PCN Nursing AssociateNHS

Job summary

The Nursing Associate will work as an integral member of the Meridian PCN multidisciplinary team, supporting the Frailty Lead in the delivery of high-quality, proactive and personalised care to frail, older and clinically complex patients in the community.

The postholder will provide nursing care across a range of community settings, including patients homes, care homes and primary care environments. They will contribute to the assessment, monitoring and ongoing management of patients with frailty and long-term conditions, helping to prevent avoidable deterioration, hospital admissions and unnecessary use of urgent and emergency services.

Working under the direction of the Frailty Lead and as part of a wider multidisciplinary team, the Nursing Associate will support patients to remain safe, independent and well in their usual place of residence.

The role will involve close collaboration with GPs, practice nurses, community nursing teams, therapists, social care, care homes, pharmacies, voluntary sector services and other professionals involved in the care of the patient.

Main duties of the job

Please see Job Description for full details and overview of the Nursing Associates responsibilities.

Job description

Primary Responsibilities

The following are the core responsibilities of the Nursing Associate. There may be on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels, please see Job description for full responsibilities:

Frailty & holistic patient care

• Support the Frailty Lead in providing holistic, person-centred care to patients living with frailty and multiple long-term conditions.
• Undertake delegated assessments and contribute to holistic assessments of patients physical, psychological and social needs.
• Identify changes in a patient's condition and escalate concerns promptly to the Frailty Lead or appropriate clinician.
• Work closely with both our Pharmacy and Personalised Care teams, ensuring a holistic approach to care

Clinical Care

• Monitoring vital signs and clinical observations.
• Blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, oxygen saturations and temperature.
• Blood glucose monitoring.
• Urinalysis and other point-of-care testing where appropriate.
• Wound assessment and management within competence.
• Catheter care and other delegated nursing procedures.
• Supporting medicines-related care within role boundaries and local policy.
• Supporting continence care.

Working with the Frailty Lead

• Identify patients requiring proactive review and monitoring.
• Undertake planned home visits and follow-up reviews.
• Monitor patients following hospital discharge or periods of acute illness.
• Support the management of patients identified as high risk of deterioration.

Preventing hospital admissions & supporting admission avoidance

• Identifying early signs of deterioration.
• Supporting timely clinical intervention and escalation.
• Promoting self-management and preventative health measures.
• Supporting patients and carers to understand when and how to seek help.
• Signposting patients to other services.
• Facilitating appropriate community-based interventions where clinically safe.

Care homes

• Supporting routine and proactive clinical reviews.
• Monitoring residents with frailty and long-term conditions.
• Recognising deterioration and escalating appropriately.
• Supporting care home staff with clinical observations and care planning.
• Contributing to personalised care plans.

Health promotion and prevention

• Falls prevention.
• Nutrition and hydration.
• Continence care.
• Physical activity and mobility.
• Vaccination and screening awareness.
• Smoking cessation and healthy lifestyle advice where appropriate.
• Supporting patients to manage long-term conditions.

Communication and multidisciplinary working

• Establish effective therapeutic relationships with patients, relatives and carers.
• Communicate sensitively with patients who may have cognitive impairment, dementia, hearing impairment or other communication needs.
• Liaise effectively with professionals across health and social care.

Documentation and information governance

• Maintain accurate, contemporaneous and comprehensive clinical records.
• Record all assessments, interventions, observations and outcomes in accordance with PCN and practice policies.
• Use relevant clinical systems effectively.

Professional responsibilities

• Work within the Nursing Associate scope of practice and professional standards.
• Maintain registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
• Maintain competence through continuing professional development.
• Participate in supervision, appraisal and clinical review.
• Recognise personal limitations and seek appropriate support and advice.
• Work within Meridian PCN policies, procedures and clinical governance arrangements.
• Participate in audit, quality improvement and service development.
• Contribute to a culture of learning, safety and continuous improvement.

About us

Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams are a new way of working that enables health and other services to work together to provide better access for patients.

PCNs build on existing primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care for people close to home. Clinicians describe this as a change from reactively providing appointments to proactively caring for the people and communities they serve.

Our PCN

The Meridian PCN is a collaboration of six GP surgeries across Cambridgeshire and North Hertfordshire; supporting a patient population of +48,000.

• Bourn Surgery
• Comberton & Eversden Surgery
• Harston Surgery
• Orchard Surgery - Melbourn
• Roysia Surgery - Royston
• Monkfield Medical Practice - Cambourne

Our Vision

We aim to provide high quality services adhering to principles of best practice, promoting equal opportunities and working positively with diversity. We ask our staff to treat patients how they'd want their family members to be treated.

Our Aims

• Support the local interpretation and implementation of NHS transformation plans
• Design and deliver primary care services at scale.
• Provide the operational people and infrastructure to allow practices to collaborate
• Be a voice for Primary Care, one that enables what we all want; sustainable and clinically excellent general practice.