Paediatric Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist

at  Whittington Health NHS Trust

The principal purpose of this role is to work within the Paediatric Mental Health Team (PMHT) to improve the psychological health and well-being of patients within the Paediatric Department at the Whittington Hospital.
This will entail providing appropriate assessments of risk and needs, to patients who are referred to our service via the Paediatric Departments. There will be a primary onus on supporting those who present in crisis via our Emergency Department and our Acute Paediatric Ward.
This will also entail working closely with the wider Paediatric Teams, to support the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) to apply evidence-based frameworks of therapeutic care for Children and Young People (CYP) with mental health needs who are under the care of the Whittington Hospital Paediatric Department.
The PMHT is a multidisciplinary child and family mental liaison team working across the Whittington Hospital. The team provides psychological and psychiatric support along with clinical services to children and young people under the age of 18. They also provide support services to the families of these patients.
To work with the PMHT to offer input into all areas they cover, but to prioritise the need of patients in crisis.
To undertake mental health and risk assessments for paediatric patients with mental health difficulties, presenting in crisis.
To liaise with the professional network to ensure that our patients have their needs met and are safely discharged.
To provide specialist advice, education and support to parents, carers and other health care professionals for children with mental health needs.
To support the acute ward in supporting patients safely who have been admitted for further review.
To liaise with bed management when patients require admissions to inpatient CAMHS units.
To work alongside the multi-disciplinary team to undertake more complex assessments, and create care plans and behavioural support plans for our patients.
To be able to work autonomously working within established professional guidelines.
The post holder will work to agreed professional, departmental and Trust boundaries as required to provide patient-centred seamless care.
Key Working Relationships
Children, Young People and their families/ carers
Members of the PMHT (consultant psychiatrists and psychotherapists and the PMHT Manager)
Safeguarding and Child Protection Teams
Paediatric Nursing teams
Consultant Paediatricians
SHO’s and Registrars on Paediatric Rotation
Wider CAMHS Team Members/Services
Wider professional networks and schools
Working for your organisation should read: Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.
1 Clinical Practice
1.1 Be a point of contact for patients/carers for defined episodes/pathways of care and provide clinical care, specialist nursing advice and psychosocial support. There will be a primary focus on urgent/crisis care assessment and formulation.
1.2 Assess health, mental health, risk and psychosocial needs of individual patients and provide care to meet these needs, in partnership with patients/carers, the PMHT MDT and the nursing and medical teams.
1.4 To provide reports and communicate in a skilled, concise and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation, treatment plans and needs of clients.
1.5 As part of the PMHT facilitate the smooth and safe transfer or discharge of patients, liaise with community care (CAMHS), education and other services to ensure continuity of care and safe discharge.
1.6 To have a good understanding of relevant legal legislation, e.g. Mental Health Act, Children Act, Mental Capacity Act and Child Protection policy/ procedures.
1.7 To act in child centred ways and communicate with patients in ways that empowers them to make informed choices about their health and care.
1.8 To act as an advocate for individual patients and the client groups.
1.9 Provide appropriate education to patients and their families to promote health and encourage self-care.
1.10 Use effective communication skills to impart information to patients and carers and provide them with advice and emotional support in hospital/at home as appropriate.
1.11 Maintain adequate patient documentation to NMC requirements for all patients seen and advice given in any practice setting and contribute to clinical activity/data collection as required.
2. Leadership for effective care
2.1 Support in developing a training programme for staff involved in the crisis care/self-harm assessments for the acute paediatric ward.
2.2 Work collaboratively and in partnership with other health care professionals, offering appropriate leadership and advice to colleagues.
2.3 To work collaboratively to develop standards of care, practice guidelines and where appropriate Integrated Care pathways for the patient/client group.
2.4 To develop and deliver nurse-led initiatives for the benefit of the identified client group, in conjunction with medical and nursing AHP colleagues.
2.5 Demonstrate and co-lead clinical practice developments to provide evidence-based care and contribute to service improvement in accordance with local policy initiatives.
2.6 To undertake appropriate clinical governance activities that relate to own area of practice and patient/client group and those of accountable team.
2.7 Support clinical and management teams in the delivery of Trust and ICSU objectives and to support PMHT QIP’s.
3. Evaluation and Research
3.1 Co-lead the evaluation of the service and patient care, including patient satisfaction (Friends and Family Test).
3.2 Ensure awareness of relevant research, evaluations and audit and act on this information in collaboration with colleagues to continually develop the service.
4 .Working across professional and organisational boundaries
4.1 Develop and sustain appropriate multidisciplinary working relationships to improve health outcomes and healthcare delivery systems.
4.2 To develop protocols, documentation systems, standards, policies and clinical guidelines for others to use in practice.
4.3 In collaboration with health and social care colleagues to deliver patient-centred care, minimising delays and supporting shared care.
4.4 To attend Community CAMHS and discipline specific meetings as may be agreed with the Associate Director of CAMHS.
5. General
5.1 To ensure the development and maintenance of the highest personal standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holder’s professional and service managers. Share good practice with colleagues in the organisation to enhance the overall service provided to patients and carers.
5.2 To work flexibly and with initiative to meet the core aims of service delivery to clients

Please refer the Job description for details