Frailty Practitioner

Job overview

We are looking to recruit a Frailty Practitioner to join our evolving and dynamic team,who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

We are a multidisciplinary team made up of Consultant Geriatricians, ACP's, Clinical nurse specialists, pharmacists and therapists. We cover a seven day service based in the Emergency Department (ED) and Acute Assessment Area (AMU) assessing frail and vulnerable patients. We also run a daily hot clinic out of SDEC.

Day to day we identify suitable to patients who have presented to the acute trust initiating a comprehensive geriatric assessment, we encompass and MDT approach to care and our ultimate goal is to return the patient to their normal place of residence or when needed facilitate a timely transfer to our frailty short stay ward for admission and management of their presenting complaint.

You must have a keen interest in frailty and be able to demonstrate experience of working and assessing older persons. It would be beneficial to have an understanding of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA,) and the associated assessments which we routinely use within the service.

The team are motivated to share learning about Frailty and the importance of managing our complex patients across the wider trust, and there is the expectation that the post holder will support with this.

This role is a 12 month secondment starting in July 2024 and ending July 2025.

Our Values are Include, Respect and Improve. It is important that you understand and refer to our values during your recruitment process and beyond

Main duties of the job

You will involve providing an in-reach service into the wider trust, supporting patients who are living with frailty, experiencing delirium and are suffering from multiple frailty syndromes.

You will create bespoke individualised assessments to support the ward teams to manage this complex patient group, aiming to reduce deconditioning, reduce length of stay and improve patient outcomes.

There are many learning opportunities to be gained from joining our team, and we will support your passion and motivation for assessing, treating and advanced care planning for the patient who we encounter during their admission or facilitated discharge.

Provide an MDT approach to care ensuring a seamless transfer of information between acute and primary care services.

Support in service development and education across the wider trust raising the profile of the Frailty service and improving patient care through education.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Working as part of the frailty service you will provide bespoke assessments for identified patients who are living with frailty while they are inpatients.

You will work independently carrying out nurse led assessments to support ward staff to effectively and proactively manage this complex patient group.

You will act as an advocate for your patient, while providing education to the wider trust in the effective management of patients living with frailty, strategies to reduce the risk of deconditioning, and education around clinical frailty scoring.

The role will support pilot activity and the successful candidate will support the service while we evolve and develop new pathways.

Further information is listed in the information attached.

Person specificationQualifications / TrainingEssential criteria

• RGN/ HCPC registered with a degree or relevant experience
• Teaching & mentoring qualification or evidence of professional continuous development and teaching

Desirable criteria

• Post registration module Advanced Clinical Assessment skills or willingness to undertake as part of professional development

Previous ExperienceEssential criteria

• Previous experience in clinical experience within Frailty or Geriatric medicine or proven relevant experience
• Ability to work independently and effectively co-ordinate own work load under pressure.
• Evidence of teaching/mentoring in practice

SkillsEssential criteria

• Venipuncture and Cannulation
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work as part of a team but also independently
• Proficient in computer use – accessing a variety of systems and the use of Microsoft office.
• Relevant experience at B6 level Ability to support and develop junior staff/colleagues

Desirable criteria

• Advanced clinical skills

KnowledgeEssential criteria

• Working knowledge of Frailty assessments used within the service
• Demonstrate knowledge of the role of Frailty CNS/Practitioner
• Willingness to undertake research and audits to further develop the service

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background. In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing resourcing.enh-tr@nhs.net

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.

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