Mental Health Nurse - Eating Disorders Barking, London, England
Job description
Band 5 -Mental Health Nurse
We are looking for a Band 5 Mental health Nurse to join an exciting new branch of the well established and innovative Lifespan Eating Disorder Service in North East London NHS Foundation Trust. This post has been created as part of the new investment for an Intensive Community Treatment (ICT) pathway or Hospital at Home (HaH) offer working with children and young people and their family and carers. There will be strong links and close working with the existing Eating Disorder team, with management and the clinical lead coming from the existing service. This is a great opportunity to join our highly skilled, dedicated and friendly team.
Clinical Skills
Perform and interpret specific investigations, such as blood pressure and ECGs (under supervision) , in order to manage the patient’s clinical risk effectively.
Ensure all patients have individualised care plans and that these are reviewed at appropriate intervals.
Support the development of clinical practice and procedures that best support the well being of CYP with eating disorders in the community
Work with colleagues to ensure that specialist, professional, skilled clinical care is provided for patients and that this is adapted to meet their individual needs.
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).
Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction.
The intensive community treatment pathway is being developed to support young people who are at risk of requiring a hospital admission. The intensive treatment pathway will support families to manage the eating disorder at home wherever possible in order to reduce the number of inpatient admissions and enable young people to remain at home with their families, alongside their support networks. When hospital treatment is required, the intensive pathway will aim to reduce the length of stay needed in specialist eating disorder units or paediatric beds by providing more intensive support to families to allow young people to be discharged home. The successful applicant will work within a multi-disciplinary team, alongside the existing CAMHS team to meet the young person’s physical and psychological needs. This innovative approach will help us to provide the best quality care to families affected by eating disorders during some of the most challenging points in their recovery.
We are seeking an individual who has an interest in working in eating disorders and is passionate about delivering good quality, patient-led, care to young people and families. The successful applicant will ideally have an interest in working with children and young people with eating disorders and their families. We will support candidates to develop skills in delivering evidence-based treatment. Families are at the heart of the work we do, and the intensive pathway will fit with the current evidence-based treatment approach, namely the Maudsley family-based treatment.
The intensive treatment pathways will last between 6-8 weeks and will offer supportive interventions ranging from telephone contact to meal support in the family home, depending on the families’ needs. The service will be available between hours of 9am-8pm and will initially run Monday-Friday, so the post holder will be employed with shift pattern working. We cover a large geographical area from our main base in Barking and have satellite clinics in Havering and Waltham Forest. The role will involve a mixture of remote and face to face working which will need to be offered in response to the demands of the service. This is a developing service which we will continue to evaluate against the needs of the families and young people accessing the service.
The applicant will work alongside colleagues within the MDT to offer nursing interventions to young people and families with eating disorders and comorbid presentations. In addition, our team has pioneered the integration of Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) for eating disorders within the UK. As a member of the CAMHS ED team you would have access to specialist supervision. Supervision will be offered by a senior member of the team from the same discipline where possible. There will be access to regular individual and group supervision including safeguarding supervision.
As a service we have strong research links with University College London and Imperial College London. We have been the proud hosts of eight specialist eating disorder conferences and the successful applicant would have the opportunity to be involved in future conferences. The Trust has strong links with the UCL, UEL and Royal Holloway Clinical Psychology courses and several Counselling Psychology and Family Therapy courses and the post holder will be expected to supervise trainees when appropriate.
We appreciate that eating disorders can be a rewarding and challenging field to work in, even for those with experience, therefore, as well as excellent supervision and reflective practice sessions, we provide the opportunity to develop skills through joint working, access to internal training, CPD and external training courses. As an expanding service there is opportunity for progression within the team and input into service development.
We recognise that working within the NHS can be highly pressurised and there is a priority within the team to ensure that team members are supported to have a good work/life balance with flexibility around family friendly hours where possible.
Please refer to the attached Job Description & Person Specification for further details on this vacancy.
High Cost Area Supplement - London
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £3,898 and a maximum payment of £4,967).
COVID-19 Vaccination
We continue to encourage all staff to ensure that they have been double vaccinated and received their booster. We recognise that taking the vaccine provides the best defence against COVID 19 for our patients, our staff and their families.
