Job summary
Are you an experienced, autonomous nurse ready for your next challenge? Cornerstone Practice and Healthcare is looking for a Same Day Consultation Nurse to join our friendly, forward-thinking team, caring for a large and growing practice population across four sites in Blackburn and Darwen. You'll be the clinician patients see on the day they need us most - assessing, diagnosing and treating a wide range of undifferentiated presentations, by telephone and face-to-face. You'll also support our Extended Access clinics, and help the practice achieve its QOF and Enhanced Services commitments - real variety, genuine autonomy, and real impact on your local community.

We're a values-led practice with a genuine passion for patient care, and a workplace where your clinical judgement is trusted and your development is taken seriously.

If you want a role where every day is different and every patient matters, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job
You'll see patients booked into your same day sessions, by telephone or face to face, using your clinical skills to assess undifferentiated presentations and decide, there and then, how best to manage each one.

Day to day you'll examine, diagnose and manage a broad mix of acute illness, minor injury and flare-ups of long-term conditions - treating and prescribing where your NMP qualifications allows, safety-netting appropriately, and referring on where needed. You'll travel out to patients at home when a visit is the right call, and a day in our extended access clinics.

You'll take shifts in our Triage Hub too, supporting our Care Navigators with clinical advice on the right pathways for a patient, and stepping in to triage patient when needed.

You'll keep accurate, timely records and work closely with our GPs on complex or urgent cases, and use audit and reflection to keep improving your own practice and ours.

About us
Cornerstone Practice and Healthcare is a four-site GP practice serving a large and growing patient populations across Shadsworth, Rhyddings, Lambeth and Bentham Road in Blackburn and Darwen.

We're proud of the team we've built: GPs, nurses, pharmacists, physician associates and a close-knit admin team and care navigators. It's a busy environment, but a warm one- the kind of place where your name is known, your ideas are heard, and asking for help is never seen as a weakness.

We're a values-led, Christian-founded practice with a long-standing commitment to serving people in some of the most deprived parts of our area, whatever their background or belief. That sense of purpose runs through everything we do.

You'll have access to CPD opportunities and the support of an experienced clinical team as you settle into the role, along with the NHS Agenda for Change terms, NHS Pension Scheme membership.

If you want colleagues who care as much as you do, you'll fit right in here.

Job responsibilities
The post holder will be an experienced nurse who, acting within their professional boundaries, will provide care for the presenting patient from initial history taking, clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of care.They will demonstrate safe, clinical decision-making and critical thinking, working collaboratively with the general practice team to meet the needs of patients and support the delivery of practice policy and procedures. NMC requirements for advanced practice must be met.

In addition to the Same Day Consultation duties, the post holder will work a day within the Extended Access clinics and carry out home visits for patients where this clinically appropriate, providing the same standard of assessment, diagnosis and treatment in the patient's home environment.

The role involves cross-site working, and the post holder may be required to work across more than one practice locations as agreed with the Practice Managers and Partners.

The post holder will also support the practice in achieving its Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) targets and its Enhanced Services commitments, contributing to a service that delivers excellent healthcare to our patients and the wider community.

Main Duties And Responsibilities
1. Clinical Practice

• Assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate treatment/interventions and care for patients presenting with an undifferentiated diagnosis
• Clinically examine and assess patients needs from a physiological and psychological perspective, and plan clinical care accordingly.
• Diagnose and manage both acute and some mild chronic conditions, integrating both drug and non-drug-based treatment methods into a management plan.
• Where NMP is achieved, prescribe and review medication for therapeutic effectiveness, appropriate to patient needs and in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and practice protocols, and within scope of practice.
• Undertake home visits for patients where clinically appropriate, carrying out history taking, clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluations of care in the patient's home environment, as part of the Same Day Consultation.
• Support Care Navigators in the Triage Hub by providing clinical advice on the most appropriate care pathway for a patient, and directly triage patient where clinical assessment is required.

2. Communication

• Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles, to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment.
• Communicate effectively with patients who are receiving 'bad news.'
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communications to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating.
• Maintain effective communication within the practice environment and with external stakeholders.

3. Delivering a Quality Service

• Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the NMC.
• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patients consultations, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures.
• Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality.
• Deliver care according to NSF, NICE guidelines and evidence-based care.
• Support the practice in achieving its Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) targets and its contracted Enhanced Services commitments, contributing to a service that delivers excellent healthcare to our patients and to the wider community.

4. Home Visits and Lone Working

• Hold a full, current UK driving license and have access to a vehicle insured for business use, in order to travel between sites and to patients' homes.
• Exercise clinical judgement and manage risk independently while working alone during home visits, without immediate on-site support.
• Work alone in the community in accordance with the Practice's lone working policy, including appropriate use of any lone-worker safety measures and check-in procedures.

5. Confidentiality and Record Keeping

• Act at all times with regards to the confidentiality and sensitivity of issues to do with patients, their care and treatment.
• Ensure all contract with patients, and the results of any test or certain actions may also require a paper record.
• Work within the recommended guidelines of the NMC Code of Conduct and Confidentiality.

6. Training and Development

• Carry out all duties in line with the protocols and guidelines in use at Cornerstone Practice and Healthcare
• Participate in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and maintain own professional development in accordance with post-registration education and practice guidelines, recording evidence required to maintain registration.
• Produce and update a Personal Development Plan (PDP), and participate in the development of practice clinical protocols.
• Support students of any discipline undertaking a work placement at the practice.

7. Working Environment

• Regular use of VDU equipment and computer-based clinical systems, with frequent interruptions from a variety of sources.
• Travel by car between practice sites and to patients' homes, in all weathers, and exposure to variable and uncontrolled home environment (e.g. pets, smoking households, limited space) while carrying out home visits.

8. Additional Responsibilities

• This role will be adapted, from time to time, to suit the changing needs of the practice and the service. Any significant changes to the duties or working pattern of this post will be discussed with the post holder in advance, and will not exceeded the general level of responsibility appropriate to the grade of the post.
• The employer may determine any additional duties that may be required from time to time. Flexibility and willingness to support the wider team is an important part of this role.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Registered Nurse with current NMC registration
• Relevant nursing/health degree
• Extended/Independent Nurse Practitioner qualification, or working towards
• Non-Medical Prescribing (NMP) qualification, or willingness to achieve it

Desirable

• Mentor/teaching qualification
• Community nursing specialist qualification
• Registered first level nurse, MSC or Equivalent

Knowledge
Essential

• Advanced clinical practice skills
• Clinical examination skills
• Management of patients with long-term conditions
• Management of patients with complex needs
• Accountability of own role and other roles in a nurse-led service
• Knowledge of public health issues, including local determinants of health

Desirable

• Local and national health policy
• Wider health economy
• Clinical governance issues in primary care
• Patient group directions and associated policy
• Knowledge of QOF and contracted Enhanced Services requirements

Skills and Personal Attributes
Essential

• Project management and health-needs assessment
• Self-directed practitioner, highly motivated
• Flexibility, enthusiasm and a team player
• Ability to work across boundaries and across practices sites
• A positive, can-do attitude with a willingness to go above and beyond when needed

Desirable

• An understanding of and empathy with the Christian values and ethos of Cornerstone Practice

Other Requirements
Essential

• Full Uk licence and access to a vehicle insured for business use, in order to carry out home visits
• Able and willing to work alone in the community when undertaking home visits, in accordance with the Practice's lone working policy
• Willingness to work flexibly across sites and hours to meet the needs of the practice
• Willingness to undergo and Enhanced DBS check, including barred list check

Experience
Essential

• Minimum 5 years post-registration experience
• At least 2 years' recent primary and community nursing experience
• Nurse-led management of minor illness, minor ailments and injuries
• Nurse-led triage, by telephone and face-to-face

Desirable

• Compiling protocols and clinical guidelines
• Participation in quality initiatives such as clinical benchmarking
• Audit
• Experience of home visiting in a primary care or community care setting

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applicants must have current UK professional registration.