Clinical Nurse Specialist

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Addiction Recovery Community Milton Keynes (ARC-MK) - Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

The Addiction Recovery Community (ARC-MK) helps people in Milton Keynes who want to break a cycle of addiction to substances such as heroin, club drugs, other types of stimulants or long term alcohol addiction. It represents the bringing together of a multi-disciplinary team under one roof to provide a holistic service to people over the age of 18 years old, living in Milton Keynes.

Main duties of the job Clinical Nurse Specialist

An exciting opportunity has become available at ARC-MK to work within the Addictions Team as aBand 6 Clinical Nurse Specialist.

The aim of the role is to provide specialist addiction nursing support in the form of assessment, engagement and intervention for patients with substance use needs, supporting integration into the community, preventing reoffending and facilitating engagement to the local community substance misuse team ARC-MK.

The role involves working with a wide range of services. Successful candidates will need to have excellent communication skills as well as the flexibility to work alongside these different groups.

Candidates will need to be able to work effectively as part of a team as well as having the skills and confidence to work as individuals in a range of environments. Supervision is available to the team to support practice.

We are looking for an experienced registered nurse, with knowledge of mental health, substance misuse disorders, and demonstrable experience in specialist assessment and decision making.

Working for our organisation We are a forward-facing trust who believes in training and development of nurses' skills and can prioritise supporting prospective applicants to learn new skills in providing service users addictions support.

We have ample opportunities to gain a greater understanding of essential skills underpinning clinical practice such as motivational interviewing techniques, relapse management, and clinical specialist skills such as venepuncture, ECG, dry blood spot testing, and fibro scan training.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To work as a member of the multidisciplinary team in the management and treatment provision of the specialist service to people with problematic use of novel psychoactive substances with associated problem drink and drug use attending the service/unit, including harm minimisation approaches, motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, care planning, individual intervention, health assessments and education and detoxification programmes, pre and post test BBV's counselling and vaccination and group work.
• To assess continuously the psychological, emotional, social and rehabilitative needs of own clients/patients, taking into account the needs of family, local community and developing systematic plans for care and evaluation of treatment plans.
• To be able to assess and case manage clients who inject drugs, in particular assessing injection sites and be conversant with the precepts of harm minimisation.
• To use agreed and established Treatment Outcome Monitoring Tools (TOP) and any other relevant quality measures.
• To contribute to the development, provision and review of care plans.
• To manage the transfer of individuals between agencies and services.
• To counsel individuals about their substance use and related behaviours, using motivational interviewing, relapse management and other evidence-based interventions.
• To provide clinical advice and support to other colleagues within the health care setting and to other agencies concerned with substance misuse.
• To be responsible for the safe and effective storage and administration of drugs, exercising responsibility for the custody and maintenance of statutory records of such drugs in accordance with the Trust Policies/Procedures on the supply and carriage of drugs in the community.
• To ensure full risk assessments and risk management is delivered effectively.
• To undertake dry blood spot testing for BBV and urinalysis when required.
• To screen clients at risk of, or affected by, blood borne diseases and to plan and agree service responses according to needs.
• To provide education and to assertively promote Hepatitis B vaccination for clients who are at risk of contracting the virus.
• To administer Hepatitis B vaccination in accordance with CNWL Medicine Policies and Protocols.
• To provide pre and post test discussion to clients screened for blood borne viruses in accordance with CNWL guidelines.
• To ensure the CNWL Hepatitis care plan is used for all clients.
• To actively promote attendance at the hepatology clinic for clients affected by liver disease.
• To collaborate with the individual Statutory, Non-Statutory teams, GPs, Primary Care Services, Virology, Chemical Pathology and Liver/ Gastroenterology Departments, and provide expert care without direct medical supervision, using clinical guidance documents and patient group directions as agreed by the Trust.
• To assist in the transfer of individuals between the service and Hepatology/Gastroenterology and other relevant agencies.
• To be familiar with the Trust and local Resuscitation, Infection Control and Needle Stick Injury Policies and Procedures.
• To attend mandatory yearly updates on CPR and Anaphylaxis training.
• To ensure an understanding and implementation of clinical governance.
• The post holder will work within CNWL's Child Protection Policy and in partnership within all agencies responsible for ensuring compliance with the local Safeguarding Children's Board working practices.
• To prepare reports and attend client meetings such as professional network meetings, Child Protection Case Conferences and Core Group meetings as required.
• To plan and agree service responses which meet the individual need and circumstances of clients at risk of, or affected by, substance misuse during pregnancy.
• To recognise the professional duty of care to protect where clients present a risk to themselves or others, and comply with statutory requirements regarding Safeguarding Children, Child Protection including the Children Act 1989 and Hidden Harm guidelines.
• To assess risk behaviours of clients, provide information and implications of any risks identified on health and social well being and work with clients to address and modify risk behaviours to promote positive changes.

Person specification Education and Qualifications Experience

• 1. Experience managing a caseload in the community
• 2. Experience of working with addictions
• 3. Experience of working with dual diagnosis clients and those experiencing mental health issues
• 4. Experience in Risk Management and care planning
• 5. Experience of working with people who use club drugs and engage in 'chemsex'
• 6. Experience of working in and delivering services to injecting drug users
• 7. Experience of providing counselling interventions

Skills and knowledge

• Knowledge of different treatment models and pathways in substance misuse
• Able to build constructive relationships with warmth and empathy, using good communication skills
• An understanding of safeguarding issues in relation to adults and children
• Good verbal, written and presentation skills.
• Ability to work independently and to prioritise effectively
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Ability to work within a harm minimisation model
• Motivational Interviewing skills / Relapse Management skills
• Ability to treat service users with respect and dignity at all times, adopting a culturally sensitive approach, which considers the needs of the whole person
• IT literate
• Knowledge of prescribing issues in a drug service
• Non-judgemental
• Able to engage in frank discussions with clients about intimate and sexual topics
• Committed to multidisciplinary team work
• Committed to Service User involvement
• Flexible & responsive to a must have the ability to understand and implement the Equal and Diversity policy at a level appropriate to the job developing service.

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public . click apply for full job details