Macmillan Secondary Breast Cancer Nurse Specialist

at  The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

The Christie Macmillan Secondary Breast Cancer Nursing Team are looking for an experienced, dynamic nurse who is passionate about the patient experience and the delivery of quality patient-focused care, to join their award winning team as a Band 7 Clinical Nurse Specialist.
The post involves acting as a keyworker to patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and providing support and information throughout their cancer pathway as well as participation in service development.
Successful candidates will have a minimum of 5 years post registration, with previous experience in breast oncology and ideally, having some palliative care knowledge and experience in managing patients with advancing disease. Advanced communication skills are essential.
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.
Duties and Responsibilities
Clinical
To provide comprehensive and specialist assessment such as holistic needs assessment and care planning for patients with a range of highly complex presentations, by utilising advanced clinical reasoning, evidenced based knowledge, investigative and analytical skills and specialist assessment techniques.
To provide support and advice accordingly with the aim of promoting optimal quality of life.
Plan, implement and evaluate care delivery both physical and psychological according to changing health care needs to ensure continuity of effective patient care and considers inclusivity and personalisation.
To communicate complex clinical findings to the patient/carers to gain valid informed consent prior to any intervention or procedure.
To work within a legal framework for those patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
To ensure that the delivery of kind, compassionate and respectful care takes place and that the Clinical Nurse Specialist Team develop relationships with patients that encourages collaborative decision making.
Ensure the maintenance of professional contemporaneous records at all times, document all actions and interventions in a clear, honest and timely manner in line with Trust policy.
Collect, collate, evaluate and report information, Involve patients and carers/relatives and work closely with secondary breast cancer user involvement in the planning and delivery of care and development of services to enhance the patient/carer experience.
Work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies to ensure patient needs are met, especially in relation to ongoing support and palliative care needs. This may encompass primary, secondary and other tertiary care providers.
In conjunction with specialist palliative care, ensure optimal symptom control.
Ensure assessment and timely diagnosis of disease progression and that adequate support is in place.
Develop effective teamwork, to ensure that the delivery of patient care is reviewed as part of a multidisciplinary team. To attend metastatic MDT meetings and team meetings as appropriate and to contribute to discussions about individual patients. To attend other professional and clinical meetings as appropriate.
Deal with concerns raised by patients and carers in a proactive manner, review patient feedback results and update patient experience improvement plans as needed.
Champion a safeguarding culture, which meets the needs of people with issues involving mental capacity or children.
Ensure patients, relatives and other staff are received in a professional manner and act in a courteous and polite manner at all times, thereby ensuring good public relations between patients, public and staff.
Use advanced communication skills in a variety of settings.
To have an advanced knowledge of local and national standards that may impact on practice.
To run the nurse led clinic and telephone clinics.
To support, mentor, lead and educate the band 6and band 4 members of the team.
To communicate effectively and support patients and carers prior to, during and after treatment and at key points in their cancer journey i.e disease progression/ advanced care planning.
To be aware of current research protocols and liaise with the Breast Research Nurses regarding eligibility.
To implement Trust Policies and Procedures
To act always in accordance with the NMC Code of Conduct and Guiding Documents
Managerial/Clinical Leadership.
To provide specialist, expert clinical knowledge to clinical colleagues, patients and carers/relatives both within and outside the Trust and manage a caseload of patients.
Evaluate service delivery; identify areas for improvement and initiate change.
To build effective professional relationships with Greater Manchester Cancer and across Acute and Community settings.
To provide written evidence of service development and performance participating in Macmillan reviews and annual report.
Initiate and support clinical developments / projects to promote excellence in patient care.
Provide and receive clinical supervision and mentorship to facilitate reflective practice and attend peer supervision.
Promote patient and public involvement activities in the specialist area, leading to service improvement by working with service users.
Attend and participate in the CNS Forum and other committees and meetings at divisional and at a strategic Trust level
Act as a role model presenting a professional image at all times.
To take part in recruitment and selection of appropriate staff in the team
To be fully aware of the divisional objectives and the Trust’s corporate plan.
Education and Development.
To participate in annual appraisal and accept personal responsibilities for professional growth and development.
To identify training needs of non-specialist Christie and Network colleagues and develop educational programmes in collaboration with Breast colleagues.
To provide specialist input, develop and teach on relevant post registration courses.
Together with other professional colleagues develop information and resource packs for patients and their carers.
Maintain a professional portfolio
Research and Audit
To ensure that clinical practice is based on evidence and current best practice and to disseminate information to staff.
To identify areas of Breast nursing practice that need to be researched and to participate where appropriate in nursing and multi disciplinary research, clinical audit, and benchmarking, in order to improve effectiveness of patient care.
Disseminate and promote best practice through presentation at regional, national and international oncology conferences. Provide written and verbal feedback to colleagues.
Contribute to the writing of protocols relevant to Breast specialty.
Undertake, where appropriate, nursing research with published outcomes

Please refer the Job description for details