Job Description
Clinical Lead Mental Health Practitioner, Band 7
Permanent - Full Time - 37.5 hours per week
7 day a week service - Bexley Crisis Line
An exciting and innovative opportunity has arisen within Crisis Services for a suitably qualified Clinician , RMN with current NMC registration , Occupational Therapist or Social worker with HCPC.
The successful candidate will be based at The Hawthorns , Queen Marys Hospital , Sidcup .This role is for a Senior clinical specialist who will be conducting rapid screening, assessment and treatment (RAT) of patients presenting with and without medical co-morbidities. A key purpose of the post is to improve patient experience, providing a rapid and appropriate response, and agreeing a safe and effective plan of care based on clinical need and an accurate assessment of presenting risks.
The post holder will be competent and confident in positive risk taking and will support junior members to develop skills that will promote patient autonomy and avoid admissions which are not supported by clinical need. This will involve working to reduce admission through effective screening and signposting patients to other services or their respective community teams.
The post holder will predominantly sit within the Crisis Line to provide clinical support and guidance to call handlers but will be expected to provide senior clinical leadership across the Bexley Crisis Services. The post holder will also provide clinical supervision and support to band 6 nurses on the specific shift.
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
The post-holder will:
MANAGEMENT
1. Represent the Trust and play a vital role in communicating and maintaining a good working relationship between other healthcare providers and stakeholders, for example police and social care services.
2. Take responsibility for agreed clinical, managerial, and strategic projects associated with the provision of the service. This will include planning, implementing, reviewing, and revising these projects as necessary, especially in relation to the service development.
3. Ensure the promotion of the health and safety, well-being and interests of the patients, staff and all visitors who come into contact with the team and its service environs.
4. At all times follow professional Code of Conduct’ for Professional Standards of Practice and Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives (2015), or relevant professional standards, and ensure that all staff work within their sphere of responsibility also follows the code as laid down.
5. Supervise, monitor, and appraise the performance of qualified and unqualified staff within the sphere of responsibility, reporting any concerns to senior management as required
6. Work with the Team Manager to ensure the safe and effective management of the team, seeking support when required. To provide operational team management in the absence of the substantive postholder.
7. Act as change agent to promote innovation and high standards of practice.
8. Reflect on own practices and practices of the team as a whole, working with colleagues to develop and implement service improvement initiatives.
LEADERSHIP
The post holder is accountable to the Acute & Crisis Mental Health Service Director. The post holder is a clinical specialist practitioner and their main focus is to provide clinical input to support the smooth operation of the service. The post holder is required to train, mentor and coach staff and facilitate courses/study days.
CLINICAL:
The post-holder will:
1. Complete shifts taking calls via the Crisis Line.
2. Demonstrate sound understanding of the legal and ethical issues in caring for people with mental health problems - in particular, demonstrating sound understanding of the Mental Health Act (1983) / Mental Capacity Act (2005) and its use in a non-mental health setting.
3. Be required to make clear autonomous decisions, based on an analysis of complex presenting problems and judgement about available options.
4. Utilise a wide variety of clinical skills appropriate to the needs of individual patients and the clinical setting in which they are required to be seen.
5. Carry out robust risk assessments and care planning in a non-mental health environment.
6. Provide a broad range of specialist psychosocial treatments for individual patients and a specialist consultation service to referring clinicians and clinical teams, assisting them in decision making in difficult and complex cases.
7. Demonstrate a high standard of record keeping and documentation with adherence to trust policy and an understanding of professional guidelines and application of confidentiality.
8. Work with colleagues to develop and promote the service’s philosophy, framework of care delivery and strategic objectives, taking responsibility for specific areas of policy and strategy delivery.
9. Work with colleagues to develop clinical expertise and high standards of nursing practice, as defined by professional standards and codes of conduct.
10. Deliver care that is evidence based, reflecting current best practice and research.
11. Participate in structured clinical supervision in accordance with Trust policies and procedures. You will also be expected to take responsibility for the supervision of nurses and others in non-mental health settings working with patients with mental health problems.
12. Demonstrate clinical excellence and high standards of nursing practice to other staff.
RESEARCH:
The post-holder will:
1. Demonstrate a commitment to developing research skills in themselves and any junior staff.
2. Regularly undertake audit/research into client/service-related areas and contribute to the application and evaluation of current research findings.
3. Identify areas of study/research in the service, develop proposals and seek advice on funding to support such activities in collaboration with the team manager and borough crisis manager.
4. Develop methods at service level to monitor standards of care in liaison with the clinical audit department (quality assurance/research).
5. Use current evidence-based practice in the expansion of current knowledge base.
COMMUNICATION:
The post-holder will:
1. Be able to employ higher level written and oral communication skills.
2. Demonstrate the ability to receive and give complex clinical details clearly, with patients, carers and colleagues.
3. Demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly and sensitively in situations that are contentious and/or hostile.
4. Demonstrate a high level of interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy in all communications.
5. Demonstrate an ability to negotiate and problem solve in contentious and/or antagonistic situations where agreement is required or communicate clear decisions and rationale when agreement cannot be reached e.g. in situations where the Mental Health Act may be needed to be used.
6. Demonstrate the ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with colleague within the HTT, as well as other teams both internal and external to Oxleas / Lewisham and Greenwich Trust.
EDUCATION:
The post-holder will:
1. Identify own professional development needs and demonstrate achievements against personal development plans.
2. Act as a mentor/preceptor where appropriate.
3. Facilitate a learning environment conducive to the acquisition of further knowledge and skills.
4. Liaise with relevant academic establishments in all matters concerning nurse training.
5. Undertake training when required.
ON CALL/UNSOCIAL HOURS
The post holder will be required to work unsocial hours.
CLINICAL GOVERNANCE:
The post-holder will:
1. Participate in the design and implementation of the audit of clinical work.
2. Take an active role in seeking carer and user feedback.
3. Demonstrate respect, empathy and understanding of all users and colleagues within the service.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:
The post-holder will:
1. To undertake mandatory and statutory training as required by Trust policy.
2. To contribute and commit to undertaking an annual Development Review/appraisal.
3. To undertake personal development as identified in the Personal Development Plan (PDP).
4. Develop and participate in teaching/ assessment programmes and learning resources for staff, students, patients and relatives. To include allied agencies and stake holders where practicable.
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