Family Support Co-Ordinator Ashford, Kent, South East England, England
Job description
We are currently seeking a band 6 nurse to join our neonatal team. You will work as part of the multi-disciplinary team to facilitate and support staff to develop a culture where family-centred care is embedded in everyday practices in order to lessen the parents’ anxieties of having their baby on NICU. You will play a pivotal role in discharge planning, our BFI and Bliss accreditations and family support initiatives. We can offer you a rewarding and supportive role within our progressive neonatal service. This role will be based on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at William Harvey Hospital. Weekday duties only.
The Service consists of a Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at The William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent. This unit provides care for babies and families from the local East Kent community but also contributes to cots for the Emergency Bed Bureau. We have 7 Intensive Care cots, 4 High Dependency cots and 14 Special Care Cots. We care for babies of all gestations. Our other unit at The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate has 12 Special Care and 2 High Dependency cots and cares for babies above 32 weeks gestation. This post would give the successful candidate the fantastic opportunity to work across both sites calling upon management, leadership and expert clinical nursing skills.
East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust has made great investment in neonatal nurse staffing and we are now nearing the end of a three year recruitment plan to enable us to achieve BAPM standards of 1:1 ratios for Intensive Care 1:2 for High Dependency and 1:4 for Special Care and ratios of Qualified in Specialty nurses. This has resulted in additional posts being available on both sites. This is an exciting time to join our Trust and influence the way neonatal services are provided to the population of East Kent.
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 695,000 people.
Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: ‘People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’.
We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called ‘We care’. It’s about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We’re looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
We pride ourselves on our collaborative practice with a skilled multidisciplinary team, our Doctors and Nurses work closely together to provide high quality in-patient care and we are fortunate to be one of only a few NICUs to have a resident Speech & Language Therapist and a designated Neonatal Physiotherapist to ensure that our babies are given the best start in life. We have a resident Neonatal Clinical Technologist who ensures that we always have the specialist equipment that we require and provides education and training on all equipment used in NICU.
The Neonatal Services have:
A Practice Educator on site supported by a Clinical Skills Facilitator who are able to provide a bespoke induction package to the successful candidate. They work closely alongside all staff to provide learning opportunities and ensure that all competencies are met.
An active SIM training programme working in conjunction with NTS London.
Close collaborative working with the local University providing placements for midwifery and Child Branch Students.As well as supporting our own students for the Neonatal Intensive Care Course we are sometimes able to provide placements for students from other Neonatal Units.
Active involvement in Neonatal Research with dedicated research nurses.
We are working closely with our Maternity colleagues to reduce Avoidable Term Admissions in line with NHS Improvement recommendations and are actively involved in planning new Transitional Care facilities within the maternity unit .
We are working towards the Bliss Family Friendly Accreditation scheme and have recently received our “Pledge of Improvement” from BLISS. We are working within the Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative. We pride ourselves on our family centred care as these two examples taken from our Neonatal Survey results show (Picker Institute, 2014) “we could not fault the care and passion demonstrated by staff” “I would like to say that NICU made a horrible experience as pleasant as it could be. The staff were brilliant and the doctors great.”
These are just some of the reasons why this is a ‘great place to work’.
All this in the beautiful “Garden of England” with its fabulous blue flag beaches, excellent shopping facilities, fantastic schools, the wonderful historic city of Canterbury, stunning countryside and with the continent on the door step and London just a 35 minute train ride away.
Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in 'supporting documents'
