Advanced Clinical Practitioner Care of the Elderly/ Frailty

at  University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

A high profile, accessible and responsive leader with managerial and clinical responsibility for the delivery of Advanced Clinical Practice within Care of the Elderly and the Acute Frailty Service. Able to make informed decisions within their own speciality and scope of professional practice, involving patients and public to ensure agreed standards, targets and objectives are met. The post holder is an experienced healthcare professional qualified to Masters Level, who will act as a clinical leader within the older adult service. They will demonstrate safe, senior clinical decision-making and expert care, for patients providing appropriate clinical management plans and prescription of any medication required.
The post holder will be required to work within all areas where Care of the Elderly patients may be housed. This includes the acute medical unit (AMU), Emergency Department (ED), Care of the Elderly wards, outlying wards and rehabilitation wards undertaking primary and secondary assessments alongside medical colleagues, providing support and guidance to nursing and medical staff in the management of Care of the Elderly patients. They will be instrumental in guiding junior medical and nursing staff in relation to relevant protocols and procedures.
Interviews for this post are due to take place 2nd September 2024
The post holder will assess the domains of a comprehensive geriatric assessment and order diagnostic investigations for patients presenting with frailty syndromes. In addition, the ACP will interpret results and initiate treatment where required or alternatively interpret the results as normal findings. The ACP will be required to balance the risks of the patient’s complex interdependent co- morbidities and involve multidisciplinary team members to proactively seek ways to improve care and avoid admission where possible.
They will work collaboratively with the Care of the Elderly and Acute Medicine teams to meet the needs of patients and will play a key role in service delivery and adherence to policy and procedures.
They will be instrumental in providing relevant education and training for staff and analysing ongoing training needs. The post holder will be required to ensure evidence-based care is delivered to patients and will be involved in audit of practice, research, and service improvement.
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, rated as good by the Care Quality Commission, is one of the largest teaching Trusts in the UK.
We are extremely proud of our employees across our hospital sites, with high quality patient care at the heart of everything we do.
Boasting some of the most modern facilities in Western Europe, the Trust is renowned for being at the forefront of research and innovation as part of its blossoming reputation as a worldwide leader in healthcare.
We are proud to be recognised as a Pathway to Excellence® designated organisation – please click the link for further details about this prestigious award. Pathway To Excellence ® - University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (uhcw.nhs.uk)
By joining our exciting journey, you will form part of a passionate, talented team and will be able to access a wide range of learning and development opportunities. There has never been a better time to join our team.
The Trust is committed to building an organisation that makes full use of the talents, skills, experience, and different perspectives available in our diverse society. We want everyone to feel they are respected, valued, can achieve their potential and receive the most appropriate and relevant care. We will create an environment where the equality and human rights principles of fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy are promoted and are part of the organisation’s core values.

Clinical

• Co-ordinate the care of Acute Frailty and Care of the Elderly patients throughout the care pathways with the multidisciplinary team and clinical services to ensure the effective management of this group of patients.
• Accountable for own actions in accordance with the relevant Code of Professional Conduct. Will contribute to corporate objectives, acting within local, Trust and statutory guidelines and policies at all times.
• Autonomously use advanced clinical assessment skills to diagnose, manage and formulate treatment plans for patients presenting with a wide breadth of complex clinical presentations presenting to Acute Frailty and Care of the Elderly with an undifferentiated diagnosis to ensure that optimum physical and psychological care needs are met.
• Proactively develop treatment plans for patients requiring urgent intervention including fluid resuscitation, oxygen therapy, antibiotics, or other urgent treatment.
• Undertake procedures such as cannulation, venepuncture, and arterial blood gases to facilitate efficient urgent care in the context of acute illness or sudden deterioration.
• Initiate relevant investigations such as X-ray, Ultrasound, ECG and blood tests to enable timely diagnosis and facilitate early decision making.
• Prescribe and review medication, appropriate to patient needs in the context of acute illness, considering any treatment given previously for pre-existing medical conditions, providing information and advice to patients on prescribed medication regimens, side- effects and interactions.
• Promote and deliver evidence-based care for patients presenting to Care of the Elderly and Acute Frailty
• Work collaboratively with Community Partners to provide coordinated services in order to prevent the need for admission where possible, or facilitate early discharge ensuring safe transfer of care to community services
• Highly developed communication skills enabling maintenance of high-quality service within a complex and challenging environment with often, conflicting priorities.
• Assist the clinical and nursing teams, at all levels in the assessment and prioritisation of patients requiring intervention
• Deliver and coordinate end of life care where appropriate
• Provision of specialist Care of the Elderly opinion and review for patients housed both within and outside of the specialty including comprehensive geriatric assessment and frailty screening

Communication

• Document clearly all aspects of assessment, diagnosis and management plan clearly and present the findings to the either the Consultant for Care of the Elderly or Acute Frailty Consultant.
• Use the SBAR approach to communicate clinical concerns to the senior medical staff if a patient is found to be critically unwell or deteriorating clinically
• Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive information and have developed persuasive, motivational, negotiating and empathetic skills in their practice.
• Discuss highly complex medical issues appropriately with patients/ carers using language that supports understanding, acting appropriately on questioning and provides information to the patient/ carer to support their understanding. This includes patients who have been given bad news, assisting/ responding to complaints.
• Initiate and maintain effective communication with members of the multidisciplinary team both within Care of the Elderly and with other departments to promote the welfare and safety of patients and carers in accordance with Trust policy.
• Act as an advocate for patients and colleagues.
• Provide constructive feedback to others within the peer group and multidisciplinary team.
• In conjunction with the Consultant practitioners engage stakeholders and utilise high level negotiating and influencing skills to develop and improve service development and clinical practice.
• Ensure awareness of sources of support and guidance (e.g. PALS) and provide information in an acceptable format to all patients, recognising any difficulties and referring where appropriate.

For further details please see the attached job description

Please refer the Job description for details