Specialist Nurse inHeadington inHeadington PUBLISHED WED 6 NOV 2024

Specialist Nurse working with patients on peritoneal dialysis. supporting them at home. Working in the hospital and community within the renal unit.

To work as a member of the Oxford Kidney Unit Peritoneal Dialysis Team providing support, education, training and advice to patient's requiring home treatment for chronic renal failure.

To be responsible for a caseload of home patients, ensuring that they are receiving an optimal amount of dialysis and a high standard of treatment & care, either in the community or in the hospital.

To work in conjunction with the multidisciplinary team, primary health care team and outside agencies, ie. Suppliers of products, to provide a holistic approach to caring for home therapies.

To be a supportive team member and to develop evidence-based home therapies renal knowledge.

About us

Take on alternating roles alongside other members of the PD team to:

Provide advice, education and support for patients and staff in the renal unit / other departments.

Deal with any outpatient telephone queries and assess patients in the unit.

Provide nurse consultations in the clinic or at the patients home.

Liaise closely with the Home Therapies/ PD nurses in Network units, providing peer support.

Promote a culture that supports and enables self-care. Support the development of patient focussed education, including training to self-manage on-going consequences of treatment.

2. Liaise with primary care teams regarding the care of home therapy patients, providing education and information when required. Visit patients in other hospitals as required, ensure patients have access and able to do PD.

3. Contribute to the on call rota

4. Oversee the care and treatment of a caseload of patients working autonomously as their named nurse, (including a number, of pre-dialysis patients) and:

Ensure tests / blood tests are done as per protocol.

Ensure patients receive optimal dialysis treatment, taking quality of life into account, making necessary changes to patients regime as required.

Ensure refresher training is carried out as protocol.

Conduct a root cause analysis after every new episode of PD peritonitis.

5. Involvement in the day-to-day administration of the PD/home HD programme by:

Following up new patient referrals and planning home visits.

Co-ordinating operation dates / training dates.

Organising the delivery / collection of supplies and equipment.

Ensuring patients clinical waste collections are arranged.

Ensuring companies have up to date information on patients regimen.

Liaising with companies re: patients holiday deliveries.

Recording infection episodes, admission rates, reasons for patients coming off PD etc. for audit purposes / clinical governance on appropriate activity sheet.

Monitor in patient activity for therapy costing purposes.

Maintaining accurate EPR patient records.

6. Use current research / best evidence to underpin clinical practice. Involvement in any research studies underway in the unit.

7. Ensure that all equipment used by staff or patients is maintained in a safe working condition and that any faults are reported to technical staff. Ensure patients / relatives are taught how to use specific machines in a structured teaching session and their competency is documented and reviewed as appropriate.

8. PGDs Ensure assessment and competency achieved to allow use of PD PGDs, be involved in audit yearly.

9. To manage complaints from relatives/patients, to prevent further escalation whilst promoting support to the manager.

Education

1. Supervise, teach and support nursing and non-nursing staff involved in direct patient care.

2. Use a variety of teaching resources and aids to provide a structured patient training programme, which can be adjusted to meet the learning, needs of each individual.

3. Participate in formal teaching sessions on renal unit study days. Provide clinical support on informal basis for ward staff.

4. Mentor undergraduate / post registration renal course students.

5. Act as a role model in expert clinical evidence-based practice.

6. Be responsible for ones own professional development and continuing education in both nephrology and RRT Nursing, and also professional issues in nursing.

7. Contribute to protocols, documentation systems, standards, policies and clinical guidelines for others to use in practice.

8. Take available opportunities to submit written work for conferences or journals.

Professional

1. Discuss performance and future development needs using the appraisal framework.

2. Develop personal and professional knowledge through critical self-appraisal, clinical supervision and networking with other health care professionals locally and nationally including project work.

3. Acquire skills and knowledge to properly implement the computer system and any other systems, which may be implemented as resource management tools.

4. Maintain adequate patient documentation to NMC requirements for all patients seen and advice given in any practice setting and contribute to clinical activity/data collection as required.

5. Attend and contribute to Team meetings and any team away days.

6. Ensure statutory and mandatory training updates, as well as role /speciality updates are completed, and necessary records maintained.