• In collaboration with the other pain nurse specialist, in-patient pain consultant. The post holder will lead, develop, implement, and evaluate a seamless specialist acute pain service promoting excellence in patient care, working in collaboration with multidisciplinary team members.
• The post holder will provide clinical leadership to nursing staff and expert professional advice to other professionals, multi-disciplinary groups, patients, relatives, and carers.
• The post holder will promote evidence-based practice in pain management through the integration of expert clinical practice, education, and implementation of guidelines and policies.

Main duties of the job

Act as a role model and clinical expert within pain management across Whittington Health. This role is to support surgical patients and may include giving advice to other areas such as paediatrics and medical patients with acute pain.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Act as a role model and clinical expert within pain management across Whittington Health. This role is to support surgical patients and may include giving advice to other areas such as paediatrics and medical patients with acute pain.
• Provide nursing leadership as part of the Inpatient acute pain service and manage a patient caseload independently providing expert assessment, diagnosis, planning and evaluation of clinical practice in accordance with local policies and procedures
• Review patients with complex pain needs, escalating as appropriate by referring and discussing care with lead pain nurse, relevant medical & anaesthetic colleagues
• Assess patients pain using appropriate assessment tools, includingassessment tools for patients that are cognitively impaired
• Accept patient referrals from members of the multi-professional team, providing advice and recommending treatment.
• Refer patients to other disciplines as necessaryContribute towards a multi-professional approach in the management of patients, by liaising with medical teams and all professionals involved in a patients care.
• Provide specialist clinical interventions, such as the administration of epidural and opioid boluses, programming of pain management devices, the adjustment of the depth of epidural catheters, and the provision of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) to in-patients.
• Support the ward staff to effectively care for patients needing pain management through demonstrating a sound knowledge base, visibility, and clinical leadership.
• Initiate and implement changes in clinical practice that improve standards of care and health outcomes for patients.
• Communicate effectively with patients, carers, family, and health professionals by providing support, information, education, and counselling
• Act as patient advocate

Education and training

• Provide support and training to all staff within the clinical environment ensuring the electronic data base is regularly updated to reflect staff that have been trained
• Provide education and advise staff and patients in the use of complementary techniques to assist with managing acute pain, such as relaxation, distraction ,counselling, self-management regimes in line with current evidence and best practice from Royal College of Anaesthetists, NICE guidance, psychologists and experts in chronic pain.
• Devise and provide written educational information for patients and carers to enhance their understanding of the mechanisms of acute and chronic pain and pain medication to meet their individual needs
• Develop and update patient information leaflets relating to pain management
• Provide on-going training to anaesthetists, junior doctors and new nurses through teaching and audit.
• In collaboration with the lead consultant provide teachingto the medical and nursing staff during trust induction, and all health care professionals at trust induction and new nurses orientation
• Plan and co-ordinate regular pain management study days or agreed formal training programmes for clinical staff
• Devise and audit e learning programmes relating to pain management
• Be involved in teaching and lecturing at a local and national level
• Ensure adequate training on the use of pain management related medical devices.
• Maintain an inventory of equipment and ensure safety by liaising with Medical Physics Department, as necessary.
• Act as an educational resource and provide training and resources in acute pain management to pre-registration and post-registration nursing students
• Clinical supervisor/assessor for students undertaking pain management or associated courses
• To develop of a network of pain link nurses/ambassadors ensuring they have the necessary knowledge, skills, competencies to support patients and staff in the clinical area Audit and Research
• Facilitate a high quality acute pain service through development and maintenance of databases to enable audit and clinical research
• lead on research pertaining to painInvolvement in specific audit programmes and research pertaining to pain management within the anaesthetic department and other departments trust widelead on audit findings and disseminate to all members of the multidisciplinary team, including anaesthetic department and senior nurse mangers
• Critically appraise evidence-based literature and utilise within teaching programmes
• Contribute to raising the trust profile by publication and conference presentation of audit and research findings.
• Service Development
• The Lead Pain Nurse, with the Lead Pain Consultant and in collaboration with the Associate Director of Nursing deliver and continuously review the strategic plan for the In patient pain service
• Work colabatorly with the Lead Pain Consultant , other team members, medical and pharmacy staff, to set agreed standards of pain management within the clinical areas.
• Develop a strategic plan for the specialist service considering any resource constraints and budget
• Initiate projects that raise the profile of the specialist service, team members and provide excellence in patient pain management.
• Develop and review all policies and procedures in relation to pain management

Managerial/Leadership

• To be responsible for the line management of pain nurses within the team, monitoring annual leave, sickness absence, appraisal compliance, and mandatory training and any performance relating issues in line with the Trust Human Resources Policies.
• Ensure regular team meeting promoting an open and honest approach to communication
• Work with the Trust Recruitment Team
• Ensure systems are in place in the clinical areas to enable local and national initiatives to be implemented, monitored, and evaluated
• Ensure national standards for pain management set by the British Pain Society, Royal College of Anaesthetists and NICE are adhered to within the service.
• Ensure there are mechanisms in place to ensure national performance measures are achieved in their clinical areas such as the patient survey
• Investigate and respond to any MHRA notices in collaboration with the risk management department. Acting on notices and ensuring completion of those notices.
• Identify clinical issues, reviewing incidents within the Trust which highlight risk and compromise safety.
• Ensure good reporting and manage incidents as required using the Datix system. Thus, enabling improvement in patient quality and safety by learning from incidents and learning is disseminated across all teams.
• Identify and deal effectively with poor practice or declining standards of care, escalate to the Associate Director of Nursing
• Represent the specialist service at any relevant groups or meetings, such as the anaesthetic department meeting ,specialist nurse meeting, project/audit meetings
• Work with the Trusts wider senior nursing management team to develop ,implement and monitor all relevant aspects of patient care and experience

Professional

• Ensure maintenance of professional registration and fulfilment of there validation process
• Identify own training and development needs and maintain own expert level of competence
• Participate in own Continuous Professional Development and appraisal process
• Critically reflect on own performance through clinical supervision
• Work within the NMC Code of professional conduct and Trust guidelines
• Keep up to date on professional issues in nursing practice, research, and the NHS.

Financial

• To liaising with manufacturers, representatives, and supplies regarding products to enhance pain management and to ensure value for money.
• Advise ward managers on procurement of pain equipment for their area.

Use specialist knowledge to develop and submit capital bids and/or business case for equipment required for the service.

Additional duties/responsibilities

• Willingness to work towards the non-medical prescriber qualification
• Active membership of the British Pain Society and London Pain Forum

Person Specification

aplication form and interview

Essential

• 1st level registration Teaching Qualification Degree of working towards one MSc Pain Management or working towards one or equivalent masters levelmodules Evidence of continuing professional development Non-medical prescriber or working towards one

Desirable

• Publication skills
• Project management
• Experience in research projects Experience of formulating protocols and standards

Application form and interview

Essential

• Approachable and caring Ability to work independently Self-motivated and able to motivate others Good communication and interpersonal skills Reflective practitioner Ability to work in a busy and varied work environment and respond to change

Application form and interview

Essential

• Good written and verbal communication skills Good leadership skills Computer literate Awareness of current NHS issues Able to critically analyse and apply research to the clinical setting Patient management and assessment skills Management/organisational skills with ability to manage own patient caseload Evaluate and reflect on own performance

Employer details

Employer name

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust

Address

Whittington Health NHS Trust

Magdala Avenue Highgate Hill

London UK

N195NF

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

220-WHT-1253-B