Secondary Breast Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist

The Christie International; Manchester; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester is recruiting a Band 7 Clinical Nurse Specialist to lead the secondary breast cancer nursing service. The post involves managing a caseload across peripheral breast oncology clinics, providing expert assessment, planning and care delivery for patients with metastatic disease.

You will work within a multidisciplinary team to promote optimal patient outcomes. The role requires a minimum of five years post-registration experience, advanced

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years post-registration experience in breast oncology or equivalent.
• Experience delivering specialist secondary breast care nursing and patient-focused care.
• Advanced communication skills and ability to support patients and carers.
• Willingness to travel to cover hospital clinic sites within GM & Cheshire.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist clinical nurse services at peripheral sites.
• Act as keyworker for metastatic breast cancer patients throughout the pathway.
• Develop and deliver the CNS service in local clinics and MDT settings.
• Maintain accurate records and contribute to service development and QA.

Skills

Advanced communication

Data analysis

Report writing

Autonomy

Interpersonal skills

Protocols/standards

Teamwork across settings

Education

Bachelor-level Nursing

Masters degree

Counselling certificate

Palliative care certificate

Job description

Secondary Breast Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist

Band 7

Main area Secondary Breast Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 413-112845-CNS-LM

Site Breast Nursing - E00849 Town Manchester Salary £49,387 - £56,515 Pro rata Per Annum Salary period Yearly Closing 24/11/2026 23:59

Job overview

The Christie Macmillan Secondary Breast Cancer Nursing Team are looking for an experienced, dynamic nurse who is passionate about the patient experience and the delivery of quality patient-focused care, to join their award-winning team as Band 7 Clinical Nurse Specialist.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for the postholder to provide specialist secondary breast care nursing support in our local peripheral hospital clinics.

The postholder will work within local peripheral breast oncology clinics providing specialist support for patients with metastatic breast cancer. This postholder must demonstrate a flexible approach and willingness to travel to cover hospital clinic sites within the Greater Manchester and Cheshire area.

Main duties of the job

The post involves developing and delivering the clinical nurse specialist service at peripheral sites.

To act as a keyworker to patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and providing support and information throughout their cancer pathway as well as participation in service development.

Successful candidates will have a minimum of 5 years post registration, with previous experience in breast oncology and ideally, having some palliative care knowledge and experience in managing patients with advancing disease. Advanced communication skills are essential.

Informal enquires and visits are encouraged. Please contact Sharon Foy on 0161 446 3996 or email [e-mail] and ask to talk to current nursing team members at [e-mail]

Working for our organisation

The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, looking after more than 64,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 25% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.

We are the largest radiotherapy provider in the NHS with one in 20 treatments delivered at The Christie. We have up to 15 linear accelerators operating across our network of sites. We operate the largest chemotherapy unit in the UK on our main site and treatments are also provided at 13 other networked sites, and in patients homes. And as a specialist tertiary surgical centre, we focus on rare cancers, complex procedures, and multidisciplinary approaches to cancer surgery, specialising in colorectal, peritoneal, gynaecological, urological and plastic surgery.

We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years. We have been named by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), as one of the best hospitals providing opportunities for patients to participate in clinical research studies, with more than 800 studies open at any time, caring for over 3,000 patients.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical

• To provide comprehensive and specialist assessment such as holistic needs assessment and care planning for patients with a range of highly complex presentations, by utilising advanced clinical reasoning, evidenced based knowledge, investigative and analytical skills and specialist assessment techniques.
• To provide support and advice accordingly with the aim of promoting optimal quality of life.
• Plan, implement and evaluate care delivery both physical and psychological according to changing health care needs to ensure continuity of effective patient care and considers inclusivity and personalisation.
• To communicate complex clinical findings to the patient/carers to gain valid informed consent prior to any intervention or procedure.
• To work within a legal framework for those patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• To ensure that the delivery of kind, compassionate and respectful care takes place and that the Clinical Nurse Specialist Team develop relationships with patients that encourages collaborative decision making.
• Ensure the maintenance of professional contemporaneous records at all times, document all actions and interventions in a clear, honest and timely manner in line with Trust policy.
• Collect, collate, evaluate and report information, Involve patients and carers/relatives and work closely with secondary breast cancer user involvement in the planning and delivery of care and development of services to enhance the patient/carer experience.
• Work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies to ensure patient needs are met, especially in relation to ongoing support and palliative care needs. This may encompass primary, secondary and other tertiary care providers.
• In conjunction with specialist palliative care, ensure optimal symptom control.
• Ensure assessment and timely diagnosis of disease progression and that adequate support is in place.
• Develop effective teamwork, to ensure that the delivery of patient care is reviewed as part of a multidisciplinary team. To attend metastatic MDT meetings and team meetings as appropriate and to contribute to discussions about individual patients. To attend other professional and clinical meetings as appropriate.
• Deal with concerns raised by patients and carers in a proactive manner, review patient feedback results and update patient experience improvement plans as needed.
• Champion a safeguarding culture, which meets the needs of people with issues involving mental capacity or children.
• Ensure patients, relatives and other staff are received in a professional manner and act in a courteous and polite manner at all times, thereby ensuring good public relations between patients, public and staff.
• Use advanced communication skills in a variety of settings.
• To have an advanced knowledge of local and national standards that may impact on practice.
• To run the nurse led clinic and telephone clinics.
• To support, mentor, lead and educate the band 6and band 4 members of the team.
• To communicate effectively and support patients and carers prior to, during and after treatment and at key points in their cancer journey i.e disease progression/ advanced care planning.
• To be aware of current research protocols and liaise with the Breast Research Nurses regarding eligibility.
• To implement Trust Policies and Procedures
• To act always in accordance with the NMC Code of Conduct and Guiding Documents.

Managerial/Clinical Leadership

• To provide specialist, expert clinical knowledge to clinical colleagues, patients and carers/relatives both within and outside the Trust and manage a caseload of patients.
• Evaluate service delivery; identify areas for improvement and initiate change.
• To build effective professional relationships with Greater Manchester Cancer and across Acute and Community settings.
• To provide written evidence of service development and performance participating in Macmillan reviews and annual report.
• Initiate and support clinical developments / projects to promote excellence in patient care.
• Provide and receive clinical supervision and mentorship to facilitate reflective practice and attend peer supervision.
• Promote patient and public involvement activities in the specialist area, leading to service improvement by working with service users.
• Attend and participate in the CNS Forum and other committees and meetings at divisional and at a strategic Trust level
• Act as a role model presenting a professional image at all times.
• To take part in recruitment and selection of appropriate staff in the team
• To be fully aware of the divisional objectives and the Trust’s corporate plan.

Education and Development

• To participate in annual appraisal and accept personal responsibilities for professional growth and development.
• To identify training needs of non-specialist Christie and Network colleagues and develop educational programmes in collaboration with Breast colleagues.
• To provide specialist input, develop and teach on relevant post registration courses.
• Together with other professional colleagues develop information and resource packs for patients and their carers.
• Maintain a professional portfolio

Research and Audit

• To ensure that clinical practice is based on evidence and current best practice and to disseminate information to staff.
• To identify areas of Breast nursing practice that need to be researched and to participate where appropriate in nursing and multi disciplinary research, clinical audit, and benchmarking, in order to improve effectiveness of patient care.
• Disseminate and promote best practice through presentation at regional, national and international oncology conferences. Provide written and verbal feedback to colleagues.
• Contribute to the writing of protocols relevant to Breast specialty.
• Undertake, where appropriate, nursing research with published outcomes.

Person specification

Qualifications

• RGN
• Degree in Nursing/Health related subject
• Teaching and assessing
• Masters Degree
• Counselling Certificate
• Palliative care certificate

Experience

• Breast Cancer experience
• Participation in service development and implementation of changes
• Nursing leadership
• Project management
• Experience of influencing change

Skills

• Advanced Communication skills
• Able to analyse data and provide written reports
• Able to work autonomously
• Able to present information to professional groups
• Ability to develop effective interpersonal relationships with colleagues across health and social care settings
• Evidence of writing protocols/standards
• Evidence of effective team working across professional and organisational boundaries

Knowledge

• Knowledge of professional and NHS issues, and policies relating to the breast speciality
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Values

• Ability to demonstrate the organizational values and behaviours

Other

• Demonstrates flexibility in working hours
• Full Clean Driving Licence

The closing date for this post may be extended if there are insufficient applicants or brought forward if there is a high volume of applicants.

Application Information

If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, I regret that on this occasion your application will have been unsuccessful.

Sponsorship Information

We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications. Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible role and requirements on the government website.

Pre-Employment Checks

To confirm your suitability for the role, we will carry out pre-employment checks in line with NHS Employment Check Standards. These include:

• Identity verification
• Right to work check
• Disclosure and barring service (DBS)/Criminal record check (dependent on role, payment of this will be the applicants responsibility)
• Professional registration and/or qualification check
• Occupational health assessment
• Employment history and reference validation

All applicants external to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust will be required to provide their HMRC employment history to cover the most recent three years employment. This information will used to validate employment history andreferences.

If you require sponsorship, we will assess your eligibility based on current government guidance. If the role is not eligible and you cannot demonstrate your right to work, your conditional offer may be withdrawn.

If You're Offered the Role

You will be agreeing to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

Sponsorship Information

We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications. Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible role and requirements on the government website.

No Smoking Policy

You should be aware the Trust operates a No Smoking Policy and therefore employees are not permitted to smoke at work.

Additional Information

We want to ensure that everyone who works at the Christie or uses our services is welcomed, valued and treated with dignity and respect. The Christie values diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all and fair representation across the organisation at all levels. In support of these commitments, we particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and people with disabilities for this post. Appointment will be only on merit.

We are committed to creating a balanced and diverse workforce. As such we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Together we will foster inclusion and tackle inequity and health inequalities in cancer care.

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all our activities. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery in any of its forms, including slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, and human trafficking. We are fully committed to acting ethically and with transparency in all our business dealings and relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our organisation or supply chains.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Sharon Foy Job title Secondary Breast Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0161 446 3996