Community Heart Failure Specialist Nurse

Sussex Community; Wealden; Remote; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Part time

Job summary

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a part-time Community Heart Failure Specialist Nurse to deliver advanced heart failure care across the High Weald, Lewes and Havens, with potential duties across the SCFT footprint.

You will work autonomously within a supportive network of community heart failure services, participate in MDTs, and may access a development post. This role emphasizes expert assessment, patient education, and ongoing case management.

Qualifications

• Registered nurse with current registration and extensive heart failure experience.
• Postgraduate degree or equivalent is desirable.
• ECG interpretation knowledge or training is required.

Responsibilities

• Provide advanced heart failure assessment and management across the locality.
• Coordinate weekly MDT meetings and case reviews.
• Deliver education and support to multidisciplinary team and carers.
• Ensure accurate documentation and data collection to demonstrate service.
• Manage a defined caseload and facilitate discharge planning.
• Lead clinical governance and quality improvement initiatives.

Skills

Advanced assessment skills

Autonomous practitioner

Clinical leadership

Communication of complex information

Time and caseload management

Community Heart Failure experience

Education

First Level Registered Nurse

Postgraduate degree or equivalent

ECG Interpretation Module

Tools

MS Teams

Outlook

Excel

Job description

Community Heart Failure Specialist Nurse

An opportunity has arisen for a Heart Failure Specialist Nurse to work in a well-established community team. We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic and innovative with excellent experience and expertise in the care and management of patients with Heart Failure. This post is a part time role of 22.5 hours per week supporting the Heart Failure patients across the communities of the High Weald , Lewes and Havens with opportunity across B&H therefore you may be requested to work across the SCFT footprint should the demand arise.

You will be case managing newly diagnosed all cause Heart Failure patients as well as those with a long-standing diagnosis, confirmed by Echocardiogram to manage their condition by initiation and optimisation of guideline medical therapies, prevention of admission and readmission, palliative care and able to apply evidence-based practice to align with local and national strategies.

The successful candidate will have expert knowledge of heart failure management and be able to utilize their physical assessment skills to facilitate clinical decision making. Patients will benefit from regular oversight of their condition and heart failure teams will gain support from University Hospital Sussex MDTs.

You will be an autonomous practitioner however, you will be part of, and supported by, existing community Heart Failure services working in bordering localities. If you do not possess the essential skills you may be offered a development post.

Main duties of the job

1. To work as a clinical expert and autonomous clinician to provide heart failure services across the designated locality, provide a seamless service for patients, involving advanced clinical assessment, symptom management, medications management, patient education and psychological care and caseload mange to ensure safe discharge back to GP with heart failure care plan where able.

2. To work in collaboration with other members of the acute HF service with access to weekly MDT.

3. Work across organisational and professional boundaries to improve quality of patient care

4. To provide education and support to other members of the multidisciplinary team

5. To ensure carers receive support and are signposted to appropriate services

6. To ensure excellent end of life care as appropriate and facilitate

7. To ensure accurate documentation and data collection to prove service.

8. Assist as delegated by the Team Leader in the recruitment of staff, appraisalprocess, risk assessment process, incidents and complaints, and theperformance management process.

9. Assist in clinical supervision and peer review including mentorship tojunior colleagues.

10. Provides clinical leadership to team members

About us

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?o Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeingo Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussexo Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retiremento Excellent training, development, and research opportunitieso Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brightono Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networkso Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trusto Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast

Our values--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job responsibilities

Participate in the identification and development of clinical protocols and strategies to enhance both the continuity and standard of specialist care in line with NICE and the ESC guidelines.

Assist in the delivery of an advanced specialist nursing service for people with a diagnosis of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Provide specialist nursing advice and support to patients, their families and other healthcare professionals following diagnosis and through treatment.

To provide timely evidence-based care to patients who are seen either in a clinic or home setting.

Ensure continuity of a high standard of evidence based nursing care, assessing health, health related and nursing needs of patients, and other carers by identifying and initiating appropriate treatments or signposting appropriately to other services.

Coordinate and attend weekly MDT meetings ensuring all active caseload patients are presented when required.

To manage a specified case load of patients, providing education, information, and support to patients and /or caregivers.

To improve patients understanding of their condition to enable them to make informed choices about their care and understand the rationale of investigations and treatments and ensure personalised

Regularly review those clinical notes of patients requiring service input, ensuring all assessments, diagnostic investigation and test results are up-to-date and in place.

Actively involve service users in providing feedback of their experiences of the current service and suggestions for improvements

Attend meetings and conferences as appropriate ensuring that you are fully conversant with current issues both within the Trust and within the specialist services locally and nationally.

To ensure patient journey is seamless as possible and ensureexcellent end of life care as appropriate.

Person Specification

Other

• Use of car with business insurance for community work

Qualifications

• First Level Registered Nurse
• Advanced Physical Assessment
• Extensive clinical experience at B6 in Heart Failure
• Post graduate level degree or equivalent.
• ECG Interpretation Module

Experience

• Extensive Post Reg experience at B6 or above in a community setting
• Experience of case Management
• Experience of working in autonomous role
• Experience of clinical leadership
• Expereince of clinical management of long term conditions
• Experience of teaching/health promotion
• Experience of planning, managing and co-ordinating programmes of care in collaboration with other professionals
• Experience of working in a MDT
• Evidence of ability to maintain and monitor high standards of care
• Experience of project management
• Experience of Audit and service evaluation
• Experience of clinical leadership in a service

Skills & Knowledge

• Ability to communicate highly complex information about patients, carers and MDT
• Ability to clinically assess using advanced assessment skills
• Effective time and caseload priority management
• Ability to use MS Teams, Outlook, Excel and basic IT skills essential.
• Ability to advocate for patients and appropriately challenge professionals when required.
• Ability to communicate difficult information in a sensitive manner e.g. within treatment of palliative care and where communication may be a barrier.
• Ability to work in a flexible way and respond positively to change.
• Ability to use health education and counselling strategy effectively

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£49,387 to £56,515 a yearper annum pro rata