Senior Specialist Nurse - Eating Disorders

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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

An exciting opportunity for Band 7 Senior specialist nurses to join the All Age Eating Disorder team in Kent and Medway.

We are delighted to receive further transformation funding in the Kent and Medway All-Age Eating Disorders Service so we are extending our service offer to include TWO very exciting additions to our portfolio: Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is characterised by a pattern of eating that avoids certain foods or food groups entirely, and/or is restricted in quantity and driven by sensory or avoided consequence factors.

We are also seeking to develop an intensive home-based eating disorder treatment pathway in the form of an enhanced care pathway (Intensive Care Pathway - ICP). These forms of treatment have the potential to minimise inpatient admissions (including out-of-area placements), reduce length of stay in inpatient settings and improve experience of discharge from inpatient care as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Main duties of the job

The post-holders will be a qualified nurses who are fully registered with the NMC and ideally will have additional post-graduate qualifications relevant to the area.

The post holders will be required to assess and treat all age patients who present with an eating disorder. As the service is exclusively an outpatient service, the post holder will not hold an inpatient case load, but the post holder will work with adolescent units and adult units in order to maintain joint working and smooth transition into and out of inpatient beds. The post holder will be expected to attend and participate in MDT team meetings as well as CPA meetings of cases on their case load.

The post holders will support their peers as team leader and be an effective team member whilst working on their own initiative. They will supervise other staff members as required. They will have a commitment to collaborative working and actively supporting and liaising with other health and social professionals and agencies.

Working for our organisation

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 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.

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As part of the services' adult transformation objectives, there will a focus with these posts on the adult element of the service, particularly in relation to liaison and collaborative working development links with acute wards, collaborative working links with adult community mental health colleagues and with specialist eating disorder Tier 4 units.

There are two main bases within Kent in Maidstone and Canterbury with a number of outlying clinics. Travel is required across sites in Kent.

This post will be subject to a six months 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).

If you are an overseas qualified nurse and wanting to start your journey to becoming a UK based registered nurse with the NMC, you can check whether you are eligible to be supported through our Capital Nurse consortium. Please visit; https://www.capitalnurselondon.co.uk/how-to-apply/. Whilst NELFT is happy to welcome overseas nurses we are unable to consider your application directly. You should submit your interest and apply through the Capital Nurse London group.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Successful completion of a graduate training as a registered nurse with current NMC registration status
• Further professional knowledge will have been gained through accredited courses workshops, study and in house training programmes

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working with patients with eating disorders Experience of carrying out generic assessment with other colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team • Experience of initiating, organising and planning inter-agency meetings aimed at setting in place a treatment package tailored to the individual needs of the patient • Experience of providing professional teaching and training for other professionals working with the client • Experience of providing clinical interventions in different cultural contexts • Experience of service development and demonstrates ability to managing change

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• An awareness of NHS Plan, NSF and clinical governance priorities
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of working with eating disorders at a range of severities and complexities
• Knowledge of legislation and guidelines in relation to eating disorders and safeguarding procedures and policies
• Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education structures, national policies and frameworks, evidence based practice including NICE guidelines
• Knowledge of research methodology and outcome research methodology and outcome research design and ability to critically interpret research findings

Skills

Essential criteria

• Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively highly complex and sensitive matters to patients, which give rise to psychological distress
• Specialist skill in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the eating disorder service.
• Ability to tolerate anxiety without recourse to premature action whilst appreciating the role of the supervisor
• Capacity to write clear records and observe policies, procedures and guidelines

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

• Job Description (PDF, 475.2KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)