Hospice at Home Staff Nurse (RSCN/RN Child)
Walsall, West Midlands

Permanent | days, nights and weekend rotation

Up to £32k (pro rata) + allowances

Due to increase in service requirements we are looking to increase our headcount.

This is no ordinary community nursing role. You’ll be supporting life-limited and life-threatened children, young people and their families in their own homes, delivering care for short breaks and up until end of life, in an expanding service. At Acorns, we give our nurses something that’s really valuable: time to care. Because you’ll be completely focused on the children and families you’re caring for, this is a hugely satisfying role – one that will build your confidence and develop your all-round nursing skills.

What’s the job like?

You’ll become one of our Hospice at Home Nurses. It’s similar to a role in an Acorns Hospice, offering respite breaks and end-of-life care for vulnerable children, young people and their families. Obviously, the key difference is that you’ll be working with families in their own homes. Community nursing experience is not essential. There’s plenty of support – both when you join us and as new challenges arise – and you’ll sometimes work hand in hand with an Acorns care worker.  That said, nurses who enjoy this particular job tend to be confident working independently and love the variety of nursing in different settings.

Scope to grow. Time to care

There’s so much scope here to learn specialist skills and we believe that you’ll grow immeasurably, both personally and professionally. We pride ourselves on our development – all our nurses have access to an Education Lead and we run a range of workshops and courses, both internally and externally led, to support your individual development. Even though you’re working in the community, you’ll be part of a wider, multi-disciplinary team delivering care packages that are tailored to each child’s individual holistic needs.

What it takes

This is truly holistic care. As well as taking care of children and young people’s day-to-day clinical needs, you could be supporting family and friends. You’ll definitely need a broad range of nursing skills. In particular, awareness of safeguarding issues would be ideal as would palliative care experience. Of course, there’s plenty of support here to help you to deal with the situations you’ll face as our clients reach the end of their lives. 

The practicalities

Our work is driven by the needs of the children and young people we care for, many of whom have complex care needs. This will include some unsocial hours, so we always ask for flexibility. You will also work with colleagues to provide out of hours End of Life support. In return, there’s a competitive salary, 35 days’ holiday and pension contributions. If you’re moving from the NHS, you can keep your current NHS pension.

Find out more

This is a role that could change your life, so we expect you’ll have questions before you apply. If you’re inspired to find out more, please call Joanne Reed, Hospice at Home Manager on 01922 422500 or Caroline Tyler, HR Advisor, on 01564 825000.  Alternatively you can email Caroline at caroline.tyler@acorns.org.uk. You can apply online by clicking the apply button.

Closing date for applications: 9am, Monday 13 June, 2016.