Clinical Nurse Specialist

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has a unique history of leading the way in the development of new approaches to cancer care. The Hospital2Home Service continues this tradition.

Patients leaving the care of the Royal Marsden Hospital need to be confident in the care they will continue to receive once they are discharged from hospital, thus preventing unnecessary readmission to hospital. Through collaborative working with the patient, their carers, acute, primary and community health care professionals, the Hospital2Home team works to ensure that patients continue to receive a high standard of care when they are discharged from the Royal Marsden Hospital.

The team plays a pivotal role in making this happen by providing a link between acute and community care settings. Working as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, you will support the Royal Marsden Hospital's multi-professional teams to formally discharge patients who may be more appropriately cared for in their own homes, ensuring safe and thorough discharge, facilitating telephone case conferences with the multi-professional team, and developing a well documented and communicated advance care plan to enable patients to stay in their preferred place of care. You will also work collaboratively with the Hospital Support Team to provide specialist symptom control for patients whilst in the hospital and participate in ongoing audit and research.

Main duties of the job

We are now looking to recruit a Clinical Nurse Specialist to work as part of this multi-professional team. In the first instance, you will need to be a registered nurse with at least 3 years post registration experience in cancer/palliative care, and community experience would be a bonus. Educated to at least degree level, you will also need to be confident in delivering education and training to all staff groups, having attained some form of post registration qualification in this. This post will offer this service to patients at both the Chelsea and Sutton sites of the hospital. We would welcome and encourage an informal visit.

The post holder will be expected to liaise appropriately with all key members of the multi-disciplinary team and service users related to the specialty. In addition, the post holder will be required to liaise with their peers across the Trust, the divisional management team and appropriate corporate directorates and teams. The post holder will be expected to liaise with colleagues external to the Trust and national networks as appropriate to the specialty.

Working for our organisation

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services. We have two hospitals - one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey - as well as a Medical Daycare Unit in Kingston Hospital.

At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do.

At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our values and can play a crucial role in our on-going achievements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For more information please refer to the job description and personal specification

To provide specialist palliative care nursing in the co-ordination of patients being discharged from Hospital2Home and to act as a resource to all other health care workers involved in the patient's care.

To use advanced clinical judgement to plan, implement and evaluate care for patients with complex symptom control needs in both the Inpatient and Outpatient Setting, providing advice on management of complex symptom control.

To manage an agreed caseload, under the supervision of the Matron and Nurse Consultant, using in depth knowledge of the patient / client group and acting as the key worker where appropriate.

To initiate advance care discussions with sensitivity, knowledge and expertise to enable patients to make an informed choice about their care, ensuring that a clear plan of care is documented on the patient's electronic patient record system. Acting as the patient's advocate when appropriate and respecting patient confidentiality and privacy with respect for diverse cultural backgrounds and requirements.

Person specification

• First and/or Higher Degree
• Willingness to work towards Higher Degree if without this
• Teaching qualification/experience
• 3 years experience Palliative Care
• Evidence of numeracy and computer literacy skills.
• Experience of managing a clinical caseload

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.

Due to the high volumes of applications we receive, we reserve the right to close any adverts before the published closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications. We advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.

All applicants will be contacted by email to the address supplied on your application. Applicants are advised to check their email accounts regularly and to ensure that email filters are set to allow our emails.

Flu Vaccination - What We Expect of our Staff

At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease.

The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the upmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient-facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.