PERTH CITY MEDICAL PRACTICE
PRACTICE NURSE JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Purpose: To provide high quality nursing care to meet the needs of the practice population; which includes treatment, screening, preventative care, patient education, clinical quality systems maintenance; and the supervision of any less qualified clinical colleagues, while working in partnership with other clinical, management and administrative colleagues to meet stated practice developmental goals.
Key responsibilities:
Clinical:
It is accepted that all clinical skills and competencies may not be available on joining. Training will be available if required and agreed.
§ To provide basic and higher levels of nursing care as needed for patients.
§ To provide care for minor injuries, dressings, including pressure bandaging and higher level wound care, liaising directly, where appropriate with community and secondary care counter-parts, escalating to a GP as necessary and also provide supervision for less qualified nursing colleagues in the practice.
§ To do cervical cytology sampling, immunisations as outlined by national programmes and local guidelines, working closely with the nursing, clinical and admin team to create systems to identify patients who are in need of such services and promoting the service hard to reach patients.
§ To support the annual flu campaign and other mass population vaccination programmes as needed in line with national guidance.
§ To conduct family planning consultations and assist the GP’s in providing LARC services.
§ To assist in the provision of procedures such as minor surgery.
§ To act as a chaperone or similar support for other colleagues as needed.
§ To conduct and supervise if necessary other colleagues in anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, spirometry, urinalysis, phlebotomy, microbiology samples, ECG, ABPM, peak flow and other practice based tests as needed in the course of the care of patients.
§ To carry out health checks in conjunction with national, local and practice initiatives, setting up and maintaining a system for identifying patients in the target group for such checks.
§ To conduct new patient interviews, providing education to patients on practice and local health services, identifying patients at risk of adverse health behaviours such as physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol and other substance use and referring appropriately to others if needed using protocols and standard that you help to establish.
§ To provide patient health promotion/ disease prevention education and counselling focusing on health behaviour change.
§ To provide a comprehensive travel advice service and travel immunisations to patients of the practice in accordance with practice protocols.
§ To triage patients in person or over the phone to the appropriate member of clinical staff (doctors, nurses, phlebotomists, counsellors, chemists etc.) with the appropriate skills to meet a patient’s stated needs.
§ To assist members of the clinical team in providing a seamless service through an illness episode providing specific nursing capabilities and directing the nursing component of any illness episode.
§ To liaise with community nursing colleagues to continue the provision of nursing care in the home if patients are unable to attend the practice and to transfer or share care as appropriate, visiting outside the practice if needed on exceptional circumstances to meet the needs of patients.
§ To provide support to the GP’s in the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, COPD, Asthma, Hypertension etc. by providing specifically defined clinical sessions, working closely with the GP to manage a patients overall care.
§ To eventually manage and maintain chronic disease registers and work with admin staff to construct and maintain robust call and recall systems for chronic disease, cervical cytology, mammography, immunisation and other populations based health promotion and disease prevention care programmes, escalating where necessary patients who need intervention from a GP to insure a review as appropriate, constructing and maintain care pathways where patients receive appropriate investigations and reviews by an appropriate clinician at the appropriate time interval.
§ To promote the health and well being of patients by counselling patients on the nature of their conditions, the use of their medications, diet, exercise and other health behaviours.
§ To provide support and guidance to patients in times of crisis, breaking bad news where necessary to patients and carers and provide on going support as needed.
§ To counsel patients on the meaning of test results and other medical information, conducting phone and in person consultations; triaging patients to an appropriate clinician, finishing a line of investigation, or arrange additional investigations as appropriate in line with practice guidelines and protocols and in partnership with clinical colleagues.
§ To eventually establish and participate in a robust system of clinical audit in partnership with other clinical and administrative colleagues, leading in areas appropriate, such as infection control, to a nursing skill set and supporting in other areas such as medicines management.
§ To maintain a register of patients receiving nursing on going nursing care.
§ To assist in the identification of patients at risk of acute decompensation of their baseline state of health and participate in measures needed to avoid emergency admissions and acute unplanned activity.
Administrative:
§ To maintain accurate patient records, entering onto the practice system the appropriate agreed codes, using agree standards of data entry, templates and protocols, completing all documentation, computerised and paper-based, as is required for good patient care.
§ To support the SPN in the creation, maintenance, documentation and training of others in robust systems of data collection, audit and review of all clinical activities, protocols, care pathways and clinical systems, liaising with fellow colleagues in the practice and in the local and national health system as needed to insure good patient care
§ To create and maintain in cooperation with other nursing and admin colleagues a system of clinical stock and equipment maintenance, calibration, and supply; working closely with the practice manager and SPN to insure cost efficient purchasing of perishable and expensive items.
§ To maintain all documentation needed to carry out your clinical duties.
§ To participate in Infection Control procedure and protocols and their implementation within the practice.
General:
§ To maintain your own annual registration with the NMC and adhere to its Code of Professional Conduct.
§ Maintain any other required registrations and certifications necessary to fulfil your role.
§ To promote a professional approach at all times by dress and attitude to patients and staff, both in and out of the Practice, setting an example for those under your direct authority and to the team as a whole.
§ To maintain you own continuous CPD and insure a PDP is kept up to date in line with the practice and nursing team development plans.
§ To participate in and attend practice meetings and in-house training.
§ Provide appropriate constructive feedback to all members of the team and at times being prepared to challenge your colleagues, clinical and administrative, to maintain high standards of professionalism, patient care, service and excellence, prompting others to fulfil their own explicit and implicit responsibilities to patients and colleagues.
This list is not exhaustive and should be seen as a guide, you may be required to perform other duties from time to time to meet the needs of the Practice which are not noted above but are within reasonable parameters.
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