Job Description:

• Permanent position (0.9EFT) with a rotating weekend roster
• Provision of specialist palliative care advice and consultancy
• Friendly and supportive team environment

About the Role

The Nurse Practitioner contributes to the successful operation of Palliative Care Consultancy Service (PCCS).  The role will be responsible for assessing and reviewing patient and family care needs, symptom management, future care planning, liaising with community palliative care services in Victoria and other stakeholders, contributing to discharge planning, and educating and mentoring clinicians throughout SVHM.

The NP will demonstrate advanced level expertise in the provision of end of life care and palliative care management within the boundaries of the Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner (PCNP) scope of practice, legal and ethical parameters, and with a focus on delivering excellence and best practice.  The NP will also contribute to service development and ensuring that the service provides high quality, evidence-based clinical services that leads to improved care of patients and their families.

The classification for this position is NO2 ($134,934. base salary per annum pro rata).

Duties

• Provide clinical leadership
• Demonstrate advanced nursing skills in the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of clinical services to patients with life limiting illness and their carers.
• Develops and maintain own clinical development and competence, in line with best practice standards and NMBA regulations, particularly in the areas of:
  • Advanced health assessment and diagnostic skills
  • Advanced clinical decision making
  • Pharmacologial intervention and prescribing
  • Radiology and Pathology investigation requests and interpretation of results
• Identifies potential adverse outcomes and implements proactive strategies to achieve risk minimisation
• Actively engages community/public to inform interventions, referrals and coordination of care
• Actively promotes the NP role and advanced nursing practice through key activities, for example (but not limited to): presentations at local, health services and with key stakeholders and partners, leading departmental meetings, establishing and contributing to local working groups and/or special interest groups
• The NP is required to be a role model to all staff in areas of clinical practice
• The NP will engage in the education of the palliative care team, clinical areas of SVHM and the wider community about all aspects of palliative care.
• Leads and contributes to quality improvement and best practice activities that evaluate current practices in the clinical area
• Supports development and participates in development and data entry of key indicators for the PCCS, to enable evaluation and benchmarking of the PCCS against similar services.
• Presents and publishes at/in appropriate professional conferences and journals

Your contribution

• Registered Nurse Practitioner with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and AHPRA registered.
• Demonstrated experience practicing at an advanced clinical practice level in the area of palliative care
• Demonstrated ability to work with a multidisciplinary team and work both autonomously and collaboratively
• Demonstrated ability to be self-motivated and innovative
• Demonstrated practice of critical reflection
• Demonstrated ability to make appropriate clinical decisions which consider cultural and diversity sensitivity and alignment to meet the goals and expectation of the patient and family.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to share knowledge with other clinicians across multiple disciplines/settings
• Demonstrated interpersonal and leadership skills including problem solving, conflict resolution, negotiation and teaching
• Demonstrated ability to achieve change.
• Knowledge of workplace statutory and regulatory requirements and their impact on nursing care delivery
• Demonstrated ability to implement evidence-based care to improve delivery of care and patient outcomes
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate and coordinate nursing education and research projects
• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing learning and professional development

What we Offer

• Salary Packaging – Increase your take home pay!
• Employee Assistance Program
• Ability to join Fitness Passport - Your pass to an extensive choice of fitness facilities
• Discounts and Promotions always available through our Foundation
• Career development & advancement encouraged
• Culture of continuous improvement
• Flexible working arrangements

Working at St Vincent’s

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne (SVHM) is a leading teaching, research and tertiary health service. SVHM provides a diverse range of adult clinical services and is driven by values of Compassion, Justice, Integrity and Excellence.

About Palliative Care Services

Palliative Care at SVHM is delivered by coordinated medical, nursing and allied health services that are provided, where possible, in the environment of the person's choice. Currently, inpatient palliative care is provided at Caritas Christi in Kew with 16 inpatient beds; a Palliative Care Consultancy Service in Fitzroy; and aligned with the Centre for Palliative Care. 

The Palliative Care Consultancy Service (PCCS) is based at St Vincent’s Hospital Fitzroy and provides specialist palliative care consultation to clinicians, patients and families within SVHM, St George’s Hospital, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, and other affiliate organisations. 

Enquiries for this role can be made to Michael Bramwell, Operations Manager, Palliative Care Services michael.bramwell@svha.org.au

Applications

Applicants must apply on-line through the St Vincent’s Hospital Website - www.svhm.org.au - and submit a Curriculum Vitae, along with an accompanying letter outlining the applicant’s reasons for the position application.  The names and contact details of three referees is also required.
 

Shortlisting for this position will commence immediately. We encourage you to apply promptly as the advertisement may close early should a suitable applicant be sourced.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and abilities.  Inclusion is essential to our mission and diversity reflects the community we serve.

Please visit our website, for further information regarding our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment at SVHM.

 SVHA has a duty of care under work health and safety legislation to eliminate and/or control the risk of transmission of vaccine preventable diseases in healthcare settings. You may therefore be required to undergo mandatory immunisations/vaccinations (including flu vaccinations).

Enquiries can be directed to Joanne Murray, Team Leader Palliative Care Consultancy Services on Joanne.Murray@svhm.org.au or Tel: (03) 9231 2827

Position Description and Critical Job Demands Checklist:

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne (SVHM) is a leading teaching, research and tertiary health service, which employs more than 6,500 staff across 18 sites throughout Melbourne.

Part of Australia's largest not-for-profit Catholic health and aged care network, St Vincent's Health Australia, SVHM provides a diverse range of adult clinical services including acute medical and surgical services, sub-acute care, medical diagnostics, rehabilitation, allied health, mental health, palliative care, correctional health and community residential care.

SVHM's mission is to provide high quality and efficient health services to the people of Victoria in accordance with the philosophy of St Vincent’s Health Australia.  This mission is based on the values of compassion, justice, integrity and excellence. 

Job Title:

Nurse Practitioner Palliative Care - Palliative Care Consultancy Service

Reports to:

Team Leader, Palliative Care Consultancy Service

Program:

Integrated Care Services

Department:

Palliative Care Services

Industrial Agreement:

Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) (Single

Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement 2020-2024

Classification:

Risk Category:

CAPR 7.2 (formally NO2)

A

The Palliative Care Consultancy Servivce (PCCS) at St Vincent’s provides specialist palliative care consultation to clinicians, patients and families within SVHM, St George’s Hospital, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, and other affiliate organisations.  The service is responsible for assessing and reviewing patient and family care needs, symptom management, future care planning, liaising with community palliative care services in Victoria and other stakeholders, contributing to discharge planning, quality improvement activities, participating in relevant meetings and educating and mentoring clinicians throughout SVHM.

The Nurse Practitioner (NP) provides clinical expertise to optimise outcomes for patient and their families referred to the Palliative Care Consultancy Service (PCCS) including but not limited to clinical care, assessing and reviewing patients, family care needs, symptom management, liaising with community palliative care and other community services, discharge planning, facilitating transfers to inpatient specialist palliative care units and educating/mentoring clinicians throughout St Vincent’s Health Australia.

The NP will demonstrate advanced level expertise in the provision of end of life care and palliative care management within the boundaries of the Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner (PCNP) scope of practice, legal and ethical parameters, and with a focus on delivering excellence and best practice.

The NP practices collaboaratively with the palliative care consultants, clinical nurse consultants, doctors in training and other members of a multidisciplinary team to optimise care of patient and their families.

• Demonstrate advanced nursing skills and provide clinical leadership in the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of clinical services to patients with life limiting illness and their carers.
• Maintains clinical competence and actively engages in  own professional development, in line with best practice standards and NMBA regulations, particularly in the areas of:
  • Advanced health assessment and diagnostic skills
  • Advanced clinical decision making
  • Pharmacologial intervention and prescribing
  • Radiology and Pathology investigation requests and interpretation of results
• Identifies potential adverse outcomes and implements proactive strategies to achieve risk minimisation
• Actively promotes the NP role and advanced nursing practice through key activities, for example (but not limited to): presentations at local health services and with key stakeholders and partners,  leading departmental meetings, establishing and contributing to local working groups and/or special interest groups
• The NP will act as a role model and engage in the education of the palliative care team, clinical areas of SVHM and the wider community about all aspects of palliative care.
• Leads and contributes to quality improvement and best practice activities that evaluate current practices in the clinical area.
• Participate in service development ensuring that the service provides high quality evidenced-based clinicl services that leads to improved care outcomes.
• Provides clinical leadership in developing and monitoring performance of key indicators for the PCCS, to enable evaluation and benchmarking of the PCCS against similar services.
• Presents and publishes at/in appropriate professional conferences and journals

General

• Perform duties of the position to best of their ability and to a standard acceptable to SVHM
• Comply with all SVHM policies, procedures, by laws and directions
• Treat others with respect and always behave professionally and in accordance with the SVHM Code of Conduct
• Only access confidential information held by SVHM when this is necessary for business purposes, maintaining the confidentiality of that information once accessed
• Participate in the annual  SVHM performance review process
• Display adaptability and flexibility to meet the changing operational needs of the business
• Comply with applicable Enterprise Bargaining Agreement provisions
• Display a willingness to develop self and seek to improve performance

Clinical Quality and Safety 

• Attend clinical orientation upon commencement
• Maintain clinical registration and any required indemnity cover
• Always work within approved scope of practice under supervision by more senior clinical staff as appropriate.
• Take personal responsibility for the quality and safety of work undertaken
• Take all necessary care and precautions when undertaking clinical procedures
• Complete  annual clinical competencies
• Maintain skills and knowledge necessary to safely and skilfully undertake clinical work
• Consult with peers and other experts and refer to other healthcare workers when appropriate and in a timely manner
• Collaborate and clearly communicate with patients/clients and the healthcare team
• Participate in clinical risk management and continuous quality improvement activities as part of day-to-day work

Person Centred Care

• Ensure that consumers receive information in an appropriate and accessible format
• Actively support consumers to make informed decisions about their treatment and ongoing care
• Ensure consumers are aware of their rights responsibilities and how to provide feedback

Health and Safety

• Protect the health and safety of self and others, complying with all health and safety related policies, procedures and directions

• Complete required Fire and Emergency Training annually

• Complete required Workplace Culture and Equity Training annually
• Attend general hospital orientation within 3 months of commencement
• As required, comply with fit-testing and PPE requirements
• Participate in reporting and analysis of safety and quality data including risks or hazards,
• Report any hazards, near misses and incidents (regardless of whether an injury occurred or not) into Riskman
• Identify and report any variance to expected standard and minimising the risk of adverse outcomes

The incumbent of this position will be expected to possess the following core capabilities:

Capability

Demonstrated behaviour

Personal

Personal effectiveness

Sets and measures team goals, driving pursuit of higher standards of practice

Learning Agility

Responds to new and complex situations by adjusting behaviour appropriately

Outcomes

Patient/Resident centred

Monitors satisfaction levels and proactively addresses issues

Innovation and Improvement

Anticipates problems and continuously improves systems and processes

Strategy

Driving Results 

Takes ownership for performance of team results

Organisational Acumen

Uses information and organisational knowledge to make decisions and achieve results

People

Working with and Managing others

Leads others and shares responsibilities, providing support and effective communication

Collaboration

Operates Cross functionally and develops constructive relationships across the organisation

• Registered Nurse Practitioner with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia

• Demonstrated  expert knowledge and extensive experience practicing at an advanced clinical practice level in the area of palliative care
• Demonstrated clinical leadership in a multidisciplinary team and work both autonomously and collaboratively
• Demonstrated ability to be self-motivated and innovative
• Demonstrated practice of critical reflection
• Demonstrated ability to make appropriate  clinical decisions which consider cultural and diversity sensitivity and alignment to meet the goals and expectation of the patient and family .
• Excellent communication skills and ability to share knowledge with other clinicians across multiple disciplines/settings
• Demonstrated interpersonal and leadership skills including problem solving, conflict resolution, negotiation and teaching
• Demonstrated ability to achieve change.
• Knowledge of workplace statutory and regulatory requirements and their impact on nursing care delivery
• Demonstrated ability to implement evidence-based care to improve delivery of care and patient outcomes
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate and coordinate nursing education and research projects
• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing learning and professional development
• Demonstrated understanding of professional nursing issues
• Drivers license

• Ability to problem solve, and think creatively. 
• Developing knowledge of research methods and processes, the ability to generate own research, as well as the ability to analyse and interpret existing data and translate findings to inform and effect practice change

SVHM Employee Health Screening and Immunisation Policy outlines the requirements for staff working in SVHM facilities.

Table 1: Vaccine Preventable Diseases for which vaccination and/or assessment is required within SVHM

Chicken pox (varicella)

Hepatitis B

Measles

Mumps

Rubella

Whooping cough (pertussis)

Diphtheria

Tetanus

Influenza

Tuberculosis

COVID-19  ***

NOTE: Vaccination requirements may differ according to individual jurisdictional requirements and policy directives and where there is a conflict the higher directive will apply. 

***Following direction from the Victorian Chief Health Officer, under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic); Section 200; the COVID-19 Vaccination is mandatory for all employees (regardless of risk category), provided the individual does not have a medical contraindication according to the Australia Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.

SVHM has grouped individuals according to their risk of transmitting vaccine preventable diseases and their risk of exposure to blood or body substances (Table 2).

Table 2: Health Care Worker Risk Categorisation

Risk Category

Description

Vaccination requirement

Category A

Vaccination is required for this category of health care worker. Healthcare workers within this category have the potential to transmit Vaccine Preventable Diseases to vulnerable patients most at risk of mortality and morbidity from these diseases within SVHM.

This includes employees with direct physical contact with patients/clients, deceased persons, blood, body substances or infectious material or surfaces/equipment that might contain these or contact that would allow acquisition and/or transmission of a specific infectious disease by respiratory means.

This includes laboratory workers.

Required

Category B

Vaccination is recommended for this category of HCW. This includes individuals who do not work with the risk of exposure to blood or body substances, their normal work location is not in a clinical area (e.g. chef, administrative staff) and only attends the clinical area for short periods of time. Essentially, these individuals have no greater level of risk than that of the general community.

Recommended

Prior to any person being appointed to this position it will be required that they disclose full details of any pre-existing injuries or disease that might be affected by employment in this position.

National Police Check:

I understand that it is a condition of my employment to provide SVHM with a current National Police Certificate PRIOR TO COMMENCING WORK and this is at my own cost.

I understand that regardless of the frequency, if I am working and or visiting in a designated ‘high risk area’ of SVHM (as defined in the SVHA Pre-employment/Appointment Safety Checks Policy) I will be subject to periodic Police Checks every three years at my own cost.

NDIS Clearance (if applicable):

If you are working in a designated ‘Risk Assessed Role’ (as defined by the National Disability Insurance Scheme NDIS) regardless of frequency, you will be subject to periodic NDIS Worker Screening Checks every five years at your own cost. ‘Risk Assessed Roles’ are defined as (a) key personnel as defined in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013; (b) any role that directly delivers a set of specified supports or services in the NDIS (Practice Standards – Worker Screening) Rules 2018; (c) any role where normal duties are likely to require ‘more than incidental contact’ with people with disability. The designation of ‘Risk Assessed Roles’ are subject to change, please refer to NDIS Practice Standards for further information.

Required Immunisations:

Individuals who will be working in Category A positions will only be able to commence employment following assessment of their vaccination status. The decision to proceed with the commencement of employment will be at the discretion of the ICP in consultation with the Hiring Manager and may in some instances, require additional vaccinations to ensure full compliance with the SVHM Employee Health Screening and Immunisation Policy.

I understand that if additional vaccinations are required to comply with pre-employment prerequisites, this will be at my own cost. Where a state jurisdiction overrides this, the facility will bear the cost.

I have read, understood and agree to comply with the responsibilities and accountabilities of this position description.  I agree to comply with all SVHM requirements, policies, procedures, by laws and directions.

Name:                                                                                                                                                       

Signature:                                                                                                                                                

Date:                                                                                                                                                         

Contact Details:

Joanne Murray, Team Leader Joanne.Murray@svha.org.au Tel: 9231 2827

Alternate Contact:

Closing Date:

13 October 2024 11:59pm

Reconciliation Action Plan:

At St Vincent's we acknowledge the importance of creating a work environment that is welcoming, safe, equitable and inclusive for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Employees. As part of our Commitment to Reconciliation and Closing the Gap in employment related outcomes, we encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

For further information, visit https://www.svha.org.au/about-us/reconciliation or get in contact at indigenouscareers@svha.org.au

View Reconciliation Action Plan

Code of Conduct:

View Code of Conduct