Practice Nurse

Job summary

Practice Nurse working alongside another Practice Nurse and a Healthcare Assistant.

This small, friendly Practice offers good team support, a friendly atmosphere and great patients.

Main duties of the job

General Practice Nurse duties including vaccinations and immunisations, cervical smears, dressings and helping with minor surgery. Management of minor ailments and chronic disease management.

Responsible for Infection Control alongside the Practice Manager.

Some ordering of supplies.

About us

The team includes 5 GPs, a Practice Nurse and a healthcare assistant. Access to Practice Pharmacist's expertise, on-site MSK support and a care co-ordinator on site. There is a small administration team to support clinicians.

This is a family run Practice supporting a friendly and informal atmosphere with a good team work ethic.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Generic responsibilities

All staff at Unity Surgery have a duty to conform to the following:

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

A good attitude and positive action towards ED&I creates an environment where all

Individuals are able to achieve their full potential. Creating such an environment is important for three reasons: it improves operational effectiveness, it is morally the right thing to do and it is required by law.

Safety, Health, Environment and Fire (SHEF)

This practice is committed to supporting and promoting opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety. You have a duty to take reasonable care of health and safety at work for you, your team and others and to co-operate write employers to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements. All personnel are to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Environmental Protection Act 1990, Environment Act 1995, Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1999 and other statutory legislation.

Confidentiality

This practice is committed to maintaining an outstanding confidential service. Patients entrust and permit us to collect and retain sensitive information relating to their health and other matters pertaining to their care. They do so in confidence and have a right to expect all staff will respect their privacy and maintain confidentiality at all times. It is essential that, if the legal requirements are to be met and the trust of our patients is to be retained, all staff protect patient information and provide a confidential service.

Quality and Continuous Improvement (CI)

To preserve and improve the quality of our output, all personnel are required to think not only of what they do, but how they achieve it. By continually re-examining our processes, we will be able to develop and improve the overall effectiveness of the way we work. The responsibility for this rests with everyone working within the practice to look for opportunities to improve quality and share good practice. This practice continually strives to improve work processes which deliver healthcare with improved results across all areas of our service provision. We promote a culture of continuous improvement where everyone counts and staff are permitted to make suggestions and contributions to improve our service delivery and enhance patient care.

Learning and development

The effective use of training and development is fundamental to ensuring that all staff are equipped with the appropriate skills, knowledge, attitude and competences to perform their role. All staff will be required to partake and complete mandatory training as directed by the training coordinator, as well as participating in the practice training programme. Staff will also be permitted (subject to approval) to undertake external training courses which will enhance their knowledge and skills, progress their career and ultimately enable them to improve processes and service delivery.

Collaborative working

All staff are to recognise the significance of collaborative working. Teamwork is essential in multidisciplinary environments. Effective communication is also essential and all staff must ensure they communicate in a manner which enables the sharing of information in an appropriate manner.

Service delivery

Staff at Unity Surgery must adhere to the information contained within practice policies and regional directives, ensuring protocols are adhered to at all times. Staff will be given detailed information during the induction process regarding policy and procedure.

Security

The security of the practice is the responsibility of all personnel. Staff must ensure they remain vigilant at all times and report any suspicious activity immediately to their line manager.

Professional conduct At Unity Surgery

Staff are required to dress appropriately for their role.

Leave

The leave year commences on 1 January and all holidays must be taken within the leave year. You are entitled to paid holiday, currently your leave entitlement is 6 weeks plus bank holidays.

Primary responsibilities

The following are the core responsibilities of the lead practice nurse. There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks. This will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels:

a. To act as the Infection Prevention Control (IPC) lead and to work to the IPC Policy providing audits, training, support and evidence of compliance to the practice manager.

b. To develop, implement and embed health promotion and well-being programmes

c. To implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for chronic disease patients that promote health and well-being

d. To identify, manage and support patients at risk of developing long term conditions, preventing adverse effects to patients health

e. To provide routine nursing care to patients as required in accordance with clinical based evidence, NICE and the NSF

f. To diagnose and manage acute and chronic conditions

g. To prescribe medication for patients in accordance with PGDs and own scope of practice

h. To review patient medications to enhance compliance

i. To provide guidance to patients in the use of prescribed and over-the-counter medications regarding side effects and dosages

j. To oversee the provision of wound care services to patients

k. To co-ordinate the provision of travel medicine services

l. To request pathology services as necessary

m. To process pathology results as required

n. To oversee the provision of chronic disease clinics, delivering patient care as necessary, referring patients to secondary/specialist care as required

o. To maintain accurate clinical records in conjunction with extant legislation

p. To ensure the appropriate maintenance and use of chronic disease registers

q. To develop, implement, embed and participate in well woman clinics

r. To develop, implement, embed and participate in well man clinics

s. To chaperone patients where necessary

t. To assist GPs with minor surgery when required

u. To prioritise health issues and intervene appropriately

v. To support the team in dealing with clinical emergencies

w. To recognise, assess and refer patients presenting with mental health needs

x. To implement vaccination programmes for adults and children

y. To support patients in the use of their prescribed medicines or over-the-counter medicines (within own scope of practice)

z. To liaise with external services/agencies to ensure the patient is supported appropriately (vulnerable patients etc.)

aa. To delegate clinical responsibilities appropriately (ensuring safe practice and the task is within the scope of practice of the individual)

bb. To support the clinical team with all safeguarding matters in accordance with local and national policies

cc. To understand practice and local policies for substance abuse and addictive behaviour, referring patients appropriately

dd. To deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate

Secondary responsibilities

In addition to the primary responsibilities, the lead practice nurse may be requested to:

a. Develop and review audit protocols and process for the practice, effectively utilising the audit cycle

b. Develop, review and implement nursing protocols in conjunction with the partners

c. Support all members of the nursing team, providing guidance when necessary, conducting appraisals and training needs analyses as required

d. Participate in local initiatives to enhance service delivery and patient care

e. Support and participate in shared learning within the practice

f. Continually review clinical practices, responding to national policies and initiatives where appropriate

g. Participate in the review of significant and near-miss events applying a structured approach, root cause analysis (RCA)

h. Co-ordinate the nursing team rota, ensuring sufficient staff are available to meet patient needs

i. Lead the planning and implementation of changes within the nursing team, enhancing the provision of services to patients

j. Support the practice team with the reviewing and implementation of practice policies and protocols, ensuring conformance to extant legislation

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Registered nurse Experience of working in a primary care environment Experience of chronic disease management Experience of working autonomously Wound care/removal of sutures and staples ECGs Venepuncture New patient medicals Chaperone procedure Requesting pathology tests and processing the results, advising patients accordingly Diabetes Hypertension Asthma Spirometry CHD Immunisations (routine, childhood and travel) Womens health (cervical cytology, contraception, etc.) Understand the importance of evidence based practice Broad knowledge of clinical governance Ability to record accurate clinical notes Ability to work within own scope of practice and understand when to refer to GPs Understanding of infection prevention and control measures

Desirable

Post graduate diploma or degree (Chronic Disease Management) Nurse prescriber Experience of leading a nursing team in a primary care environment Experience of working as a practice nurse or community nurse

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