Health Visitor

Location

Plymouth, Devon | United Kingdom

Job description

To practice the principles of Community Public Health Nursing as reflected in the wider definition described in the NMC competencies. Search for Health needs including surveillance and assessment. Stimulation of awareness of Health needs including strategic leadership, promoting and protecting health. Influence on policies affecting health including developing quality and risk management, policy and strategic development. Facilitation of health enhancing activities including developing services and programs working with and for communities, working alongside childrens centres to deliver Great Expectations. A requirement to work occasional Saturdays and evenings to deliver such activities. There are frequent requirements for concentration and the work pattern is unpredictable. Occasionally within the course of employment attendance to court may be required to give evidence. There is constant change management/process affecting community service delivery. There is exposure to highly distressing or highly emotional situations, some potentially dangerous situations in the community, e.g. Drug & Alcohol Misuse, Violence and clients displaying mental health symptoms. Specialist Community Public Health Nurses deal with highly emotionally charged clients to safeguard children. The frequency of exposure is variable. SCPHN are expected to be flexible and adaptable working in different bases to cover colleagues and service provision during sickness and study leave and utilising the resources available to them. They are easily accessible to the public, receive and cope with frequent interruptions throughout the day. During visits they may be required to work in unpleasant home environments, e.g. dirty, excrement, aggression. Likelihood of movement of base due to changing practice. To have specialist knowledge across the range of work procedures and practice underpinned by theoretical knowledge or relevant practical experience. To encourage the uptake of immunisations. To act as an advocate for clients, liaising with agencies within and outside the health service. To participate in and initiate multi-agency, activities and meetings as required. To work in partnership with children, young people and families to identify health needs that promote and support a healthy lifestyle. To take appropriate action in response to any deviation from the normal which may include referral to team members or other agencies. To identify children in need and respond in line with national and local requirements. To take responsibility for prescribing appropriate treatments in line with the Nurse Prescribing Formulary, Community Pharmacy Guidelines and LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST Protocols. To be the Lead Practitioner for families here there are identified Child Welfare concerns. To be responsible for managing, organising and promoting the needs of the caseload and neighbourhood public health. . To take an innovative approach to practice in response to a changing service. To actively participate in Clinical and Professional Governance and Team Meetings by regular attendance, contributing to the content and agenda and provide evidence of participation. To be actively involved in the delivery of the NHS Public Health agenda as identified in the citywide Public Health Development Plan. To actively seek and promote client participation in planning delivery and evaluation of services. To be responsible for seeking to influence policy and strategic planning affecting service delivery. To take a leadership role as service delivery requires, e.g. Specialist Interest Group, working parties. To ensure that equipment used during delivery of a Health Visiting Service is maintained appropriately. To participate in supervision and line management as per policy. To participate in regular Clinical, Line Management and Caseload Supervision, as per Policies. To participate in the recruitment and selection process of prospective employees, e.g. SCPHN, Student SCPHN, Skill mix team members. To be a Line Manager to Band 2, 3, 4 and 5 as identified by the Team Manager To provide supervised staff with Individual Performance Review (IPR) as per LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST Policy. To be responsible for management of annual leave, study leave and sick leave of supervised staff. To manage disciplinary issues and complaints following LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST Protocols and procedures. To supervise and facilitate student placements as required. To contribute to LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST requirements for data collection and sharing of information. To access annual Individual Performance Review, identify training needs and develop a continuing professional development plan. To facilitate and provide practice based teaching and training to colleagues and identify opportunities for knowledge sharing within other organisations. To have a professional responsibility to ensure that supervised staff access the training as identified in the Individual Performance Review. To provide mentorship/ preceptorship to newly qualified or appointed staff. To utilize the framework of Clinical Governance to learn from critical incidents and apply to practice. To ensure that skills in audit and research are maintained. To assist in LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST-wide research and audit, as required. To maintain a personal professional portfolio of continuing professional development as required by the NMC. Responsible for participating in audit and data entry thus demonstrating contribution to LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST targets. To work within the clinical effectiveness framework (Essence of Care) using available evidence, research and audit to plan, implement and evaluate care. To attend in service training required by the needs of the service and organisation. Specialist Community Public Health Nurses are required:- To be accountable for their actions and those of others. To use their initiative to act independently. To interpret policy, write guidelines and standards as required applying to health visiting practice. To work as an autonomous practitioner within a Locality Health visiting Team accountable for the management of a defined caseload, e.g. Primary Care Team, Corporate, Geographical. To communicate clearly and work effectively with team members providing a seamless service. To communicate with clients at a time and level appropriate to their needs in a manner that promotes positive health. To communicate clearly, relevant information to a variety of health professionals at the appropriate times, with a client's consent. To communicate in an effective manner with educational settings, local people and groups to promote healthy lifestyles within the community. To listen to families in highly stressed situations such as a Child Protection, Domestic Violence, Drug Misuse and Homelessness in a supportive containing way to promote healthy future lifestyles. To have an ability to give complex information in stressful situations where there are significant barriers to acceptance and understanding, e.g. informing clients of necessity to refer to Social Services. To maintain confidentiality with sensitive information when supporting clients, but to have the knowledge and skills to know when it is appropriate to involve other agencies and to support the client through the process. To be able to divulge highly complex and sensitive information when appropriate. To be able to communicate in a variety of ways which include verbal, written, IT, and report writing. To be able to identify personal levels of stress and access services provided by LIVEWELL SOUTHWEST, as required. To be the link Health Visitor, Early Years setting and General Practices, and childrens centres. A link Health Visitor should be part of the childrens Centre advisory board To be proactive in identifying and assessing the health needs of the local community taking into account the wider, social, environment and cultural issues affecting health inequalities. To take responsibility for the assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of individual plans of care for clients of the service. To actively participate in Plymouth Healthy Child program 0-5, using analytical judgments to inform decisions to target families requiring greater intervention. To assess priorities within a progressive universal service provision to meet health inequalities targets. To develop skills in chairing meetings and taking minutes. To be responsible for the appropriate delegation of office administration and equipment ordering. To be professionally responsible without direct supervision for planning, allocating, monitoring the work of supervised staff. Moderate physical activity in frequent short bouts is required, e.g. getting in and out of car. Carrying scales; toys or audio-visuals for health promotion. There is a requirement to be able to climb stairs to visit in the community. Various periods of time accessing a computer.

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Salary

£35.39k - £42.62k per annum