Memory Assessment Nurse

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust; Stroud; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Part time

Job summary

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting for a part-time Memory Assessment Nurse role in Stroud. The post is permanent, 22.5 hours per week, within the Memory Assessment Service which supports dementia care across Stroud and surrounding localities.

The post holder will undertake comprehensive cognitive assessments, write reports for MDT meetings, and help deliver dementia diagnoses and post‑diagnostic support. Collaboration with a multidisciplinary team is essential.

Qualifications

• Experience in cognitive assessments and memory clinics.
• Ability to write comprehensive patient reports for MDT discussion.

Responsibilities

• Complete comprehensive cognitive assessments and write reports for MDT discussion.
• Deliver diagnosis of dementia or no diagnosis depending on complexity.
• Triage referrals and communicate with referrers for clarification.
• Provide holistic information and signposting to patients and carers from pre‑assessment to post‑diagnosis.
• Provide clinical supervision, caseload management, and day-to-day supervision for staff and students.
• Lead clinical leadership and role modelling, maintaining high professional standards.
• Develop, implement policies to maintain quality standards for health and safety.
• Collaborate with partner agencies and educate carers and patients as needed.

Skills

Cognitive assessments

Report writing

Clinical leadership

Collaboration

Job description

*** THIS POST IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY *** This role is offered on a permanent basis. The hours are part-time, 22.5 hours per week.

The Memory Assessment Service provides specialist cognitive assessments for people presenting with mild to moderate cognitive difficulties, where there is a suspicion of dementia. The service is countywide, with locality teams in Stroud, Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Forest of Dean. This post is for the Stroud locality. Each locality has a multidisciplinary team of nurses, medics, occupational therapists, psychologists and speech and language therapists, who support in decision‑making towards accurate diagnosis. The memory assessment nurse completes the initial assessment and cognitive testing and will be responsible for the ongoing co‑ordination of the patient's care, whilst on the memory assessment pathway, and will ensure appropriate access to support services is in place on discharge.

The aim of the Memory Assessment Service is to provide timely and accurate assessment, diagnosis and treatment/support, to improve the lives of people living with dementia, and their carers. The service is one of a group of teams within the wider Managing Memory Together service, which supports people throughout their dementia journey, from assessment to living well with dementia. The Memory Assessment Service represents the start of this journey.

To work collaboratively with members of the Memory Assessment Service and maintain strong professional links with other professionals and agencies, to ensure that the patient and carer get the best service.

The successful post-holder will undertake comprehensive cognitive assessments and will write a report for each of these, for discussion at the weekly multidisciplinary team meeting.

Where a diagnosis of dementia is made, either a medic or the assessing nurse will deliver the diagnosis, depending on complexity. The memory assessment nurse will be responsible for monitoring response to any treatment initiated and delivering post‑diagnostic information, signposting and referrals to partner agencies.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top‑quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

• To complete comprehensive assessments for people referred to the service, write a report for each and present to the multidisciplinary team for discussion.
• To deliver diagnosis of dementia (or no diagnosis), where appropriate.
• To support with triage of referrals and corresponding with referrers for clarification where needed.
• Provide holistic support, information and signposting to patients and carers from pre‑assessment to post‑diagnosis.
• Provide clinical supervision, caseload management, preceptorship, mentorship, and day to day supervision/management for a designated staff group and students, ensuring appropriate professional development and quality of care.
• Provide clinical leadership and role modelling for others, promoting and maintaining high professional standards
• Provide evidence based practice within the team; ensuring good practice and continuous service development.
• Participate, collaborate, educate and offer consultancy to partner agencies and others ensuring appropriate decisions are made regarding service user and carer needs.
• Lead the provision of user / carer education work as indicated by the needs of the service.
• Develop and/or implement local and national policies and procedures to maintain a set of quality standards for the health and safety of patients and staff.
• Work in partnership with other members of the team, statutory and non‑statutory agencies.

This role is not eligible for sponsorship as per the Government's UK VISA and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information please visit https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

To support compliance with UK immigration requirements, all applicants who require a visa to work in the UK must disclose their visa history in full. This includes current and previous sponsors, dates of sponsorship, visa category, and any changes of employment. If you are on a Graduate or Dependant Visa, please disclose the expiry date on your application. Incomplete information may mean we are unable to consider your application