Band 6 Sister/Charge Nurse

Clinical Responsibilities To take responsibility for the assessment of care needs, development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care within a family centred partnership, from admission through to discharge, to ensure smooth transition from hospital to home.

To support the Senior Nurse and take a leading role in developing with staff a mechanism for setting goals and benchmarking standards of care. To help and participate in developing tools to improve the quality of clinical services across the department through evidenced based practice.

Disseminate knowledge, experience and expertise to all within the work place inorder to create a culture of sharing best practice.

Support systems for sharing good practice within the Unit, Trust and wider region

To maintain accountability and comply with the NMC Guidelines, local and trust policies e.g. medical equipment policy, medicine policy etc

To be able to work and understand the equipment used on the Unit, including the cleaning of medical equipment and correct reporting of faulty equipment according to the Trust Medical Equipment Policy

To provide professional advice regarding the development and provision ofClient care within the Unit to qualified and unqualified staff

Please see JD and PS for more information.

Managerial Responsibilities

To lead by example and act as a role model to motivate and maintain moral and good team working.

To organize staff to meet the workload within the department with anappropriate skill mix to ensure 24 hour cover, and manage unexpected staffingissues effectively.

To be aware of the Units resources,ensuring safe and economical use required meeting patient needs and evaluation of their effectiveness

To assist the Senior Nurse, set goals to manage and minimise risk in the investigating patient complaints, accidents and incidents reporting and to take corrective actions to prevent recurrence.

Accurately obtain and analyse statistical data and information for the area ofpractice, and ensure its storage onto IT systems where appropriate.

Ensure compliance with trust policies and procedures amongst the multidisciplinary team.

To assist the Senior Sister in monitoring sickness absence levels,e.g. Sickness reporting and Return to work interview

Take effective measures for the safe use and storage of medical equipment and its maintenance

Attend and actively contribute to relevant meetings.

To be actively involved in sharing good practice and promoting these acrossthe multi disciplinary team.

Communication

To work cohesively as a team in providing a smooth transition from hospital to

home for infants and their families, adopting effective and efficient discharge planning at all times.

To maintain clear, accurate, legible contemporaneous patient documentation at all times.

To ensure and maintain an effective communication within the multi-disciplinary team to achieve an optimum level of service to the patients and families.

To attend IT training in order to be able to use the hospital patient information management system, email, intranet and the internet for work-related resources.

Professional Development and Education Responsibilities

To attend in-house educational sessions, including updates on breast feeding initiatives, safeguarding, safe equipment use, resuscitation and life-long learning sessions. Keep up-dated by utilising the available educational resources on the Unit and within the Trust.

To take responsibility for your own personal and professional development.

To attend and contribute to unit and Trust meetings and keep updated on new changes of practice

Maintain annual statutory training requirements, including safeguarding children and Resuscitation.

To facilitate ongoing learning and professional development of junior staff, in conjunction with the sister/charge nurse.

To participate in maintaining and supporting a stimulating unit learning environment

To teach and act as a facilitator / mentor / preceptor and be a learning resource to less experienced staff, including pre and post registration nursing students.

To participate in annual Individual Performance Reviews (IPR) and be appraised annually

To be responsible for own learning needs and ensure that professional development is planned.

To maintain a professional profile as a record of own development and experience/qualification.

To contribute to research and development programmes within the unit in orderto promote good practice

Professional and legal Responsibilities

To maintain confidentiality at all times.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job

Qualifications

Experience

Knowledge

Skills