The post holder will be a senior nurse within the Trusts Psychiatric Decision Unit known as Lotus Assessment Suite. As a charge nurse, you will work within an award-winning, nurse-led service to provide interim mental health care for service users.

The post holder will be able to provide a broad range of specialist psychosocial treatments for individual patients and a specialist consultation-liaison service to referring clinicians and clinical teams, assisting them in decision making in difficult and complex cases.

The post will enhance your skills in autonomous clinical decision making, assessment of mental health and physical health needs, risk management, crisis management, development of managerial skills as well as joint working with multiple agencies/services.

Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:

We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to roles within the acute and urgent care service line.

Main duties of the job

As a charge nurse you will lead on assessments, support discharges and support junior staff with decision-making. You will support and promote the fundamentals of mental health and physical health care for our patients, by carrying out needs assessments and working collaboratively with patients to develop crisis and discharge plans.

If you are a forward thinking experienced band 5 nurse ready to develop your clinical skills further or a seasoned band 6 expert, this is an exciting opportunity to consider. We are looking for someone who is clinically competent with the appropriate skills to join a diverse and experienced team. The successful candidate will be able to develop a positive team atmosphere through hard work, calmness, tolerance and consistency. They will lead on quality improvement initiatives and support a culture of reflection and learning. If you want to be part of a pioneering award winning service this is an opportunity not to be missed.

Agile and flexible working:

As one of the few Trusts in London we are proud to offer flexible working as part of our new ways of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage. In this role you will be able to work a 24/7 shift pattern, Monday to Sunday, and we will aim to give you the very best of good work life balance. Please note this role is not able to be carried out from home.

About us

The Lotus Assessment Suite (Psychiatric Decision Unit - PDU) is a nurse-led, multi-award winning integrated assessment suite that encompasses the Sec 136 function. It provides interim mental health care and detailed assessment for patients referred from liaison psychiatry services, home treatment teams & street triage teams. Lotus has the ability to provide an in-depth assessment for up to a maximum of 48 hours, facilitate patients' transfer in a timely and effective manner while maintaining the patient's dignity, safety and satisfaction. The assessment suite supports 7 patients + two 136 suites, therefore, there will be a maximum occupancy of 9 patients at any one time.

About our locations:

Tooting (Wandsworth)

Our Trust headquarters is located within the impressive grounds of Springfield University Hospital in Tooting and we also operate in nearly 100 other locations throughout the UK. This is easily accessible via the Northern Line (Tooting Bec Station) and via private transport. The Trust provides subsidised parking fares for all our substantive staff. Our main site is located immediately next to Tooting High Street where staff can easily access a range of shops, cafs and restaurants.

Job description Job responsibilities

• Lead/facilitate robust gatekeeping 2 assessments making clear decisions, based on an analysis of complex presenting problems and judgement about available options. This will include those related to the admission and discharge of patients (when working with out of hours service providers such as home treatment teams, bed management and/or on-call SpR and AMPHs can be utilised to provide support).
• Manage the trust health based place of safety (i.e. s.136 suite), ensuring trust polices are adhered to where appropriate i.e. seclusion policy.
• Utilise a wide variety of clinical skills appropriate to the needs of individual patients and the clinical setting in which they are required to be seen.
• Ensure discharge from Lotus is clinically sound and timely.
• Have an ability to engage challenging and/or acutely distressed patients in potentially hostile and/or antagonistic situations.
• Provide a broad range of specialist psychosocial treatments for individual patients and a specialist consultation-liaison service to referring clinicians and clinical teams, assisting them in decision making in difficult and complex cases.
• Work with colleagues to develop and promote the services philosophy, framework of care delivery and strategic objectives.
• Deliver care that is evidence based, reflecting current best practice and research.
• Participate in structured clinical supervision in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.
• Demonstrate sound understanding of the legal and ethical issues in caring for the mentally ill. In particular, demonstrating sound understanding of the Mental Health Act /Mental Capacity Act and its use in a non-mental health inpatient setting.
• Promote recovery and social inclusion throughout the patient journey.
• Help the client identify strengths to achieve goals and aspirations.
• Contribute to a comprehensive risk assessments in accordance with the Trust Policies and Guidelines.
• Raise safeguarding alerts if you suspect that a service user and/or carer has been exposed to harm or abuse.
• Demonstrate the ability to receive and give complex clinical details clearly using SBAR, with patients, carers and colleagues.
• Communicate clear decisions and rationale when agreement cannot be reached e.g. in situations where the Mental Health Act or Mental Capacity Act or Common Law may be needed to be used.
• Liaise with other individuals and services in the interest of collaborative crisis and discharge planning for patients, i.e. social services, community teams, carers/families, drug and alcohol teams.

Person Specification Education and Qualification Essential

• Registered Adult Nurse and/or Registered Mental Health Nurse and/or Registered Learning Disabilities Nurse
• Mentorship qualification

Desirable

• Master's degree

Experience and Knowledge Essential

• Experience of research-based/reflective practice, e.g. understanding and ability to use supervision to reflect on skills, attitude and knowledge and develop these by using evidence based practice.
• Significant relevant clinical experience
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Experience as a preceptor / mentor
• Knowledge of clinical governance and audit
• Knowledge of relevant Professional and Clinical legislation

Desirable

• Experience of taking responsibility for a ward / clinical unit.
• Experience of engaging / supporting clinical research projects
• Experience of supporting practice development in clinical areas
• Experience of teaching. e.g. lecturer practitioner/preceptorship
• Experience of recruitment and selection of staff

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

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