical AVR procedures and will include assisting with clinical assessments, organising appointments, assisting with the maintenance of the database, and presenting patients at multi-disciplinary meetings. Communication with patients will also be a key element of the post.

There may be opportunity for further professional development in areas such as clinical examination. The role will also involve running nurse-led clinics for pre-admission and follow-up of these patients.

The successful candidate will need to be highly self motivated, be able to demonstrate advanced management, communication, interpersonal and organizational skills and be able to work autonomously as well as within the TAVI team. Previous experience of working with aortic valve patients is essential and qualification as a non-medical prescriber together with computer literacy would be advantageous. We would consider ambitious band 6 nurses in a training post who could work towards a band 7.

Main duties of the job

1.    To provide a specialist nursing service working with patients and their families/carers throughout the patient pathway

2.    To provide a high standard of specialist nursing care, support and advice to patients pre and post TAVI in line with local and national targets

3.    To lead on the nursing component of the Trans catheter Aortic Valve service (TAVS)

4.    To ensure the smooth planning and running of the service

5.    To assist with the planning and running of research studies associated with the TAVS. To ensure that these are done in accordance with local policies, standard operating procedures, and clinical trial protocols.

6.    To assist in the recruitment of patients to the TAVS research

7.    To maintain project documentation, databases and clinical research folders as required by research protocols.

8.    To be able to act autonomously and without supervision in collaboration with the rest of the multidisciplinary team

9.    To undertake administrative tasks as required such as writing to and following up patients who have had a TAVI procedure

10.  To liaise with the Valve manufacturers about all aspects of the TAVS

11.  Work closely with other clinical nurse specialists within the Heart Division ensuring a cohesive approach to patient care delivery

12.  To be flexible in the approach to the service and provide cover for any area specified, rotating between the different services as necessary

Working for our organisation

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.

We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.

 

Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ in February 2021 and is the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK and among the largest in Europe. We provide treatment for people with heart and lung disease, including rare and complex conditions, offering some of the most sophisticated treatment that is available anywhere in the world.

 

The Cardiology Specialist Nurses are a team of specialist nurses who work within a variety of areas of cardiology including patients undergoing coronary intervention, aortic valve, and mitral and tricuspid valve intervention. The team are led by the Cardiology Nurse Consultant and run a variety of nurse-led services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Patient/customer care (both direct and indirect)

·         To provide seamless care for patients 

·         Develop support mechanisms for sharing good practice within the Division and Trust wide

·         To participate as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, assisting in the treatment and management of patients. To provide telephone advice to potential patients who contact the hospital

·         To develop and run nurse-led preadmission and follow-up clinics and participate in nurse-led discharge

  • Co-ordinate the arrangement of investigations (e.g. MRI, CT, Echo, and blood tests)

 

  • Refer patients to other members of the multi-disciplinary team as necessary

 

  • Ensure accuracy of documentation and maintain an efficient and accurate record system with relevant information in agreement with the cardiology team

 

  • Ensure through good practice that customer care initiatives are improved and sustained. Act as a resource for advice to patients, relatives/carers, and staff

 

  • To actively promote a healthy lifestyle for patients & staff appreciating national strategy requirements

 

  • To act as an expert resource for patients/relatives/colleagues relating to the care of their caseload of patients

 

  • To maintain patient’s confidentiality, privacy, dignity, religious and cultural needs at all times
  • To comply with and participate in the Trust’s framework for Clinical Governance within the department

 

  • Adhere to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Code of Professional Conduct at all times

 

  • Comply with project / international clinical trial guidelines and protocols where relevant

 

  • To supply and administer medicines according to Patient Group Directions/ protocols and/or to be able to administer drugs as a non-medical independent prescriber

 

  • Organise patient admission for TAVI in collaboration with the Consultants and aortic valve team administrator

 

  • Coordinate the aortic valve MDT with the TAVI coordinator and ensure treatment decisions are communicated to patients

 

Management

·         To make use of all resources within the area in line with the Division’s Business Plan

·         To provide effective clinical leadership to all Nurses in the Division 

Training, Education and Research 

·         To maintain an active awareness of clinical and professional development within the speciality and disseminate that knowledge to all colleagues

·         To be responsible for the implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive training package for patients, relatives, and staff

·         To work with the Nurse Consultant / Senior Nurses to proactively identify ways of raising the profile of the service by contributing to practice development needs of the Trust

·         Participate in and support staff undertaking clinical trials and research projects within the clinical setting

·         Be proactive in ongoing audit to access the effectiveness and practice of the service provided, implementing relevant changes

·         Participate in the process of gaining informed consent from study patients through the provision of information and answering questions honestly and accurately

·         To work closely with the sponsoring companies, study principal investigators, co-investigators, and other staff. To give regular reports on all aspects of trial progress as and when required           

·         Set standards to monitor the quality of the care provided, ensuring local and national quality standards are met

·         To assist those quality initiatives in line with clinical audit and clinical effectiveness and the Trust’s corporate objectives and quality standards

·         Disseminate up to date information by presenting papers and posters and participating in national and international conferences

·         Maintain database and registers within the department

·         To be responsible for the development and ongoing evaluation of educational material for patients and staff

Personal and Professional

·         To develop professional practices through reflection, participation in post-registration courses and attendance at conferences and meetings

·         To be accountable for your own professional action and a lead specialist for the area

·         To identify and be responsible for own professional/managerial management in liaison with the Nurse Consultant and Divisional Senior Nurse

·         To act as a resource in this specialist area and to participate in Trust-wide professional groups, as appropriate

·         To represent the Trust locally and nationally, participating and speaking at conferences and study days

·         To maintain a flexible approach to the role responding to changing patterns of care

·         To participate in the strategic development of the service

·         Providing leadership, motivation, and vision regarding the contribution of nursing to health care

·         Forge links with those involved in the development of the service both internally and externally

Communication

·         Provide support mechanisms for sharing good practice within the Department and Trust wide.   Assist in the programme and provide clinical supervision, as required for all registered nurses working in the Department

  • Maintain and promote effective communication with all members of the multi-disciplinary team and other Wards / Departments, including developing your formal presentation skills

 

  • Promote the corporate image of the Trust to all individuals, groups, and organisations both within the Trust and to the community at large
  • Participate fully as a team member, sharing knowledge and information and supporting colleagues, including support staff to promote a cohesive team and the achievement of team objectives

 

  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of a positive learning environment for colleagues, patients, and visitors

 

Policy development

  • Support the development of research protocols on differing aspects of Trans catheter Valve Implantation

 

  • To be actively involved in the development of Trust policies and procedures at department level, the implementation and reinforce their use

 

Service development

  • Assist with the running of trials (if necessary, travel to external study days and investigator meetings)

 

  • Actively participate in regular departmental seminars and educational programmes at both Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals

 

  • Maintain, update, and develop personal, professional knowledge and skills, using the Trust’s Performance Review System, enabling standards of patient care to be constantly monitored and improved

 

  • Collaborate in the preparation of papers for publication with suitable support

 

  • Participate in the business planning process, helping to identify areas for service development

Resource management

  • Plan and manage own time to meet the needs of the service

 

  • To ensure staff, equipment and resources are managed effectively

Information management

  • Identify areas where local audit is needed, conduct the audit, and analyse the data with support

 

  • To be actively involved in maintaining data quality on PAS or similar systems in the future

 

  • Undertake relevant training for electronic information systems in place & under development

 

  • Participate in the collection and analysis of audit and research data as required

 

  • Be able to undertake web searches as necessary

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • RGN
  • Post registration cardiac course
  • ALS/ILS
  • Professional related degree
  • Masters level equivalent experience
  • Physical assessment qualification
  • Post graduate continuing professional development
Desirable criteria
  • Management course
  • MSc

Experience and knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Clinical experience in TAVI
  • Experience of change management
  • Experience of research and audit participation
  • Evidence of advanced cardiac nursing skills
  • Excellent organisational skills
Desirable criteria
  • Experience as a CNS
  • Experience of running nurse-led clinics
  • Counselling skills

Skills and abilities

Essential criteria
  • Leadership skills
  • Proven communication skills - orally and in writing
  • Teaching and assessing skills
  • Evidence of applying research to practice
  • Ability to work independently and in a team
Desirable criteria
  • Involvement in Trust wide initiatives/committees

Personal qualities

Essential criteria
  • Evidence of ability to work under pressure
  • Excellent time management skills
  • Self-motivating and able to motivate others
Desirable criteria
  • Positive change agent

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Alison Pottle
Job title
Consultant Nurse
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01895828677
Additional information

Miles Dalby, Consultant Cardiologist on 01895 828990 (secretary), or e-mail [email protected]

Please contact either of us for more information or an informal visit.