Job overview

• The team facilitate children’s early discharge from hospital, prevent admission and ensure the appropriate professionals are in place for the child to be managed within a safe environment in the community.
• The team works in close collaboration with multidisciplinary teams both in a primary and secondary care setting. 
• The team also provide education and support within an acute setting.  The  CNS sits within the Respiratory team.
• Focusing in improving care to children with respiratory                                conditions on outcomes qualitative as well as quantatively. 
• To be knowledgeable about all respiratory care and to be fully aware of medical treatments   and current research trials.
• To maintain respiratory clinics in conjunction with paediatric consultant whereby the  problems and needs of patients and their carers are appropriately addressed including the  transition of patients into adult clinics.

Main duties of the job

• To provide professional and clinical leadership and expertise in the specialty of respiratory care and to act as a resource for education and clinical expertise in hospital and community settings.
• This will include with tracheostomies, complex respiratory disease.  
• Thereby, contributing to the prevention of life long respiratory disease, hospital admission or extended stay in hospital.  Promote within the client group the self  management of their health needs.
• To liaise with members of the multi-professional healthcare team to provide a co-ordinated specialist service for children with complex respiratory disease
• To develop a service in conjunction with Advanced Clinical Practitioners,  nurse consultant, respiratory physiotherapist and respiratory consultants to manage children with complex needs in hospital and at home and to facilitate early discharge and readmission when required.
• To be familiar with research, clinical protocols and relevant investigations and procedures employed in the management  of respiratory care.
• To be competent in the assessment and management of respiratory care with regard to the  specialist clinics run in conjunction with consultant paediatrician.
• To develop appropriate resource and teaching strategies with children/families and/or staff  in the clinical, social and educational settings
• To promote child/family autonomy through education and support enabling the child/family  is able to make informed choices about their own care.

Working for our organisation

St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group cares for a population of four million people in South West London and North East Surrey. Our sites include St George’s Hospital, one of 11 major trauma centres in the UK and the largest healthcare provider and major teaching hospital in the area; St Helier Hospital, home to the South West Thames Renal and Transplantation Unit and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children; and Epsom Hospital, home to the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SWLEOC). 

 After years of collaboration, our two Trusts became a hospitals group in 2021. While remaining as two separate Trusts, being a hospitals group will help us to collaborate more closely on research, and the development, education, and training of our 17,000-strong workforce.