• Works autonomously with access to professional support when required.
• Responsible for managing a complex specialist caseload.
• Exercises significant clinical judgment in assessing risk, need, and appropriate interventions.
• Influences care planning across organizational and professional boundaries.
• Contributes to workforce development through education and mentorship.
• Participates in service development, audit, and quality improvement activities.

Planning and Organising

• Organizes and prioritizes a complex caseload, balancing competing demands and changing priorities.
• Plans and coordinates care in partnership with patients, families, and multidisciplinary teams.
• Schedules and manages visits, assessments, and interventions across community and hospice settings.
• Contributes to service development and implementation of quality improvement initiatives.

Communication and Relationship Skills

• Communicates highly sensitive information relating to diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, and end-of-life care.
• Supports complex conversations with patients, families, and carers experiencing distress, loss, and bereavement.
• Builds effective working relationships with multidisciplinary teams, primary care providers, acute services, and external agencies.
• Provides education, support, mentorship, and clinical guidance to staff and students.
• Acts as a key point of contact for patients, families, and professionals accessing hospice services.

Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Environmental Demands of the Job

Physical

• Frequent travel by car between patients' homes and other community settings; current driving license required.
• Working in a variety of home and community environments, which may include confined or unpredictable spaces.
• Carrying out physical clinical assessments and prescribing during home visits.

Mental

• Responsibility for the delivery of safe, effective, holistic care to a complex and often unpredictable caseload.
• High levels of concentration and accuracy required for telephone triage, clinical assessment, prescribing, and documentation, often subject to interruption.
• Requirement to make independent clinical judgments, at times with limited information and without direct supervision.

Emotional Effort/Skills

• Regularly supporting patients and families facing distressing diagnoses, prognoses, and end of life.
• Managing complex and fragmented family dynamics, including collusion.
• Supporting bereaved family members, including children.
• Coping with high levels of public expectation and, on occasion, complaints.

Working Conditions

• Lone working in patients' homes and community settings, in all weather conditions.
• Potential exposure to emotionally distressing situations on a regular basis.

General Organisational Responsibilities

• Act in accordance with Ayrshire Hospice values and behaviors.
• Comply with organizational policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain confidentiality and information governance standards.
• Contribute to a culture of quality, safety, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the level of the post.

Person Specification

Essential

• Registered Nurse with current NMC registration.
• Non-medical prescribing qualification or willing to work towards.
• Relevant post-registration clinical experience.
• Experience of caring for patients with palliative and end-of-life needs.
• Excellent communication, assessment, and clinical decision-making skills.
• Ability to work autonomously and within multidisciplinary teams.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Full driving license.

Desirable

• Postgraduate qualification in palliative care.
• Community nursing experience.
• Experience of audit, research, or quality improvement.

Personal Qualities

• Demonstrates the qualities required to fulfill the job requirements.
• Values driven.

Closing Date

Friday 23rd October, 4pm