Divisional Director of Nursing

Job overview

We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for an ambitious, strong, senior nursing leader, who is progressing in their management career. This post will require a unique and talented individual who will continue in the strong clinical leadership of our high quality Acute Services and who is a key leader in patient centred care on our Journey to Outstanding.

We are a forward thinking Service that has demonstrated solid, effective and consistent nursing leadership, growth and development over the last 10 years. 

The service is looking for an experienced and senior nursing leader to join the Divisional Team. Reporting to the Divisional Medical Director and under the professional direction of the Chief Nurse, the post-holder who must be a practising Nurse will provide leadership and direction for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals within MCEC.

Working alongside senior manager, Heads of Nursing and Matrons you will be responsible for supporting the team in the achievement of excellent Patient care. You will act as a point of contact for advice and expertise on all matters relating to professional nursing issues in the division.

Main duties of the job

For you to fit this role, you must be a practising nurse with exceptional managerial, leadership and clinical capability. You will provide positive clinical leadership and recognise the strength of the nursing and AHP teams. 

You must have a proven track record of strategic management, and supporting nurses in practice. This will have a positive impact on the quality of care provision within the service. We will be looking for an inspirational leader who can translate comprehensive professional development into outstanding patient’s care and experience. You will be central to delivering new strategies for Quality and Innovation and driving our ongoing response and contribution to the NHS Plan. In return, we can offer a talented and motivated workforce and executive to support you in helping us achieve our goals.

Working for our organisation

We are committed to being an inclusive and diverse employer. We strive to employ people who reflect the communities we serve, and aim to create an inclusive culture where everyone can reach their full potential. Whatever your race, ethnicity, belief, generation, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, disability or experience, you’ll appreciate the opportunities we give you to work in an inclusive atmosphere. We welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences to build on the progress we’ve achieved to make our Trust diverse and the best place to work. We celebrate the diversity of thought, viewpoints and ideas that help us overcome challenges and embrace new possibilities. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant Pledge and have a commitment to the Armed Forces Community.

If you are considering applying for a role, please be aware that as an NHS Employee you may have contact with vulnerable service users. We strongly encourage that all our staff are vaccinated against COVID-19 and are vaccinated annually against Flu, in order to protect the health and safety of our staff and patients. Your commitment will help us to put the safety and care of our patients first, as well as helping us to protect you and your colleagues.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Divisional Director of Nursing is managerially and professionally accountable for the leadership and clinical effectiveness of all nurses and AHP’s across a variety of clinical settings within the Division.

As Divisional Director of Nursing you will:

Provide effective clinical leadership in ensuring that the nursing and midwifery agenda is clearly part of the Divisional Management Team (DMT) decision making, service developments and contributes to both the local Division and Trust strategic objectives including quality initiatives and targets.

Be the Divisional lead for Clinical Governance and Risk Management, ensuring processes are in place for monitoring, management and analysis of incident reporting.

Be the Divisional Lead for complaints and patient experience. To ensure patients and users of the services are given the opportunity to feedback on their experiences and to be involved in service development and redesign.

Lead, inspire and develop the nursing workforce within the Division to deliver high quality, patient centred nursing care that meets the needs of the patient using highly specialist knowledge

Ensure the Division has a comprehensive, progressive and sufficiently robust systems of internal control in place to implement and monitor the Trust Quality Strategy, so as to ensure the Trust consistently delivers on its vision of Exceptional healthcare, personally delivered, are established and working effectively from ward to Board.

Provide strategic nursing leadership in order to consistently develop high quality, safe and cost effective nursing services for patients, the post holder is responsible for clinical risk and quality governance within the division and provides professional leadership to all staff within the division including developing the clinical leadership capability.

Be responsible to the Divisional Medical Director and professionally accountable to the Chief Nurse

Support the Chief Nurse with the delivery of a wider corporate nursing and quality agenda including (but not limited too) patient safety, patient experience, improved outcomes and the delivery of the Trust’s Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery which will strengthen the nursing voice and secure the workforce of the future.

Contribute to the development and review of the Trust’s Service and business strategies to ensure congruence with the needs of patients, the Board’s vision and priorities, and wider NHS requirements.

Have the responsibility for developing and delivering systems and processes that enables the consistent delivery of safe high quality professional nursing care through effective performance management.

With the Divisional Medical Director (DMD) and the Chief Operating Officer will have shared accountability for the operational performance and strategic development of their Division. This will include accountability for high quality patient care, patient safety, clinical quality and governance, the delivery of agreed performance and financial objectives, and ensuring that the division operates with the needs of patients as its highest priority.

Be responsible for delivering visible leadership to nursing and care staff within the division in order to constantly improve the quality of nursing practice delivered to patients. This will be in line with agreed objectives, targets, quality standards, resource controls and constraints, and will contribute to delivering the nursing and midwifery operational strategy for the Division and for the Trust as a whole.

Undertake research and development activity within the Division and external to Division

Assist the Chief Nurse, Deputy Chief Nurse and other members of the Executive team with a range of strategic and operational activity in relation to the nursing and midwifery workforce and its roles, behaviour and structure, in order to ensure that safe and high quality patient care is provided consistently and improved across the trust in line with Trust objectives and requirements.

Ensure that the fundamentals of care are delivered effectively within the Division and that competence in clinical practice is both maintained and developed in order to maximise the patient experience as well as the safety and quality of service. To undertake research and development activity within the Division and external to Division.

Provide clinical and professional advice to the Executive team and on a day to day basis as required.

Work in conjunction with the DMD and Divisional Operations Director (DOD) as a triumvirate, providing the senior leadership and strategic direction to the Division, ensuring delivery of the quality, governance, performance and transformation agendas and representing the Division at both internal and external meetings.

Be an integral member of the Divisional Leadership Team, which supports the implementation of service improvement, delivery, and development plans, together with plans for on-site developments.

Be a strong emphasis on the need to develop a culture of performance management and delivery as a foundation for excellent organisational performance. Working closely with members of the divisional team and associated clinical staff in developing effective multi-disciplinary services they will help manage and co-ordinate the delivery of agreed performance indicators in relation to clinical outcomes, clinical efficiency and service line reporting.

The post holder is required to participate in the executive on-call rota as required and work clinically on a regular basis in line with the rest of the senior nursing & midwifery teams.

Please see attached job description for further information.  

Person specification

Education and Training

Essential criteria

Registered and practising nurse with current live NMC registration. Degree in nursing or clinical subject Masters’ Degree in relevant subject supplemented further by evidence of continuing professional Post graduate management qualification. Recognised leadership course. Evidence of continuing personal and professional development.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to develop and implement long term strategies and to influence at a strategic level across and beyond complex organisations Develop professional credibility with staff – in particular senior clinical and managerial staff in allocated directorates. Ability to develop and write clear and concise policy, guidance, board and other reports. Mediation and facilitation skills. High-level problem-solving approach, proactive and resourceful, assertive but professional, negotiation, interpersonal, administrative, analytical, advocacy, training and counselling skills. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of people and professionals. Ability to influence, guide, persuade and negotiate at an organisational and externally with a range of stakeholders. An innovative and creative approach and ability to inspire and ability to enthuse others. Strong sense of personal responsibility. Enthusiastic about ensuring services and care is good for patients Must be able to deal with frequent interruptions, meet deadlines and concentrate for lengthy periods of time Champion for excellent patient care and quality. Ability to deliver on the most challenging of issues. Ability to develop strategic priorities and to organise staff and resources to achieve high quality patient care and delivery of health care targets. Advanced planning and organisational skills – able to lead/organise multiple projects ensuring timely delivery of goals and milestones. Excellent leadership, Influencing and motivational skills to deliver corporate objectives. Financial management, business and service planning skills. Ability to use relevant software packages utilising standard keyboard skills. Ability to communicate, receive and interpret highly complex, highly sensitive and highly contentious information where there are significant barriers to Ability to communicate in highly emotive, hostile or antagonistic environments, including to distressed and or large groups of people in a politically aware and sensitive manner Ability to lead and motivate senior multidisciplinary and multi-agency staff Strong negotiation skills within and across organisational boundaries Ability to resolve conflict and negotiate constructively – evidence of listening and mediation skills Evidence of ability to supervise senior managers so that responsibility is appropriately delegated and the management skills of these staff are continuously developed Ability to interpret overall health service policy and strategy in order to establish goals and standards Leadership qualities to motivate and empower Facilitation and meeting chairing skills

Experience

Essential criteria

Extensive senior clinical management experience Experience of working as a senior nurse in management in a health care environment, of which should be above matron level and at least 2 years at Divisional Management level or equivalent. Experience of managing an operational team, targets and budgets. Experience of implementing and leading significant change projects at corporate level in a multi-site organisation. Experience of multi-agency working. Experience of working with patients/service users to improve their experience. Experience in implementing safety/quality initiatives and service improvement projects. Experience in setting objectives and performance management and holding staff to account. Experience of effective workforce planning, and can demonstrate an understanding of establishment and acuity and dependency tools. Significant management experience which includes but is not limited to the NHS Experience in providing advice on complex professional issues to the executive/non- executive team and all other levels of the organisation, external agencies and stakeholders e.g. NHSi/e, CCG etc. Experience of producing high quality reports in a timely manner for consideration at senior level internally and externally. Evidence of learning through integrated learning Evidence of leadership development Experience of managing staff and multiple budgets Experience of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working both in a clinical setting Experience in the production and implementation of Trust wide policies that have taken into account national and local policy. Experience of producing and presenting papers for and at Trust Board and other external groups or committees. Experience of managing conflict effectively and making effective decisions in challenging, time limited situations Experience of developing and implementing strategies Experience of working at a corporate level and influencing strategic decision making Experience of offering senior Trust guidance on an on-call basis. Experience of leading on significant change management project across an organisation Experience of carrying out complex internal investigations and production of action plans. Experience of effective complaints management, with analysis and implementation of change.

Personal Attributes

Essential criteria

Self-motivated and results and outcome driven. Ability to make decisions and manage emergency situations. A team player and able to work collaboratively as well as being a self-starter and leader. Intellectual flexibility. Demonstrates resilience. Ability to travel to all areas.

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