Do you want to save more lives? Would you like to be part of the biggest national drive in reducing health inequalities? We are looking for a Nurse, Allied Health Professional or Public Health Practitioner to join our team as the Lead Tobacco Dependency Advisor. Working as an expert in your role, you will be launching and managing the Worcestershire inpatient service, helping patients to quit smoking with ongoing support post discharge through our Community Pharmacy Advanced Services.

Led by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the tobacco dependency service will serve adult inpatients, including those with serious mental illness, on behalf of Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health & Care Trust. With two hubs located at Worcester Royal and Alexandra Hospitals, and spoke service provision for all other inpatient sites, it is expected that the Lead Tobacco Dependency Advisor will spend part of their working week at each hub, with additional travel as and when necessary to other spoke sites for 1-2 hours, 1-2 times a week.

The successful post holder will be responsible for supporting collation of the NHS England tobacco minimum data set, ensuring compliance with the Trusts and ICS Key Performance Indicators, and NICE recommendations. It is essential for this role that you will be fully supportive of the Trust's smoke free policy, acting as a smoke free champion as part of your work. No prior experience of working in smoking cessation or addiction is necessary.

Main duties of the job

The Lead Tobacco Dependency Advisor will work in partnership with the inpatient teams, in the provision of 1:1, bedside, specialist indepth behavioural therapy, advising on nicotine replacement treatments, to support general patients and those with serious mental illness to quit smoking. The post holder will build a strong network with the Community Pharmacy Advanced Services who will provide ongoing support to patients post discharge: working together to reduce health inequalities and improve quality of life for our local population.

Supported by the Clinical Lead and Lead Respiratory Practitioner, key work will focus on establishment of the countywide inpatient tobacco dependency service, implementation of the patient pathway, and ensuring efficient data returns to NHS Digital, with a view to reporting on success of the service to justify use of funds within future business cases. Representing Worcestershire Acute Hospitals at ICS steering group meetings and leading on Trust tobacco dependency meetings, the post holder will work closely with the team to further develop the service with incorporation of other patient pathways as future NHS funding offers arise.

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Our workforce is nearly 6,800 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

• Best services for local people
• Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
• Best use of resources
• Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Job description

Job responsibilities

SEE FULL JOB DESCRIPTION ATTACHED

Clinical & Professional Responsibilities

• Develop and lead management of the tobacco dependency service for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals and Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trusts, within Worcestershire, in line with the Long Term Plan.
• Be responsible for the day-to-day operational line management of their direct reports.
• Provide day to day supervision for the Advisors at both the Alexandra and Worcester Royal tobacco dependency team hubs.
• Responsible for ensuring effective response by the Tobacco Dependency Team to referrals made to the service, with patients receiving assessments ideally within the NHS England recommended 24 hours where possible (noting that initially the service will operate weekdays only but may expand to include weekends).
• Provide tobacco dependency interventions and advice to service users.
• Take responsibility for a defined caseload of patients with the Tobacco Dependency Advisors.
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills to facilitate discussion of complex, sensitive and emotive issues for patients with tobacco addiction.
• Demonstrate in the clinical settings a high level of holistic decision making skills, encompassing patients physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs.
• Support and empower patients, their relatives and carers, to participate in decision making concerning their tobacco treatment plan.
• Ensure robust discharge planning to meet the needs of the patients ongoing stop smoking support: including arranging onward referral to the Community Pharmacy Advanced Services agreeing follow-up appointments providing contact information co-ordinating uninterrupted supply of nicotine replacement medication or prescriptions and feeding back to health care partners (for example, GPs, community nursing teams, allied health care professionals), as appropriate.
• Clarify and reinforce information given by other health care professionals and assess patients further information needs.
• Signposting patients to other sources of support, including Worcestershire Lifestyle Advisors, for advice on healthy eating, increasing level of physical activity, reducing alcohol consumption, mental health and wellbeing.
• At all times treating patients, visitors and colleagues with dignity and respect, exercising discretion and maintaining confidentiality.
• Responsible for maintaining accurate patient and staff records in line with the Trusts guidelines.
• Work independently and demonstrate a high degree of professional autonomy, make critical judgements and give advice when precedence or protocols do not apply or exist.
• Promote and develop the specialist advisory and supportive role of the Lead Tobacco Dependency Advisor in treating tobacco addiction: demonstrating advanced specialist skills, and knowledge base, validated by post graduate education and qualification.
• To undertake extended roles as the service and service users needs dictate, with full support and training from senior staff.
• Provide behavioural support to patients, working with their relatives and carers, and multidisciplinary teams, to assess dependence and develop individualised patient tobacco dependency treatment (or abstinence) plans in accordance with the Trusts standard operating procedures and related policies.
• Provide telephone assessment, treatment planning and support for patients referred to the service after discharge from hospital.
• Act as a smokefree champion promoting the Trusts Smokefree policy interventions through their day-to-day work.
• Lead Trust wide culture change from tobacco dependency being viewed as an individuals lifestyle choice, to that of a clinical condition which can be treated.
• Working collaboratively with all inpatient staff to ensure a multidisciplinary approach to the development of patients tobacco dependency treatment plans.
• Support the internal pharmacy teams in the review of stock of the nicotine replacement therapies on all the inpatient sites, and ensure maintenance of all relevant materials required to deliver the service.
• Working with the Trusts pharmacy teams be responsible for ensuring the effective selection of nicotine replacement therapies and use of these resources alongside the development of national procurement initiatives.
• Ensure good working relationships with various external staff groups to ensure transfer of knowledge and best practice.
• Organise personal workload to ensure that it reflects the core components of the Lead Tobacco Dependency Advisor role i.e. clinical, management, research and education.
• Work unsupervised with support and advice from the Lead Respiratory Practitioner as necessary.
• Participate in the ICS, and take a leading role in the Trust, tobacco steering groups.
• Recognise the ethical and legal issues which have implications for the practice of the tobacco dependency team and take appropriate action.
• Acknowledge and have an awareness of the clinical governance issues which underpin the tobacco dependency teams practice. Participate in the Trusts clinical governance initiatives as appropriate.
• Be responsible for staff security, particularly within Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health & Care Trust secure units.

Service Improvement, Research and Clinical Audit Responsibilities

• Contribute to the operational and strategic development of the countywide inpatient tobacco dependency service, defining and maintaining evidence-based standards of care, the quality of which fulfil clinical governance requirements.
• Attend and participate in strategic health initiatives,and communicate and disseminate innovations to the service practices locally.
• Support the design, implementation and maintenance of the tobacco dependency service, systems and processes: ensuring that the service can be accessed appropriately that internal and external standards for recording and monitoring activity, including outcome, are achieved and met, whilst ensuring best use of resources.
• Lead the wider role of the team in the promotion, development, monitoring and evaluation of the tobacco dependency service. With note that as the service develops, the remit of the role may broaden.
• Responsible for the 6 monthly (or more frequent if required), review and update of the tobacco dependency service policy.
• Develop mechanisms for monitoring uptake of behavioural support and means of increasing throughput.
• Work towards achieving all relevant Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England targets, Trust and ICS Key Performance Indicators, ensuring care complies with National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendations.
• Provide tri-annual reporting of the service activity against Key Performance Indicators.
• Promote the service with the tobacco dependency advisors. This will include ward, unit and department visits, presenting to small groups e.g. team meetings and clinical forums, to raise the profile of the tobacco dependency service and facilitate improvements.
• Persuade other staff groups to support smoking cessation with their patients and within their departments: identifying and supporting tobacco dependency champions across the Trust.
• Responsible for annual auditing and evaluation of the service, including the completion of the monthly minimum data set report (NHS England mandatory requirement). This will include following up patients post discharge to monitor stop smoking outcomes.
• Collate and analyse results from the NHS England minimum data set, service users surveys and questionnaires, to inform improvement work. Present outcomes in a range of formats for the relevant Trusts and ICS committees and groups.
• Develop and update written information leaflets for patients, liaising with both Trusts clinical governance teams and the patient information groups.
• Apply Worcestershire Acute Hospitals 4Ward improvement techniques to service development.
• Connect with internal and external partners to obtain feedback regarding the tobacco dependency service. Provide advice and support to ensure that the service meets the needs of our patients. Take responsibility for action based on feedback to support continuous service improvement.
• Develop and implement patient satisfaction surveys: Monitor and evaluate patient feedback, offering recommendations to relevant Trust committees and groups to improve the service.
• Use initiative to communicate and propose new and innovative ways of working to improve the delivery of the service for patients.
• Contribute to the Trusts measures to reduce harm from tobacco, supporting maintenance of the smokefree sites.
• Be conversant with current trends nationally in the treatment of tobacco addiction and research.
• Promote best practice, using local and regional benchmarking groups for the generation of standards and guidelines for treatment of tobacco dependency.
• Promote and implement best practice which is evidence based, and evaluates the effectiveness of the tobacco dependency service interventions.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse, Allied Health Professional, or Public Health Practitioner.
• Educate
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  C9365-23-0200-2