Faster Diagnosis Colorectal Clinical Nurse Specialist

Kettering General Hospital Nhs Foundation Trust; England; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced registered nurse to join the Colorectal Clinical Nurse Specialist team. The post holder will coordinate straight-to-test diagnostics and support the 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard for suspected colorectal cancer, delivering personalised patient care across primary and secondary care settings.

The role requires autonomous practice, clinical judgement and strong communication, organisational and team-working skills to

Qualifications

• Highly developed communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Liaison, influencing and negotiation skills
• Documentation
• IT literacy
• Data collection and analytical skills

Responsibilities

• Provide expert clinical support, nursing care and professional leadership to patients referred through the suspected LGI cancer pathway.
• Assess and manage referrals within nurse-led clinics with informed decision-making on investigations and care pathways.
• Coordinate and facilitate safe, timely diagnostic pathways for suspected colorectal cancer.
• Work with multidisciplinary teams across primary and secondary care to optimise pathway performance.
• Communicate outcomes and next steps to patients, carers, GPs and other healthcare professionals.
• Support compliance with Cancer Waiting Time standards including 28-day and 62-day targets.
• Identify risks to pathway compliance and escalate as needed.
• Contribute to service improvements enhancing patient experience and outcomes.
• Demonstrate autonomous practice, clinical judgement and accountability with evidence-based care delivery.

Job description

Job summary

We are seeking an experienced, motivated and enthusiastic registered nurse to join the Colorectal Clinical Nurse Specialist team. The post holder will support the delivery of a robust, efficient and timely pathway for patients referred via the Two Week Wait (2WW) colorectal and anal cancer pathway.
The role will involve coordinating and facilitating straight-to-test diagnostic investigations, supporting the delivery of the 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard for patients with suspected colorectal and anal cancer. The successful candidate will demonstrate a good understanding of colorectal and anal cancer pathways and recognise the importance of personalised care and support throughout the patient journey.
This role requires a high level of autonomous practice, clinical decision-making and professional judgement. Excellent communication, organisational and clinical skills are essential, together with the ability to work collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team across both primary and secondary care settings to ensure seamless patient care and pathway management.

Main duties of the job

• Provide expert clinical support, nursing care and professional leadership to patients referred through the suspected Lower Gastrointestinal (LGI) cancer pathway.
• Assess and manage new referrals within nurse-led clinics, making informed clinical decisions regarding investigations, treatment pathways and onward care.
• Coordinate and facilitate a safe, effective and timely diagnostic pathway for patients referred with suspected colorectal cancer, ensuring a high standard of patient-centred care.
• Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams across primary and secondary care to support seamless patient journeys and optimise pathway performance.
• Communicate outcomes and next steps effectively to patients, carers, GPs and other healthcare professionals, including the appropriate discharge of patients from the cancer pathway.
• Support compliance with national Cancer Waiting Time standards, including the 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard and 62-day treatment pathway targets.
• Proactively identify actual or potential risks to pathway compliance, implementing appropriate actions and escalating concerns where necessary.
• Contribute to service improvement initiatives that enhance patient experience, pathway efficiency and clinical outcomes.
• Demonstrate autonomous practice, clinical judgement and accountability while ensuring evidence-based, safe and effective care delivery.

About us

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment. We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

Job responsibilities

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for a full list of all Roles and Responsibilities.

Person Specification

Skills

Essential

• Highly developed communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Liaison, influencing and negotiation skills
• Documentation
• IT Literacy
• Data collection and analytical skills

Desirable

• Report writing
• Audit skills
• Presentation skills IT Literacy
• Experience in management of whole systems provision of care

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Relevant post registration experience in a colorectal surgical setting
• Specialist knowledge or interest in speciality
• Maintaining patient information databases
• Evidence of primary care health delivery strategy.
• Making direct referrals to members of MDT.
• Caseload and workload management
• Development of education and training.

Desirable

• Evidence of Operational Management in a clinical setting
• Strategic development of health initiatives

Educations ,Training and Qualification

Essential

• Educated to degree level or equivalent level of education,training or experience
• Registered Nurse/Current NMC registration
• Evidence of continuing development
• Recognised teaching/mentoring qualification

Desirable

• Postgraduate Certificate in Oncology/Colorectal Cancer or willing to undertake
• Advanced Communication training. or willingness to undertake

Key Competencies/Personal Qualities and Attributes

Essential

• Passionate and committed to bring our Dedicated to Excellence values to life, improving the way we work with each other, particularly focusing on empowerment, equality diversity and inclusion of our staff, patients and service users

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offences 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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offences 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.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For