Children's Community Nurse

A 12-month fixed-term post in the Children's Community Nursing Service at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, caring for children with health needs at home and in school. The work centres on assessing needs and care planning, home IV therapy, wound care, safeguarding, and supporting early discharge and the virtual ward. The service runs seven days, 8am to 9pm, and includes special school nursing across several schools.

Registration as a sick children's nurse is required.

• Assess children's health needs and develop individual care plans
• Give home IV therapy, IM medication and venepuncture
• Provide wound care and dressings, write wound care plans and work with tissue viability leads
• Attend MDT meetings and arrange multidisciplinary meetings to enable early or complex discharge home
• Safeguard children, make referrals and attend safeguarding meetings
• Care for children with acute medical needs and complex long-term conditions
• Support children referred to the virtual ward
• Carry out continence, product and routine health assessments
• Contribute to the EHCP process by giving individual health advice
• Train and educate parents, families, and school and nursery staff
• Support nursing care in the community to facilitate early discharges and prevent admissions or readmissions
• Support education staff to meet children's health needs through training and care plans

• Evidence of recent CPD relevant to current practice
• Medicines management and BLS mandatory training

• NMC registration as a sick children's nurse (child branch)

• Experience working within a multi-disciplinary team

• Knowledge of relevant policies and procedures, including safeguarding and disability
• Knowledge of health issues in children with complex and life-limiting conditions
• Clear communication with children, families and staff, including complex information
• Working on own initiative and making care decisions, including short periods unsupervised
• Word, Excel or equivalent IT skills for records and meeting minutes
• Effective time management and flexible working to meet team needs

• Car driver with independent transport available daily

• Promoting the individuality and wellbeing of children in a holistic way
• Calm under pressure, approachable, non-judgemental, reliable and honest

• Prior competency evidence in IV therapy, venepuncture, enteral feeding device care, tracheostomy care and medical devices
• Day-to-day supervision of junior staff, including 1:1s and appraisal of non-qualified staff
• Dexterity and coordination for IV, CVL, IM, medicines, naso-gastric, gastrostomy and tracheostomy tubes
• 2 years post-registration experience
• Planning, assessing, implementing and evaluating complex activities such as hospital discharge or care packages

• Comprehensive induction and competency programme