Senior Infection Prevention & Control Nurse

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Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

1. Provide support to the nurse consultant and lead nurse in delivering the infection prevention and control service agenda.

2. To assist in the development, implementation and monitoring of evidence based policies across the organisation.

3. To lead by example and act as a positive role model for all staff, taking responsibility for own professional development

4. To communicate and maintain links with external stakeholders to promote the reduction of HCAI's.

5. Contribute to and support clinical effectiveness and innovative practice within the infection prevention and control service.

6. As a senior nurse the post holder will practice under the direction of the band 7 nurse specialist, working towards achieving agreed levels of competence, skills and knowledge to enable independent autonomous practice within their scope of clinical practice.

7. Use a range of techniques to ensure and monitor standards of clinical practice, audit, research and teaching to continually improve standards of care and patient experience.

Main duties of the job

1. Provide clinical support to healthcare workers in appropriately risk assessing and managing cases of infection, advising when isolation is necessary as per policy.

2. To participate with IPC duty nurse function on a rotational basis

4. In line with local and national reporting requirements, produce and present reports to a high standard.

8. Contribute to the development, implementation and evaluation of the annual infection prevention and control work programme

9. Receive and interpret laboratory reports, patient information, policy documents or other complex infection control information as required to people accessing the service for support

Be responsible for the implementation and evaluation of the hand hygiene strategy and campaigns in liaison and collaboration with ward/service users and staff

1 Disseminate, implement and audit infection prevention and control policies, ensuring consistent and high standards across the Trust

1 Provide support and guidance to service and premises development projects as directed by the nurse specialist or lead nurse and gain knowledge of health memorandums, building notes and infection control in the built environment

1To participate in PLACE (Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment) inspections and to advise NELFT on the infection prevention and control aspects of cleaning and catering service provision and related staff training

Working for our organisation

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 of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

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).

High Cost Area Supplement

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,551 to a maximum of £5,735).

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.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Surveillance
• Auditing
• Education/training
• Duty Nurse
• IT skills, dashboard
• Monitoring of organisms, reducing HCAI's
• Working collaboratively as part of MDT
• Outbreak management
• Attend meetings
• New builds and refurbishments
• Autominous working (remote)
• Good time management
• Adaptable workloa

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer closely to this when completing your application.

We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Any development needs to help you succeed in the role, can be discussed at the interview stage.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registered Nurse at dipolma or degree level
• Minimum 6 months post registration

Desirable criteria

• Teaching and Assessing
• Evidence of on-going professional study
• Specialist training to degree / post-graduate diploma level in Infection Control / Health Protection or equivalent

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working in community and acute care settings
• Sound and comprehensive clinical experience, with a working knowledge of invasive and medical devices, their management and related clinical procedures
• Experience in mentoring, assessing, coaching
• Recent evidence of participation in audit and data collecting in relation to infection prevention and control
• Experience of working effectively across healthcare professions and with non-clinical staff

Desirable criteria

• Experience of project work and project groups in a healthcare environment

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Understanding of professional and current issues in infection prevention and control
• Knowledge of principles and practice of infection prevention and control in the clinical environment
• Able to communicate complex and/or sensitive information to patients and staff, where there may be barriers to acceptance
• Takes responsibility for own actions and promotes good team working

Desirable criteria

• Have they attended any IPC courses or link practitioners courses/training

Skills

Essential criteria

• Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
• Ability to plan and prioritise workload
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a team
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Presentation and teaching skills, public speaking
• Participating in the national vaccination programme (administration)

Desirable criteria

• Understanding of audit processing and completion of Action Plans
• Awareness of FFP3 training
• Awareness of outbreak management

Other

Essential criteria

• To be aware and demonstrate the Trust Values (5 P's)
• To be able to travel efficiently throughout the area (car driver)

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Band 6 Senior IPC Nurse (PDF, 456.4KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)