Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To act as a core member of the Specialist Palliative Care multidisciplinary team

To facilitate the effective management of patients referred to the team ensuring their experience is seamless and of high quality.

To promote and support staff to embed the Five Priorities of Care.

 To attend the weekly Specialist Palliative Care multidisciplinary team meeting and contribute to the discussion and patient assessment/care planning decisions.

To undertake a comprehensive holistic assessment of patient/carer needs, ensuring that results of patients’ holistic needs assessment are taken into account when decision making.

As a non-medical prescriber, prescribe and review medication for therapeutic effectiveness, appropriate to patient need and in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and local protocols whilst remaining within scope of practice.

To demonstrate advanced practice in planning, implementing and evaluating nursing care, documenting consultations in the hospital notes.

To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the plan of care, making revisions as necessary.

To provide Level 2 psychological support for patients and their carers, referring patient with complex needs to the Macmillan Clinical Psychologist if appropriate.

To act as a specialist resource to other healthcare professionals relating to Specialist Palliative Care providing expert nursing advice and support.

To act as a role model demonstrating high standards of holistic care and provide clinical leadership related to Specialist Palliative Care
To identify and meet the educational needs of patients and their carers.

To have specialist knowledge of the impact of advanced disease and the associated needs of patients and their family / those important to them.

To support the End of Life Care Practice Educator in the provision of trust wide education.
To support the Palliative Care and End of Life care nurse in implementing strategies to enhance palliative and End of Life care across the trust.

To facilitate sensitive communication including conversations about Advance Care Planning, End of Life care and Preferred Place of Care / Place of Death with patients and those close to them.

To possess knowledge of the complex issues that may arise when informing carers about impending death and the appropriate strategies that can be employed in difficult circumstances.

To consider and if possible identify the patient’s Preferred Place of Care at the appropriate point in the illness experience, ensuring patients are able to be discharged to the place of their choice where possible.

Work in partnership with the Marie Curie Rapid Discharge Service/Macmillan Social Care Coordinator to facilitate complex/rapid discharge
To identity patient/carer information needs and provide this in an appropriate written or verbal format.

Physical Resource

To support patients, their families and those important to them, ensuring their physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs are identified and met .

To demonstrate effective communication skills with patients/carers and the wider multidisciplinary team.

To demonstrate high levels of autonomy and advocacy, working independently in the absence of palliative medical cover.

To demonstrate an ability to work across organisational and professional boundaries.

To identity own personal development needs to work at advanced level and take appropriate action to ensure that these are met.

To maintain a personal professional profile and ensure NMC revalidation requirements are met.

Human Resources

To participate in the formal review process and plan future personal development and competencies to 
be achieved.

Information Resources

To participate in the collection and retrieval of activity data in order to monitor and evaluate the specialist nursing service.

To contribute to the maintenance of concise, accurate patient records including data entry onto team database.

Research & Development

To undertake/participate in audit/research projects related to palliative and end of life care.