Clinical Nurse Specialist | Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in Greater London is seeking an experienced Clinical Nurse Specialist to provide vital addiction nursing support within the Addictions Team. The role involves assessing and managing patients with substance use needs, requiring excellent communication skills and a collaborative approach. Ideal candidates will be registered nurses with knowledge of mental health and addiction disorders, eager to learn and engage in various healthcare settings. This position offers opportunities for professional development and impactful community engagement.

Qualifications

• Registered nurse with experience in addiction nursing and mental health.
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team environment.
• Demonstrable experience in specialist assessment and decision making.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist addiction nursing support for patients with substance use needs.
• Assess and manage clients with substance misuse disorders.
• Conduct health assessments and educational programs related to addiction.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Teamwork and individual work skills

Knowledge of mental health

Substance misuse disorders expertise

Motivational interviewing techniques

Education

Registered Nurse qualification

Tools

ECG

Dry blood spot testing

Clinical guidance documents

Job description

Addition Recovery Community Hillingdon (ARCH) – Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

The Addiction Recovery Community (ARCH) helps people in Hillingdon who want to break a cycle of addiction to substances such as heroin, club drugs, other types of stimulants or long term alcohol addiction. It represents the bringing together of a variety of services under one roof to provide a better service to service users.

Clinical Nurse Specialist

An exciting opportunity has become available at ARCH to work within the Addictions Team as an experienced Band 6 Clinical Nurse Specialist. The aim of the role is to provide specialist addiction nursing support in the form of assessment, engagement and intervention for patients with substance use needs, supporting integration into the community, preventing reoffending and facilitating engagement to the local community substance misuse team ARCH.

The role involves working with a wide range of services. Successful candidates will need to have excellent communication skills as well as the flexibility to work alongside these different groups.

Candidates will need to be able to work effectively as part of a team as well as having the skills and confidence to work as individuals in a range of environments. Supervision and consultation is available to the team to support practice.

We are looking for an experienced registered nurse, with knowledge of mental health, substance misuse disorders and demonstrable experience in specialist assessment and decision making.

We are a forward facing trust who believes in training and development of nurses' skills and can prioritise supporting prospective applicants to learn new skills in working with providing service users addiction support.

We have ample opportunities to gain a greater understanding of essential skills underpinning clinical practice such as motivational interviewing techniques, relapse management and clinical specialist skills such as venepuncture, ECG, dry blood spot testing and fibro scan training.

• To work as a member of the multidisciplinary team in the management and treatment provision of the specialist service to people with problematic use of novel psychoactive substances with associated problem drink and drug use attending the service/unit, including harm minimisation approaches, motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, care planning, individual intervention, health assessments and education and detoxification programmes, pre and post test BBV’s counselling and vaccination and group work.
• To assess continuously the psychological, emotional, social and rehabilitative needs of own clients/patients, taking into account the needs of family, local community and developing systematic plans for care and evaluation of treatment plans.
• To be able to assess and case manage clients who inject drugs, in particular assessing injection sites and be conversant with the precepts of harm minimisation.
• To use agreed and established Treatment Outcome Monitoring Tools (TOP) and any other relevant quality measures.
• To contribute to the development, provision and review of care plans.
• To manage the transfer of individuals between agencies and services.
• To counsel individuals about their substance use and related behaviours, using motivational interviewing, relapse management and other evidence-based interventions.
• To provide clinical advice and support to other colleagues within the health care setting and to other agencies concerned with substance misuse.
• To be responsible for the safe and effective storage and administration of drugs, exercising responsibility for the custody and maintenance of statutory records of such drugs in accordance with the Trust Policies/Procedures on the supply and carriage of drugs in the community.
• To ensure full risk assessments and risk management is delivered effectively.
• To undertake dry blood spot testing for BBV and urinalysis when required.
• To screen clients at risk of, or affected by, blood borne diseases and to plan and agree service responses according to needs.
• To provide education and to assertively promote Hepatitis B vaccination for clients who are at risk of contracting the virus.
• To administer Hepatitis B vaccination in accordance with CNWL Medicine Policies and Protocols.
• To provide pre and post test discussion to clients screened for blood borne viruses in accordance with CNWL guidelines.
• To ensure the CNWL Hepatitis care plan is used for all clients.
• To actively promote attendance at the hepatology clinic for clients affected by liver disease.
• To collaborate with the individual Statutory, Non‑Statutory teams, GPs, Primary Care Services, Virology, Chemical Pathology and Liver/Gastroenterology Departments, and provide expert care without direct medical supervision, using clinical guidance documents and patient group directions as agreed by the Trust.
• To assist in the transfer of individuals between the service and Hepatology/Gastroenterology and other relevant agencies.
• To be familiar with the Trust and local Resuscitation, Infection Control and Needle Stick Injury Policies and Procedures.
• To attend mandatory yearly updates on CPR and Anaphylaxis training.

This advert closes on Wednesday 24 Dec 2025.