Acute Oncology Immunotherapy Clinical Nurse Specialist - Northwood, United Kingdom - East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Description

Job overview

We are recruiting for an Acute Oncology Immunotherapy Clinical Nurse Specialist who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC) hosts one of the largest skin oncology practices in the UK and is home to a team of experts in immuno-oncology and immunotherapy toxicity management, who have recently implemented a set of immunotherapy toxicity guidelines.

This is an exciting opportunity for an Clinical Nurse Specialist to extend their oncology clinical skills, knowledge and experience on the management of immunotherapy related emergencies, under supervision from the MVCC Skin Oncology Team, and Acute Oncology Service (AOS) Team. This is a part funded project designed to improve the outcomes for patient treated with immunotherapeutic agents through close working and education of the regional AOS Teams and Emergency Departments (ED) Teams.

The post will be for a one-year period, with an overarching goal of helping to implement our recently approved regional immunotherapy toxicity guidelines in collaboration with patients and relevant clinicians, improving education on immunotherapy toxicities, as well as streamlining and facilitating access to organ site specialists for patients with significant immunotherapy toxicities.

Our Values are Include, Respect and Improve. It is important that you understand and refer to our values during your recruitment process and beyond

Main duties of the job

Engage with allied healthcare professionals from different disciplines, aiming to reduce the outcome inequalities for patients who experience immunotherapy toxicity.

Helping to implement our recently approved regional immunotherapy toxicity guidelines in collaboration with patients and relevant clinicians.

Improving education on immunotherapy toxicities.

Oversee and facilitate the provision of training and education to the Multidisciplinary team in the care of the patient receiving Immunotherapy.

Streamlining and facilitating access to organ site specialists for patients with significant immunotherapy toxicities.

Audit and data collection to measure the performance and effectiveness of the immunotherapy toxicity management and education service.

Initiate business cases to expand the service to a potential full time immunotherapy clinical nurse specialist role.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

ENHT is seeking to maintain and expand the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre staff as we move to an exciting new future.

We welcome applications from those who would relish the opportunity to be part of new and developing cancer service, building on the excellent reputation, research and patient experience the Cancer Centre already delivers.

In addition, you will receive a High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of your basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £4,314 and a maximum payment of £5,436 per annum pro rata.

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Previous Experience

Essential criteria

• Relevant clinical experience at a senior level
• Experience of administrating cytotoxic agents within Oncology setting
• Evidence of presentation skills and experience of public speaking at local / national levels
• Experience of audit and research process

Desirable criteria

• Evidence of service improvements and research
• Evidence of leadership / management experience
• Experience of policy development

Skills

Essential criteria

• Excellent communication skills
• Interpersonal, written and verbal
• Professional and pro-active attitude, including the ability to problem solve utilising resources available
• Self-motivated and ability to motivate others
• Evidence of multi-disciplinary team working
• Demonstrates importance of and ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to work on own initiative and prioritise workload
• Organisational and time management skills
• Act as specialist nursing resource/practice educator or supervisor in line with local needs
• Ability to represent the department at meetings of internal, local, regional and national bodies and institutions
• Understanding of the actual / potential emotional impact of working with oncology patients on self and others
• I.T. Competence in the usual applications – database, spreadsheet and presentation software, etc

Desirable criteria

• Clinical leadership skills
• Evidence of teaching
• Evidence of developing others

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge of Oncology conditions and acute oncological emergencies
• Up to date knowledge of professional practice issues
• Relevant knowledge of local and national audits and the ability to implement recommendations
• Experience of understanding and contributing to clinical governance policy

Desirable criteria

• Understanding of organisational, business and service planning
• Ability to problem solve, evaluate risk and manage complex situations

Other requirements

Essential criteria

• Experience and evidence of engagement around equality, diversity and inclusion issues in relation to policy, service development and service delivery in respect of both services to users and the management of staff
• Role model our Trust values every day
• Ability to travel to other locations as required

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registered Nurse Oncology related qualification
• Degree in Cancer / Palliative Care
• Completion of SACT competency training
• Advanced Communication skills training
• ALS

Desirable criteria

• Advanced physical assessment / non-medical prescribing
• Formal qualification in Non-medical prescribing
• Recognised leadership qualification

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background. In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.