Vacancy: Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Responsible to

  • Partners for clinical matters, Practice Manager/Assistant Manager for all other matters

Accountable to

Practice Partnership

 

Job Summary

The post holder will be an experienced Advance Nurse Practitioner and Independent Nurse Prescriber. They will ideally have experience of primary care and must be confident working autonomously and independently within their professional boundaries and as part of a team whilst carrying out clinical assessment, triage and consultations, providing diagnosis, treatment, evaluation of care and prescribing. They will demonstrate safe, clinical decision-making and expert care for patients within the general practice. They will work collaboratively with the multi-disciplinary general practice team to meet the needs of patients, supporting the delivery of policy and procedures, and providing support to GP’s and practice team as required.

The post holder must maintain registration with NMC, maintaining its Code of Conduct to protect the public through professional standards.  Fulfil its learning requirements.

 

Main Duties and Responsibilities

  • Provide the choice of direct access to an advanced nurse practitioner, both in the practice and over the telephone, for the general practice population
  • Make home visits to those who are too unwell to come into the clinic in person
  • Make professionally autonomous decisions for which he/she is accountable
  • Provide a first point of contact within the practice for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems, making use of skills in history taking, physical examination, problem-solving and clinical decision-making, to establish a diagnosis and management plan
  • Provide a triage service, including telephone advice and assessing patients in the surgery, and liaising with doctors, nurses and outside agencies as appropriate
  • Provide assistance to GPs seeing and treating patients referred to you as appropriate
  • Instigate necessary invasive and non-invasive diagnostic tests or investigations and interpret findings / reports
  • Prescribe safe, effective and appropriate medication as defined by current legislative framework in accordance with the practice prescribing formulary (or generically) whenever this is clinically appropriate
  • Provide safe, evidence-based, cost-effective, individualised patient care
  • Offer a holistic service to patients and their families, developing where appropriate an on-going plan of care / support, with an emphasis on prevention and self-care
  • Promote health and well-being through the use of health promotion, health education, screening and therapeutic communication skills
  • Refer patients directly to other services / agencies as appropriate
  • Work with multi-disciplinary team within the practice, and across the wider NHS, to promote integrated and seamless pathways of care
  • Contribute to the practice achieving its quality targets to sustain the high standards of patient care and service delivery
  • Participate in identification of community health needs and develop patient / family-centred strategies to address them
  • Help develop and set up new patient services and participate in initiatives to improve existing patient services
  • Be aware of and contribute to planning and delivery of clinical commissioning
  • Perform any other tasks within the skills of the post holder
 

Confidentiality

  • In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately
  •  In the performance of the duties outlined in this job description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential
  • Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data
 

Health & Safety

The post-holder will implement and lead on a full range of promotion and management of their own and others’ health and safety and infection control as defined in the practice Health & Safety an Infection Control policies. This will include (but will not be limited to):

  • Awareness of national standards of infection control and cleanliness and regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines
  • Responsible for the correct and safe management of the specimens process, including collection, labelling, handling, use of correct and clean containers, storage and transport arrangements
  • Management and maintenance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the practice, including provision, ordering, availability and ongoing correct usage by staff
  • Knowledge of hand hygiene
  • Active observation of current working practices across the practice in relation to infection control, cleanliness and related activities, ensuring that procedures are followed.
  • Safe management of sharps procedures including training, use, storage and disposal
  • Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy, clean and sterile, and safe way, free from hazards. Initiation of remedial / corrective action where needed or escalation to responsible management
  • Actively identifying, reporting, and correction of health and safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
  • Keeping own work areas and general / patient areas generally clean, sterile, identifying issues and hazards / risks in relation to other work areas within the business, and assuming responsibility in the maintenance of general standards of cleanliness across the business in consultation (where appropriate) with other sector managers
  • Undertaking periodic infection control training
  • Spillage control procedures, management and training
  • Decontamination control procedures, management and training, and equipment maintenance
  • Maintenance of sterile environments
 

Equality and Diversity

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:

  • Acting in a way that recognises the importance of people’s rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation
  • Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues
  • Behaving in a manner that is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.
 

Personal/Professional development

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment, with such training to include:

  • Participation in an annual individual performance/appraisal review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development and follow up any learning outcomes.
  • Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work
 

Quality

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:

  • Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk
  • Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision
  • Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the team’s performance
  • Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients' needs
  • Effectively manage own time, workload and resources
 

Communication

The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

  • Communicate effectively with other team members
  • Communicate effectively with patients and carers
  • Recognise people’s needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly
 

These duties may be changed from time to time, dependent on the needs of the practice.  This will be done in consultation with the employee and, if appropriate, training and instruction will be given.

 

Person Specification – Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Qualifications and Training Essential Desirable
Registered General Nurse X  
Current registration with the Nursing & Midwifery Council X  
Recognised NP qualification at minimum of degree level or equivalent X  
Independent Nurse Prescriber X  
Current Hepatitis B immunity certificate X  
Current resuscitation certificate   X
Current child protection training   X
Specialist skills Essential Desirable
IT: basic computer literacy X  
Good telephone manner, clear speech X  
Good record keeping X  
Communication and listening skills X  
Ability to work in a multi-professional team X  
Experience Essential Desirable
Primary care home visiting X  
Triage X  
Face to face consultation X  
Minimum of 5 years post registration experience X  
Evidence of appropriate continuing professional development activity to maintain up-to-date knowledge and on-going competence in all aspects of the NP role X  
Experience in management long term conditions e.g. asthma, COPD, diabetes, CHD X  
Evidence of working autonomously and as part of a team X  
Proven ability to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their own clinical practice X  
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Essential Desirable
Ability to work under pressure, manage demanding workload (when necessary) X  
Aware of needs of patients, relatives and carers X  
Adhere to confidentiality requirements X  
Ability to cope with patients under extreme stress from both social and clinical circumstances X  
Ability to handle change and unexpected urgent requirements X  
Skills in written and spoken English adequate to enable effective communication about medical topics with patients and colleagues X  
Personal Qualities Essential Desirable
Flexible, caring and empathetic X  
Self motivated X  
Professional approach X  
Presentable appearance X  
Reliable, punctual and committed to work X