Psychiatric Liaison nurse

The post holder will be part of the Psychiatric Liaison Service (PLS) Service which is a model of psychiatric liaison serving the Luton & Dunstable Hospital including the Emergency Department and inpatient wards at the Luton & Dunstable Hospital. The service is commissioned to carry out the following:
Provide a single multidisciplinary mental health and drug assessment service Provide expert advice on the management, treatment and diagnosis of patients to acute hospital clinicians Provide support to acute hospital clinicians To improve health outcomes for patients To reduce length of stay for patients To reduce re-attendances to the Emergency Department To improve the experience of patients who receive care in the acute hospital To reduce direct admissions to care homes The Service will operate a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week service for people aged 16 years and above who present with a suspected mental health, self-harm or drug and alcohol problem.

The service will maintain focus on identifying, assessing and care planning for older people. The post holder will be expected to be self-motivating and autonomous with the ability to demonstrate accurate formulations of mental state, risk and need for people over the age of 16 years taking into account medical and social factors and referring on to other disciplines in the team or other agencies as appropriate within the given time frames for the service.

The post holder will provide advice on mental health issues and participate in carrying out training programs for clinical teams on the management of a wide variety of mental health problems. The post holder will be expected to maintain the highest degree of customer service at all times and will work in collaboration with the teams and organisations that come into contact with the service.

• Assistant Director for Specialist Services
• Team Manager
• Emergency Department staff
• Medical and specialist teams and ward staff
• East of England Ambulance Service
• GP/Primary Care
• Police
• Crisis intervention service
• Home Treatment Team
• Street Triage Team
• Mental Health Court Diversion
• Perinatal Liaison service

Currently there is not one available at the L&D

• Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
• Mental Health Care of Older People (MHCOP) team
• Community Based Mental Health and substance misuse teams
• Services for Homeless People
• Duty Senior Nurses
• Bed Managers ELFT & Luton & Dunstable Hospital
• Luton Mental Health Acute wards including MHCOP wards
• Out of Area Mental Health Services

The post-holder will:
Be responsible for the full mental health assessment of care needs of patients presenting with a wide variety of clinical conditions within the Emergency Department and the acute hospital. Following this, the post-holder will be responsible for development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care without supervision, unless otherwise indicated. Have freedom to act, particularly, but not exclusively, around discharge and follow-up in line with the PLS key performance indicators on discharge.

In doing so, they will at all times, work closely with members of the PLS team and organisations and teams as appropriate to the needs of the patient and within the set time frames. On a secondary basis, provide a comprehensive consultation-liaison service to the other medical teams and individual clinicians, particularly assisting them develop plans of care and make complex decisions in cases where patients over the age of 16 years are exhibiting complex psychosocial needs and/or challenging behaviours.

Take an active role in contributing to meeting the PLS key performance indicators as specified in the service specification. Provide independent judgement and advice on complex facts and situations, for example with regards to gatekeeping, which can be conflicting and multi-dimensional and where expert opinion may differ, or some information may be unavailable. Be required to teach other nursing and non-nursing staff, both in formal and informal settings including pre-registration students.

Assist in maintaining the PLS Teams ward-based patient caseload, providing reviews and up-dates to the Consultant Psychiatrist and providing a broad range of clinical interventions as appropriate. Be responsible for specific clinical and managerial projects and undertake all necessary work to complete these, including facilitating meetings, liaising and/or negotiating with other staff. Be expected to participate fully in quality assurance initiatives, with particular emphasis on a patient first approach.

Act as a role model in providing a service for people above the age of 16 years with mental health problems, for all staff within the acute hospital. Initiate and participate in audit/research projects associated with the work of the service. Act as shift co-ordinator as designated on a regular basis in the absence of the person who has continuing responsibility for the Team.

You may also be required to take on a range of…