Qualified Advanced Clinical Practitioner for Older People and Frailty

NHS; City Of London; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in London seeks an Advanced Clinical Practitioner to lead the Acute Frailty Team, providing expert care for older patients in emergency settings. The role involves clinical leadership, coordination of care pathways, and improving patient outcomes through multidisciplinary teamwork. Candidates should have a professional nursing or AHP background, with experience in the care of older people and strong leadership skills. Competitive salary offered.

Qualifications

• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Significant previous band 7 experience or above.
• Clinical Audit and presentation skills; aware of national agenda.

Responsibilities

• Review patients screened as frail in various departments.
• Provide professional leadership for staff in service provision.
• Coordinate referrals and signpost to specialist services.

Skills

Experience in care of older people

Ability to work independently and as part of a team

Teaching skills

Computer literate

Identify new ways of working to benefit the service and patient experience

Expert practitioner in Elderly Medicine

Education

Primary professional registration as a nurse, AHP or pharmacist

Educated to degree level

MSc Advanced Clinical Practice

Teaching qualification

Job description

Overview

Qualified Advanced Clinical Practitioner for Older People and Frailty

We have an exceptional opportunity for an innovative and inspirational leader to join our Acute Frailty Team as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) for older people. The ACP will take a senior role within the Care of Older People (COOP) team and will be responsible for co-ordinating the flow of frail older people through the Whittington hospital. They will provide clinical leadership and be responsible for ensuring the provision of a high standard of holistic, patient centred care for frail older people as well as providing expert advice and support to professionals in elderly medicine around frailty syndromes including falls, dementia and delirium, and contributing towards service improvement in these areas. They will also support the Acute Frailty Pathway which works to avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital.

The successful candidate will be able to take a lead in the comprehensive geriatric assessment of patients referred to the Frailty Team under the supervision of a consultant geriatrician and will autonomously work as part of a multidisciplinary team providing patient-centred clinical care, encompassing the skills of assessment, examination, diagnosis and treatment of patients. The post is intended to improve patient outcomes by improving timeliness and consistency of care for older patients with frailty seeking emergency care and referred to the Acute Frailty Pathway, promoting same day discharge and community management of older patients with frailty.

Main duties of the job

• Review patients screened as frail in the Emergency Department, Ambulatory care and the Acute Admissions wards, according to Frailty Pathway criteria. In conjunction with the Consultant Geriatrician/Frailty MDT provide expert assessment of frail elderly patients on admission to determine the most appropriate pathway of care to meet the patient’s needs and direct patients accordingly.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. We aim to employ a workforce representative of this population and are open to differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job responsibilities

• Work at a level of advanced clinical practice that pulls together the four ACP pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research.
• Provide professional, clinical leadership in support of medical, nursing and AHP staff in the provision of services for older people, ensuring the Trust meets national guidance and provides safe, compassionate care for frail, older people in accordance with local and national quality and performance targets.
• Undertake line management responsibilities as part of the Frailty ACP role.
• Lead on education to implement current best practice for frail older people and their families/carers, including falls prevention, dementia and delirium detection, treatment and care, and support the Trust’s Enhanced Care training model.
• Act as the link between the Emergency Department (ED), Acute Admissions Unit (AAU) and the Elderly Medicine Wards to ensure excellent communication and continuity of care for older people.
• Assess the needs of older people with frailty admitted to The Whittington Hospital, coordinate referrals and signpost to specialist services to ensure comprehensive geriatric assessment.
• Ensure that the needs of carers/families are highlighted and that they are encouraged to be involved to the level they wish to be.
• Support the role of the Trust’s Dementia Practitioner Specialist in implementing the Dementia Trust Strategy and support wards managers and their teams to develop dementia-friendly environments.
• Support the falls prevention Trust strategy.
• Work in partnership with the discharge team and other specialist teams in acute, community and social services to develop integrated pathways that enable safe and timely transitions of care, admission avoidance and improved outcomes for older people.

Education

• Identify education needs in relation to care of older people and develop a training strategy to increase understanding amongst staff, facilitating knowledge and skills development in staff and aspiring leaders within older people, frail elderly and dementia care services.
• Critically appraise evidence-based literature and lead education programmes within the hospital and community; employ varied education methods and prepare learning materials.
• Encourage and support research-based practice linked to service development; provide written information for patients and carers to enhance understanding; identify personal development needs and participate in appraisal and ongoing professional development.

Leadership, Management and Service improvement

• Champion the organisation’s commitment to a patient-centred frail older people service with timely diagnosis, appropriate interventions and multidisciplinary discharge planning.
• Contribute to strategic planning for the frailty service and other service development strategies, including nursing contributions to service improvement objectives.
• Support Dementia and other relevant strategies; provide visible clinical leadership and act as a resource for staff and decision making.
• Lead multidisciplinary improvements in patient safety for older people; represent the Acute Frailty Team on committees; motivate staff to perform their roles effectively; promote innovative problem solving and continuous improvement.
• Lead development of wards specialising in care for the frail elderly and dementia; foster a culture of embracing change and ongoing service improvement; monitor incidents and drive service improvements based on patient feedback.
• Ensure patient- and family-centred practice, engage patients and carers in care planning and involve them in evaluation of services.
• Initiate projects to raise the profile of COOP within the Trust and nationally; represent the Trust on relevant committees; manage own time to meet service demand; contribute to care guideline development and undertake line management responsibilities as required.

Research and Audit

• Ensure audit programmes align with service objectives; undertake ongoing audits to support service development; participate in and critically evaluate research findings and disseminate them appropriately.

Person Specification

• Primary professional registration as a nurse, AHP or pharmacist
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Educated to degree level
• MSc Advanced Clinical Practice
• Teaching qualification

Skills & abilities

• Experience in care of older people
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Teaching skills; computer literate
• Identify new ways of working to benefit the service and patient experience
• Expert practitioner in Elderly Medicine

Knowledge & experience

• Significant previous band 7 experience or above
• Clinical Audit and presentation skills; aware of national agenda
• Demonstrates leadership; involvement in Quality Improvement
• Understands polypharmacy in relation to Elderly Medicine; up-to-date with evidence-based best practice
• Flexible, articulate, personable, reliable; able to lead and motivate others; positive approach to change
• Able to prioritise, organise and coordinate the work of self and others

Other

Disclosure and Barring Service Check: This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and a Disclosure to check for any previous criminal convictions. Salary: £64,156 to £71,148 per annum including HCAS.