Clinical Nurse Specialist Supportive & Palliative Care

at  The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

This is a hybrid role for an experienced, highly motivated and enthusiastic Specialist Palliative Clinical Nurse Specialist to support the development of inpatient clinical teams to deliver high quality care to our patients who are palliative or in the last days of life. You will be joining an experienced team of Supportive and Palliative care nurses and will be part of an integrated multi-disciplined team.
The role is responsible for providing the highest standard of expert holistic care for patients and their families. Additionally, the postholder will provide professional leadership, advice, support and expert guidance relating to palliative care and end of life care. This role is to champion approaches that positively impact on palliative care, end of life care and end of life experience, influencing & facilitating the development of best practice and education within the trust.
This is a full time, 12 month fixed term opportunity covering maternity leave within the team
Applicants should have considerable, recent experience of providing palliative and or cancer care to patients in a senior nursing role at band 6 or above in either the community or hospital setting. The post holder will work clinically 3 days per week plus 2 days per week as an end-of-life facilitator, enabling and empowering professionals to deliver best practice palliative and end of life care to adults at The Christie Hospital.
The post holder will be expected to provide clinical leadership within the speciality of palliative care in partnership with the senior clinical nurses and to aid the development of education and research relevant to the speciality. The post holder will respond to referrals and provide specialist clinical nursing knowledge and expertise on the various aspects of palliative care and end of life care depending on patient/carer need.
You should be confident and self-motivated, with excellent communication and influencing skills and, utilising the benefit of your clinical knowledge and experience, be able to act as a resource to all staff and other healthcare professionals, providing education as appropriate. The successful applicant will be key in the development of supportive and palliative care services ensuring this relates to the needs of patients.
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.
We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.
We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.
Clinical Responsibilities
Provide highly specialist, expert clinical knowledge and support to colleagues, patients and carers at the Trust and Network-wide.
Independently assess, implement, and evaluate patients with complex and intractable problems using holistic needs assessment.
Practice as a non-medical prescriber.
Independently deliver significant news to patients with complex psychological needs and support both patients and their carers.
Demonstrate advanced communication skills when dealing with difficult or challenging situations.
Manage clinical caseload, prioritising patient need across in-patient and out-patient settings to enable rapid response to referrals for urgent advice.
Lead multi-disciplinary discussions on current caseload within the Trust to ensure continuity and co-ordination of optimum patient care.
Establish and maintain effective communication with patients and patients and carers/relatives within the clinical setting using effective strategies to overcome barriers to communication.
Utilise and respond to sensitive information appropriately.
Work collaboratively with the multi professional team to ensure patient’s needs are met.
Maintain accurate legible and timely written/verbal/electronic reports which inform other members of the team, patients and their carers/relatives.
Act as a patient advocate in promoting and delivering the highest standard of nursing care.
Participate in the provision of out-of-hours specialist palliative care advice and 7 day working as per rota and operational policy.
Work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies across Greater Manchester to ensure patient needs are met, especially in relation to on-going supportive and palliative care needs and discharge arrangements.
To be flexible to the changes within the Supportive Care Team and within the organisation.
Maintain advanced communication skills.
Training & Education
To evaluate palliative care & end of life teaching currently being carried out by the supportive care team, and to assess if any areas of palliative & end of life care are not being addressed.
To audit current palliative and end of life care teaching, to help identify areas for improvement.
To support the Lead Nurses and educators to coordinate palliative & end of life education.
To promote the palliative care approach and facilitate the development of best practice and education within the Trust.
To undertake and demonstrate expert clinical knowledge and advanced skills for the management of patients with complex and intractable problems through direct clinical input.
To promote multi-disciplinary working across professional boundaries, to ensure seamless delivery of patient care and best practice.
To influence the development of the supportive care strategy at the Trust.
To lead on identified audit & research projects within the supportive care team.
Provide evidenced based education, information and training for a range of disciplines both internally and externally to the organisation.
Disseminate best practice through presentation at regional, national and international palliative care/oncology conferences.
Be aware of current research associated with supportive and palliative care practice and utilise same in ensuring evidence-based practice at local level.
Maintain up to date, high standards of palliative care skills and knowledge and maintain awareness of professional/national issues.
Professional Responsibilities
Maintain own professional status and ensure that the NMC requirements for registration are met and adhered to.
Ensure all relevant nursing policies, procedures and guidelines are adhered to.
Participate in team and directorate meetings as required
Maintain a safe environment for yourself and others, taking reasonable care to avoid injury. Co-operate with the Trust to meet statutory requirements.
Provide statements regarding untoward incidents, as requested by the Senior Nurse
Ensure all staff attend Trust mandatory training annually
Maintain registration and nursing competencies, and comply with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct, and related documents.
Contribute to clinical governance and research & development initiatives
Support and contribute to the development of quality improvement strategies within the Supportive Care Team and contribute and effective use of physical and financial resources
Contribute to the writing of protocols relevant to specialist palliative care.
Promote patient and public involvement activities in the specialist area, leading to service improvement
Promote people’s equality, diversity and rights to shape appropriate service provision that is equitable and accessible

Please refer the Job description for details