Dermatology Clinical Nurse Specialist

Job overview

The Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) will provide expert nursing care and psychosocial support for patients and their carers, with skin cancer (primary and metastatic disease).

• Responsibility for the provision of a high quality service that is equitable and consistent, in line with the NICE Skin Cancer Guidelines.
• Co-ordinate the care of patients with skin cancer referred to the Local Skin and Specialist Skin MDTs
• To be a core member of the Specialist Skin Cancer MDT working closely with dermatologists, plastic surgeons and oncologists specialising in the care of patients with skin cancer
• It is expected that the CNS will maintain skills in the appropriate clinical areas by attending Consultants’ clinics and running nurse led follow-up clinics, nurse led biopsy clinics and monitoring skin cancer surveillance clinics for dermatology patients as well as support of other nurse led activity in the department.
• As a senior nurse within the Trust the CNS would participate and contribute at senior management level in service developments and initiatives.
• To assist the lead skin cancer clinician in the development of specialist skin cancer services in the department

Main duties of the job

Identify gaps in current knowledge base of junior staff in Dermatological cancer care and disseminate specialist knowledge to others in order to improve patient care.

To actively contribute to the management of Dermatological multidisciplinary service.

Lead in the provision of patient centred care, recognising the essential contributions, which are made by other professional groups.

Participate in the development of collaborative clinics/services.

Engage with relatives and patients in preventing formal complaints arising, in order to agree local resolution.

To be fully conversant with the Trust policy on Child Protection issues and take appropriate action by referring to relevant agencies if cause for concern.

As the lead for clinical cancer nursing, and in association with other members of the multi-professional team, provide all aspects of care & information to patients & assist staff already involved in the care of patients through the following interventions:

Act as a role model in expert practice facilitating and supporting the delivery of effective patient care by use of clinical judgement and decision-making skills.

Assist other nursing staff in developing appropriate highly specialised nursing plans of care for individual patients or client groups.

Identify and promote areas for practice development, including guidelines and procedures to support the delivery of care.

Ensure that nursing care is evidence based.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for the main responsibilities of the Dermatology Clinical Nurse Specialist