Senior Sister/Charge Nurse Children's Critical Care

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job description

Senior Sister/Charge Nurse Children's Critical Care

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

At the heart of Kings is the Variety Children's Hospital (VCH) offering a wide range of services and specialities for children and young people at local, regional, and international level. Within the VCH is a 16 bedded Children's Critical Care Centre providing care to both high dependency and intensive care patients.

Working in Children's Critical Care will provide you with the opportunity to care for patients admitted under a variety of specialties:

• Neurosurgery, trauma, general medicine and surgery, liver disease and transplantation, small bowel transplantation, neonatal surgery, intensive care and high dependency care.

This exciting opportunity requires a committed, forward thinking children's nurse and expert practitioner to join the senior nursing team. As a Senior Sister/Charge Nurse you will have the opportunity to influence further developments and improvements within this interesting and challenging service in conjunction with the current Band 7 team. You will have a key role in ensuring high quality care and a highly skilled nursing work force across Children's Critical Care. The team is led and supported by a Lead Nurse and Matron across the Centre.

Main duties of the job

Your main responsibility will be the safe delivery of clinical care of critically ill children and day to day shift management of the department; allowing you the opportunity to share your knowledge, experience and skills. This position will also give you the chance to develop your managerial skills. You will need to thrive on working in a dynamic environment; willing to teach junior staff; demonstrate self-motivation and work well in a team. You should demonstrate a commitment to your own professional practice, as well as delivering high quality holistic care, with an emphasis on working in partnership with the children and their families.

Job responsibilities

• To work in accordance with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct, Trust Policies and Procedure
• To act as an expert for the care of critically ill children, providing effective leadership and acting as a positive role model
• To demonstrate clinical expertise in the care of all patients receiving treatment in the unit delivering high standards of evidence based care to level one, two and three patients.
• To assess, plan, implement and evaluate the needs of patients on the ward on an ongoing basis, co-ordinating the care given by all members of the clinical team
• To accurately assimilate and interpret clinical information about the patients condition, instigate appropriate remedial action and promptly report and changes.
• To act as a resource person to others, providing accurate information, advice and support to the multidisciplinary team, patients and parents/carers
• To liaise effectively with all members of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) in order to ensure that the patients needs are met and that the services are delivered in accordance with National service frameworks and agreed Clinical care Guidelines.
• To ensure that accurate records are maintained reflecting both changes in the patients condition and the treatment delivered
• To ensure that patients and their relatives are updated regularly with accurate information, and ensure that this is presented in a sensitive way they understand
• To promote the well being of children and young people and safeguarding them from actual or potential harm and as necessary report concerns under the trust safeguarding/child protection policies.
• To work in partnership with parents/carers in the care of the patient.
• To facilitate opportunity for children to play and young people a period for recreation.
• To act to minimise disruption to childrens schooling/education and ensure access
• To set agreed standards of nursing care and to monitor them and take action to improve if necessary
• To adhere and promote trust policy on valuing equality and diversity in the workplace which incorporates the parents/visitors and staff perspectives.
• To have due regard for each patients cultural and religious beliefs and to respect each patients privacy, dignity, gender and sexuality.
• To rotate to other departments within the speciality as required or as identified as a personal development need in the appraisal process.
• To ensure contemporaneous record keeping at all times and in line with the trust policy on documentation.
• Ensure clear and accurate written and verbal information is given at all times including patient handovers, ward rounds and shift handover.
• To ensure that Clinical Guidelines standards and policies are implemented and to be actively involved in auditing practice in conjunction with Senior Nurse and practice development staff
• To promote a holistic and multi disciplinary approach to care, ensuring continuity of care
• To develop clinical policies and protocols relevant to the area, ensuring that practice is evidence based
• Responsible for key areas of practice within PICU including reviewing and updating relevant policies and procedures
• To be aware of Safeguarding policies and procedures, knowledge and ability to raise concerns including concerns about colleagues.
• To ensure the effective and efficient use of beds at all times
• To support the process of continuous quality improvement, assisting in audits etc to formally evaluate standards of care and assist in the implementation of changes in the light of such findings
• To organise patient transfers both within and outside the Hospital, escorting critically ill patients as requested
• To contribute to the health education of families, ensuring that all families receive appropriate advice and support to maintain/achieve a healthy lifestyle

Person Specification

Qualifications & Experience

• Further relevant post registration professional studies: ENB 405, 415, 100 or equivalent - Children's Critical Care Course
• Relevant children's critical care experience > 2 years at Band 6
• APLS/EPLS
• Registered Nurse (CHILD)
• Relevant degree or working towards
• Management/leadership qualification or training/willingness to undertake this.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

£54,320 to £60,981 a year per annum including HCA