An exciting opportunity has arisen for lead nurse within the bereavement team.

We are looking for a highly motivated individual who has a keen interest and passion for bereavement. The successful candidate will lead the bereavement service within WWL, supporting patients, relatives, and staff throughout the bereavement process.

This is a permanent full-time post (37.5 hours) over 4 or 5-days and to include weekends.

Main duties of the job

The bereavement liaison nurse will support with stakeholders in order to develop a comprehensive, 'seamless pathway'.

The post holder has continuing responsibility for the provision of bereavement Trust-wide, providing professional guidance and leadership to the staff.

The service will provide immediate and on-going emotion support to the recently bereaved in the Trust and to staff members involved in expected and sudden deaths throughout the Trust.

About us

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are the proud providers of acute hospital and community services to the people of the Wigan Borough and surrounding areas. At WWL, we value our staff believing that 'happy staff, makes for happy patients'. We have a recognised track record in staff engagement, and living our values 'the WWL Way'.

WWL are committed to placing the patient at the heart of everything we do, and in the provision of safe, effective care that acknowledges and ensures dignity. With this in mind we are seeking to recruit people who share our values and beliefs.

On-Call

Please note that senior positions (AFC band 8A or above) may be expected to participate in an on-call rota, if the role is predominantly operational.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key results from the job holder

Planning and Organisational Duties

The post holder will participate in, and influence, care delivery by:

• Organising own specialist workload
• Prioritise workload of self and others, assess performance and provide clear, constructive feedback to colleagues.
• Monitor progress of work, recognize changing priorities and implements corrective actions within own limits and inform the relevant people

Communications and Key Working Relationships

• Act as a keyworker when there is a child death in line with the child death statutory guidance 2018 and local WWL policy
• Perform SPOC duties as allocated by the patient safety team
• Provide specialist end of life care advice and effectively communicate with a wide range of people across health and social care, in a manner consistent with their level of understanding, culture and background, to explore complex issues and make complex decisions.
• Be empathetic and reassuring when communicating highly sensitive condition-related information and advice to patients, carers, relatives and colleagues.
• Agree the arrangements for communication with the patient/family/carer and clinical teams and document these in accordance with Trust Policy and the patients right to confidentiality.
• Influence and prioritise the development of knowledge, ideas and work practice in self and others.
• Encourage others to seek advice and solutions to problems,
• Competently receive sensitive information concerning decision making in end of life and bereavement care.
• Use a range of skills to adapt he delivery of information through changing the environment, methods of communication or deliver of content using persuasive, reassuring skills as required (e.g breaking bas news/special needs/dealing with anxious relatives).
• Identify and manage challenging behaviours
• Ensure that essential information the patients condition and progress is recorded by generic and specialist staff appropriately, according to NMC guidelines.
• Identify wider benefits and influence and prioritise the development of knowledge, ideas and work practice in self and others.
• Inspire others and encourage them to seek advice and solutions to end of life and bereavement care challenges,
• Challenge others to take an active part in developing knowledge, ideas and work practice.
• Challenge tradition and take risks accepting joint responsibility for any arsing problems and tensions and using them to inform future practice.
• Adhere to Trust policies, procedure and current legislation which relate to own workplace and contribute to service development.
• Evaluate current service provision and identify how this impacts on generic and specialist role(s), the clinic environment, nursing services, multidisciplinary and interagency working.
• Identify outcomes of service evaluations and offer constructive views on how services should change as a result.
• Contribute to the development, updating and implementation of protocols, standards and guidelines in end of life care.
• Evaluate with others the effectiveness of any changes and how these may have improved services in partnership with key stakeholders.
• Participate in local, network-wide, regional and national groups related of end of life care and bereavement care
• Ensure own actions promote quality and identify and manage any risks.
• Provide support in the setting and maintenance of optimal standards of end of life and bereavement care across acute and primary care.
• Keep up to date and act consistently with quality standards and guidelines across Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust.
• To evaluate and review the quality of their own work and where necessary make the appropriate improvements.
• Actively contribute to the quality agenda.
• Monitor the quality of work with end of life care and bereavement care. Raise quality issues and related risks and ring to the attention of others.
• Participate in local clinical governance forums.
• Lead others in understanding how their practice should change to improve quality.
• Leads on audit/benchmarking within own specialist areas (may undertake research).
• Asist with research and development.
• Actively contribute to the identification and implementation of the evidence base for bereavement care, ensuring that good practice across acute, primary, community, statutory and independent sector care is disseminated locally, network-wide and nationally.
• Assist the wider profession development team in identifying areas within end of life and bereavement care which require evaluation/research.
• Contribute effectively to evaluation studies (e.g patient/care and staff satisfaction surveys).
• Participate in risk management and risk assessment working closely with other members of the clinical team
• Communicate effectively with patients families and colleagues and proactively personalise the service, connecting with patients and carers.
• Recognise, accept and display personal accountability beyond the job role and towards problem-solving, act with integrity and focus on results.
• Be considerate of others, their contributions and needs, support and empower staff involvement and acts as a guardian of the Trusts reputation and resources

Responsibility for Finance

• Ensure efficient and effective use of material resources/supplies within the team.
• Monitor, control and store resources/supplies according to the requirements and specifications of the clinical and non-clinical environment.
• Identify any problems with resource use/availability and make recommendations for corrective action which is consistent with team objectives and organisational policies.
• Order specialist supplies and maintain accurate records of resource use.

Responsibility for Human Resources

• Be responsible for management and professional updating/clinical supervision to other staff and/or learners,
• Participate in the appraisal process for self and others.
• Identify report and address poor performance issues.
• Defuse challenging behaviour, ensuring that the situation is managed in sensitive way.
• Adhere to Trust policies and maintenance of the professional Code of Conduct.
• Participate in the recruitment and selection process if required
• Participate in the disciplinary and grievance procedures if required
• Include specific responsibilities for information resources, e.g., computerised paper-based, etc. and information systems both hardware and software, e.g. medical records. Take into account the nature of responsibility for security and creating information, also creation, updating and maintenance of systems databases etc

Responsibility for Health & Safety

• Compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 the post holder is required to fulfil a proactive role towards the management of risk in all of their actions. This entails the risk assessment of all situations, the taking of appropriate actions and reporting of all incidents, near misses and hazards, and a statutory duty of care for their own personal safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions.

Responsibility for Teaching

The post holder will promote life-long learning through the use of appropriate coaching, teaching and assessment in practice by:

• Facilitate research-based practice, assist in disseminating research findings and support changes in care.
• Take part in/ lead research projects, as appropriate, in order to enhance knowledge of the role and / or patient outcomes.
• Support and facilitate other staff who are undertaking research / audit projects.
• Assist in clinical audit and the evaluation of practice of self and others.
• Act as a resource, providing clinical leadership and facilitating professional development amongst the multidisciplinary team both within and outside the organisation.
• Promote best practice, utilising local and regional benchmarking groups for the generation and promotion of standards, nursing and clinical guidelines.
• Be involved in the Directorate clinical governance arrangements by providing expert input and securing quality improvement, including influencing other disciplines, to help deliver quality services.
• Be proactive in developing own professional practice, demonstrating evidence of increasing autonomy, clinical judgement and decision making skills
• Participate in Directorates systems of Annual Individual Performance Review (appraisal) and associate Personal Development Plan
• Contribute to the Induction programme of medical and nursing staff
• Contribute to the development, supervision and training of other clinical staff
• Support student healthcare practitioners and others, as required, to achieve appropriate levels of competence in practice

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Professional Health qualification (Registered Nurse)
• Degree or equivalent portfolio of experience
• Teaching and assessing in clinical practice.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of delivering End of Life Care
• Experience of multi- agency working
• To be able to demonstrate extensive experience in a senior nursing post
• Experience of delivering bereavement care in practice

Skills

Essential

• Communication skills training
• Ability to identify patients who may be approaching end of life
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work autonomously
• Effective time management
• Leadership qualities

Knowledge

Essential

• Patient and customer focus
• Continuous Improvement
• Accountability

Additional

Essential

• Speak English to an appropriate standard relevant to their role, i.e. with confidence and accuracy, using correct sentence structures and vocabulary, and without hesitation
• Ability to travel as required

Employer details

Employer name

Wrightington Wigan & Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Albert Edward Infirmary

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

302-23-5787128M