Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist

NHS; Northampton; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 55,000; Part time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare facility in Northampton is seeking an experienced Specialist Palliative Care Nurse to manage complex patient needs within a dedicated team. The role involves delivering holistic care, leading nursing practice, and collaborating with various healthcare professionals. Candidates should possess a degree-level education, extensive nursing experience, and a passion for end-of-life care. This position offers a part-time contract with competitive pay and development opportunities.

Qualifications

• In depth Specialist Palliative and End of Life care experience.
• Experience of working at Band 6 or above.
• Relevant teaching and assessing qualification.

Responsibilities

• Deliver holistic palliative care to patients.
• Lead and develop practice of others in acute settings.
• Advocate for patients and collaborate with healthcare professionals.

Skills

Excellent communication and inter personal skills

Ability to make autonomous decisions

Ability to manage a caseload

Ability to collaborate with the multi-disciplinary team

Flexibility in working patterns

Education

Educated to degree level or equivalent

Evidence of continuous professional development

Post registration course in palliative care

Job description

Overview

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the hospital based Specialist Palliative Care Team at Northampton General Hospital. We are looking for an experienced and highly motivated nurse who is passionate about palliative and end of life care to join the team. Working as an autonomous practitioner you will manage a caseload of patients with complex palliative symptoms or support needs, ensuring they have timely access to expert symptom control, psychological support, information and advice. The role covers a seven day specialist palliative care service working a minimum of one weekend in four.

Main duties of the job

As a conscientious and enthusiastic individual, you would work within a dynamic specialist team:

• Delivering holistic palliative care to patients and provide emotional support and signposting for carers, family and friends.
• You will lead, develop and supervise practice of those working with palliative care patients within the acute setting, in addition to supporting the Band 6 palliative care nurses.
• Develop, implement and evaluate plans of care to meet the complex needs of palliative care patients with both malignant and non-malignant life limiting conditions.
• Utilise advanced communication skills to deal with complex and sensitive conversations.
• Advocate for patients and proactively collaborate with other health care professionals to prioritise individual patients preferences and wishes at the end of life.

About us

Northampton General Hospital is one of the largest employers in the area and we are on an exciting journey. All of our divisions are committed to doing things better, with more efficiency as we update, modernise, and advance. We have also entered into a Group Model with neighbouring Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and become University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.

Our Excellence Values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity, Courage. We want to recruit the best people to deliver our services across the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and help to unleash everyone's full potential. As an organisation, we value how we communicate and promote our vacancies to all communities. The Hospital Group encourages applications from people who identify from all protected groups, especially those from BAME, Disabled and LGBTQ+ backgrounds as these are underrepresented in our hospitals. We understand that we need to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and make sure the environment they work in is inclusive and collaborative. We have active Networks that promote and support colleagues from all backgrounds. This ensures everyone feels supported and has a sense of belonging working for Kettering and Northampton General Hospitals.

Details

Date posted: 25 September 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 7

Salary: £47,810 to £54,710 a year Per annum / Pro Rata

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Part-time

Reference number: 265-7457581

Job locations: Northampton General Hospital, Cliftonville, Northampton, NN1 5BD

Job description and responsibilities

To act as a core member of the Specialist Palliative Care multidisciplinary team

To facilitate the effective management of patients referred to the team ensuring their experience is seamless and of high quality.

To promote and support staff to embed the Five Priorities of Care.

To attend the weekly Specialist Palliative Care multidisciplinary team meeting and contribute to the discussion and patient assessment/care planning decisions.

To undertake a comprehensive holistic assessment of patient/carer needs, ensuring that results of patients holistic needs assessment are taken into account when decision making.

As a non-medical prescriber, prescribe and review medication for therapeutic effectiveness, appropriate to patient need and in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and local protocols whilst remaining within scope of practice.

To demonstrate advanced practice in planning, implementing and evaluating nursing care, documenting consultations in the hospital notes.

To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the plan of care, making revisions as necessary.

To provide Level 2 psychological support for patients and their carers, referring patient with complex needs to the Macmillan Clinical Psychologist if appropriate.

To act as a specialist resource to other healthcare professionals relating to Specialist Palliative Care providing expert nursing advice and support.

To act as a role model demonstrating high standards of holistic care and provide clinical leadership related to Specialist Palliative Care; to identify and meet the educational needs of patients and their carers.

To have specialist knowledge of the impact of advanced disease and the associated needs of patients and their family / those important to them.

To support the End of Life Care Practice Educator in the provision of trust wide education. To support the Palliative Care and End of Life care nurse in implementing strategies to enhance palliative and End of Life care across the trust.

To facilitate sensitive communication including conversations about Advance Care Planning, End of Life care and Preferred Place of Care / Place of Death with patients and those close to them.

To possess knowledge of the complex issues that may arise when informing carers about impending death and the appropriate strategies that can be employed in difficult circumstances.

To consider and if possible identify the patients Preferred Place of Care at the appropriate point in the illness experience, ensuring patients are able to be discharged to the place of their choice where possible.

Work in partnership with the Marie Curie Rapid Discharge Service/Macmillan Social Care Coordinator to facilitate complex/rapid discharge; to identify patient/carer information needs and provide this in an appropriate written or verbal format.

Physical resource: To support patients, their families and those important to them, ensuring their physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs are identified and met. To demonstrate effective communication skills with patients/carers and the wider multidisciplinary team. To demonstrate high levels of autonomy and advocacy, working independently in the absence of palliative medical cover. To demonstrate an ability to work across organisational and professional boundaries. To identify own personal development needs to work at advanced level and take appropriate action to ensure that these are met. To maintain a personal professional profile and ensure NMC revalidation requirements are met.

Human Resources: To participate in the formal review process and plan future personal development and competencies to be achieved.

Information Resources: To participate in the collection and retrieval of activity data in order to monitor and evaluate the specialist nursing service. To contribute to the maintenance of concise, accurate patient records including data entry onto team database.

Research & Development: To undertake/participate in audit/research projects related to palliative and end of life care.

Education and qualifications

Education and training Essential

• Educated to degree level or equivalent level of education, training or experience
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• Advanced communication skills training
• Relevant teaching and assessing qualification
• Experience of working at band 6 or above
• Post registration course in palliative care or relevant field

Desirable

• Masters/equivalent or working towards
• Non medical prescriber qualification

Knowledge and experience

Essential

• In depth Specialist Palliative and End of life care experience (or can demonstrate experience of working with patients with palliative care needs in the acute setting)
• Extensive post registration experience
• Credible professional with sound professional knowledge and judgement
• Ability to manage a caseload and work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Clear, thorough and up to date knowledge of palliative and end of life care nursing issues including statutory frameworks and national policy
• To have provided teaching and education to all levels of staff

Desirable

• To have initiated and actively participated in research or audit

Skills

Essential

• Excellent communication and inter personal skills
• Ability to make autonomous decisions
• Ability to collaborate with the multi-disciplinary team and successfully negotiate with and influence others
• Ability to work on own initiative and prioritise work demonstrating excellent time management skills
• Ability to demonstrate flexible working patterns and be able to proactively respond to the changing needs of the service

Desirable

• Standard keyboard skills

Additional information

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.

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.

UK Registration: Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details

Northampton General Hospital

Address: Northampton General Hospital, Cliftonville, Northampton, NN1 5BD

Employer's website: https://www.northamptongeneral.nhs.uk/Home.aspx