This is an amazing opportunity to be part of an incredible specialist team that helps care for patients and their families affected by cancer of the Oesophagus and Stomach.

We are proud to develop very good relationships with our patients. We are with them from the point of diagnosis and remain, as a constant support throughout the treatment and follow up care.

As part of the role you will have excellent communication skills which will help you to liaise with all members of the multidisciplinary team and show empathy and compassion during difficult conversations both face to face and on the telephone. We will give you the skills you need to enable you to meet the needs of the patients and team and support you in developing your skills as a Nurse Specialist. This can be very emotional and you will have the chance to attend Clinical Supervision in order to support you and enable you to maintain your resilience when facing difficult conversations.

This is an exciting chance and a privilege to be part of the patients journey and to support them and their families through the difficult times ahead of them and know that you made a difference to their day. It is very rewarding to see the impact of an exceptional standard of care.

Main duties of the job

We offer specialist advice and support through surgical, gastro, oncology appointments and nurse led dietetic clinics.

We are the port of call for patients who are in difficulty physically and emotionally both before and after treatment, we manage the pathway liaising will all members of the multidisciplinary team facilitating clinic appointments, further tests and admissions if required.

We are available throughout the patients journey, and offer support during the hospital stay by visiting the patients, ensuring effective communication, and facilitating discharge.

Members of the OG nurse specialist team have expertise and experience in assisting patients and their carers and we are available to discuss any concerns either face to face or via telephone. Signposting to relevant groups and enabling the patient to engage fully with their care.

We are actively involved in the local support group as part of the follow up care.

About us

The Trust is committed to driving excellence in care for our patients and communities and was rated good by the Care Quality Commission report published 2020 and became a University Hospital. We are ranked as the third in the country for research embedding education and training across the organisation and we continuously strive to achieve our core values which are at the heart of everything we do. The Trusts main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, starting life as a military hospital over a century ago and now one of the largest hospitals on the south coast and you may have seen us on the TV series Nurses on the Ward. The Trust provides comprehensive secondary care and specialist services to a local population of 675,000 people across South East Hampshire. The Trust employs over 8,000 staff and are #ProudtobePHU our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because its the right thing to do, but because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for providing outstanding care and support for patients, colleagues and our community you will find a home at PHU. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veterans status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs.

Job description

Job responsibilities

• To provide a specialist nursing triage service that integrates advanced assessment findings into clinical decision making.
• To provide specialist nursing expertise, facilitating evidence-based, patient-centred care for a defined caseload of patients who have complex needs.
• To provide psychological support to patients and their families.
• To act as a resource and to provide specialist advice and education to patients, families and health care professionals.
• To lead in the development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of policies and protocols as directed by Lead Clinicians with support from Lead UGI CNS.

Key Responsibilities:

Clinical/Professional

• Provide and set high standards of professional nursing care and maintain the delivery of quality care within the Trust policies, protocols and guidelines. Implement the Trust values and beliefs ensuring they are embedded into everyday practice and evaluate their impact on the patients experience.
• Continuing responsibility for the assessment of care needs and the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care.
• Act as a specialist clinical practitioner demonstrating developed clinical skills and knowledge.
• Facilitate telephone assessment of a designated group of urgent endoscopy referrals suspecting oesophago-gastric cancer within cancer waiting time targets.
• To provide an initial contact point for patients who have been referred in and liaise with GP if patients are unwilling to undergo investigations.
• Through a holistic needs assessment, assess, plan, implement and evaluate evidence-based, individualised and personalised care of oesophago-gastric cancer patients.
• To provide appropriate, understandable information to patients and their families/carers and discuss aspects of treatment for oesophago-gastric cancer.
• Develop a service philosophy and models of care to ensure that all policies and procedures are implemented and to lead on the development of nursing practice. Monitor any impact on the patient experience.
• Ensure that any patient quality and safety issues are addressed in a timely manner. This includes monitoring and evaluating standards of care by the clinical team and providing regular feedback to the specialty team on the standards of care.
• Assist in the implementation of evidence based practice, identify, initiate, manage and evaluate changes that lead to improved and high standards of care and in particular any service changes following feedback from patients. Use information to inform Business Plans for the specialist area.
• Communicating, influencing and working with the multidisciplinary team in different ways to improve quality of care, and informed clinical decisions. Promote innovation and participate in bench-marking and quality audits to measure effectiveness of current practices.
• In collaboration with members of the multidisciplinary team, ensure that the users of the service and their families have a positive experience and using feedback (Elephant Surveys, Family and Friends Test, concerns and complaints) evaluate patient processes and pathways of care are redesigned as required.
• Ensure concerns raised by patients and their families are dealt with in an open, honest and transparent way, quickly and effectively, in line with trust policies, procedures and Duty of Candour legislation.
• As part of the Multidisciplinary team (MDT) communicate the breaking of bad news in an empathetic manner, appropriate to the situation and patients level of understanding.
• Make independent clinical, psychological and social assessments of patients and initiate/interpret investigations/treatments.
• Accept referrals and refer patients to other health care professionals as required in the hospital and/or in the community.
• Take on the role of key worker for individual patients in their dealings with the Diagnostic pathway.
• Use communication skills to encourage, motivate and facilitate patients to undertake self management strategies related to their illness.

Management/Leadership

• Responsible for the organisation and management of the service alongside the lead GI CNS.
• Provide clinical expertise and leadership to relevant staff within and outside PHT, in order to inform service provision and development.
• Demonstrate awareness of national and local guidelines relating to specialty (e.g. NICE guidelines) and influence care developments in accordance with these.
• Identify, contribute to or lead on aspects in the development and dissemination of evidence-based guidelines, standards and protocols as required and implement change to improve the quality of nursing care.
• Assist in the review and reporting of clinical and non-clinical incidents within the service in partnership with the Lead UGI Nurse
• Working across professional and organisational boundaries, assist in raising awareness of local, network and national developments for patients with Cancer.
• Contribute to Trust peer reviews and any focused CQC style reviews.
• Actively contribute to achieving the clinical governance goals/targets set by the trust and department and comply with reporting schedules for monitoring and reporting on clinical outcomes. Includes auditing of services.
• Support the implementation of the Nursing Strategy by setting clear achievable objectives into any staffs annual performance and development reviews and evaluate performance (where applicable).
• Be proactive in the prevention and management of complaints (formal and those via Patient Advice and Liaison Service) and when they occur investigate and respond in a timely manner. Use any learning to share widely with the multidisciplinary team and to improve care delivery.
• Assist in the management of staff performance and attendance in line with trust policies (if applicable). Set objectives for specialty ward link nurses (If applicable) in conjunction with their line manager and set at the Annual Performance Development Reviews (APDR).
• Promote effective communication with staff members across organisational boundaries and provide support to those dealing with patients who are either newly diagnosed or in late stages of their illness.
• Promote the health and well-being of MDT, patients and their carers. Making every contact count.
• Comply and promote compliance with Trust policies and guidelines e.g. Health and Safety, Clinical Risk and Infection Control.
• Take appropriate action to address unexpected changes and situations, informing the Matron/SLN or manager if unable to resolve.
• Assist in the provision of good housekeeping and economic use of resources.
• Work closely with partners i.e. Engie, resolving any relevant issues and escalate when issues cannot be resolved.
• Utilise user feedback to inform oncology team and to facilitate service development.
• Contribute to operational policies to ensure the appropriate use of the oncology team and its resources within the Trust.
• Attend relevant department and management meetings. Work closely with ward link nurses (as applicable) to ensure ward training needs are met to ensure high quality evidence based care delivery there is good communication and dissemination of information.
• Network with other specialty teams (i.e. UHS or other) to share good practice and bring back new ideas to improve the local service.
• Attend local, regional and national networks/meetings and working parties as required ensuring learning contributes to the evidence base.
• Present at seminars/conferences/meetings to raise profile of team and department. Submit articles for publication in peer review or other appropriate journals.

Research

• Develop a research culture within the MDT team to identify current knowledge and deliver evidence based care.
• Assist in the measurement of number and percentage of HNAs completed/recorded against the number of people accessing the service to ensure every person with a diagnosis of cancer has an EHNA.
• Support in the measurement of patient experience utilising Macmillan tools.
• Support local research teams, actively contribute to local department multidisciplinary audits, represent the clinical area at governance meetings and highlight areas for change.
• Liaise with the relevant research nurse to ensure patients are identified to take part in clinical research studies and research is delivered safely on the ward.
• Promote awareness to patients and health care professionals of current clinical trials for patients with haematological malignancies.

Education

• Assist in the development of the department training plan ensuring there is a fair and equitable approach to post registration nurse education that is aligned to service delivery and succession planning. Educate ward link nurses.
• Responsible for ensuring staff who the post holder lines manages undertake essential training (if applicable).
• Assist in succession planning with the Band 7 CNS for replacement of CNS posts and use Talent Management skills to identify key staff for further development.
• Assist in embedding in the team culture the concept of recruitment to clinical trials which is a national performance indicator.
• Contribute to the multidisciplinary education and training provision for health care professionals involved in relevant specialty area across organisational boundaries by developing and coordinating education and training programmes and evaluating their effectiveness. Mentor and coach students, support staff and other registrants.
• Demonstrate and maintain awareness of current advances and changes in clinical practice and policy for the management of haematological malignancies and assist in the implementation of change accordingly.
• Act as a specialist resource to provide education to nursing and midwifery colleagues and the wider multi-disciplinary team by increasing awareness of oesophago-gastric cancers raising standard of care for these patient groups.
• Participate in the education of patients, relatives and carers.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

C8192-SD-23-0913