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Internationally renowned for clinical excellence, The Portland Hospital is the only independent hospital in the UK entirely dedicated to women and children. Our inpatient and outpatient specialties reflect this, providing clinical expertise in Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Women`s Health.

The hospital has been consistently growing over the past few years, almost doubling since 2008.Our Paediatric wards hold 56 inpatient beds + 11 day case and are equipped with the latest technology to provide advanced medical and surgical care, including a Paediatric Neurorehabilitation Unit and a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit which reflects the acuity and complex nature of the children who are admitted to our hospital.  The Portland Hospital has a large number of international Paediatric patients, often funded by relevant embassies.

The Portland Hospital is the only fully private maternity hospital in the UK.  The hospital provides for both consultant-led and midwifery-led deliveries, having an 18 bedded ward to facilitate this.  Alongside this there is a 12 bedded Gynecology and Women’s Health in-patient ward.  The Portland Hospital also has a large outpatient department for all areas of its clinical expertise, to facilitate continuous care or simpler procedures.  

We are also now expanding our Women’s Surgical Services with a state of the art 12 bedded inpatient Surgical and HDU ward to enable us to provide complex surgical services to Breast and Gynaecological patients.

The culture at The Portland Hospital is to provide support, an inspiring environment and positive ways of working to ensure everyone has a better day.  This is accomplished through our core set of ‘Positively Portland’ values that all employees will work to:

Greetings, Respect, Teamwork, Initiative, Responsibility and Acknowledgement

Job Description

The post holder will hold responsibility as shift clinical Duty Manager for adult services within the hospital incorporating Maternity and Neonatal Services, Gynaecology and Women’s Surgery and Adult Critical Care (HDU and ICU), as well as being Duty Manager for the hospital site.

The post holder will ensure optimal safety standards are upheld acting as a Hospital Incident Marshal for any untoward event or major incident within the hospital. The Duty Manager will lead the Medical Emergency Team huddle for each shift and will take an active role in all emergencies within the hospital.

The Duty Manager will ensure a high quality of clinical care and will work under the direction of the Women’s and Neonatal Services Manager and with support from the department Matron’s. The post holder will liaise closely with the shift Paediatric Site Practitioner (PSP) and departmental Heads of Department (HoD’s) to ensure a seamless service is provided between the adult and children services within the hospital.

Salary up  to £47,000 per annum plus 9% enhancement

Working hours 37.5 per week, Days, Nights, Weekends, Public Holidays

Duties & Responsibilities

• Act as a clinical expert practitioner and role model for advanced nursing standards, assisting colleagues to develop knowledge and skills in order to benefit the treatment and care of patients in a Critical Care, Maternity or Surgical Ward setting within the Hospital.
• Independently assess patient care requirements, demonstrate effective evaluation of nursing interventions and support the initiation of newly planned care accordingly, ensuring patient advocacy is maintained at all times.
• Demonstrate clinical credibility and advanced nursing practice within the physical assessment of a patient.
• Monitor care delivery through audit, both locally and group-wide.
• Monitor and deal with complaints with the aim of reducing the number of complaints that occur.
• Assist and support staff to attain their core clinical competencies and be part of the assessment process.
• Lead on referrals to other clinical groups within the Hospital and to external groups
• Recognise the signs and symptoms of a deteriorating patient and initiate early interventions in a calm and co-ordinated manner. Take the lead in emergency situations and carry out evaluation of care post emergency care situations.
• Lead Emergency Medical Team huddles at the beginning of each shift and attend all emergency calls during the shift.
• Ensure that appropriate nursing procedures are implemented in accordance with HCA nursing policies and competency frameworks, NMC and National Guidelines.
• Respect and ensure patient privacy and confidentiality at all times.
• Review ‘work force planning’ and secure adequate cover from temporary staffing if required to ensure staffing levels within Women’s and Neonatal Services are maintained to set staffing criteria.
• Establish effective communication and working relationships with both internal and external customers and health care professionals.
• Demonstrate and practice principles of infection control including universal precautions and initiate appropriate actions to isolate patients when necessary; participate in audit and ensure compliance. Educate more junior members of the team on any relevant aspects.
• Reports defective equipment and ensures appropriate action is taken to ensure a safe environment.
• Has a proactive approach to and takes immediate action when necessary in relation to risk management and assessment.
• Understands the nursing / midwifery contribution to Clinical Governance and participates in the development, implementation and evaluation of local quality initiatives and contributes to the multidisciplinary audit process
• Facilitates cohesive teamwork and recognises high performance
• Assists manager in the implementation and evaluation of change
• Ensures patients, relatives, carers and the MDT are kept informed of patient’s condition and management as appropriate and actively participates in complex decision making
• Recognises, is sensitive, and responds to patient’s, relatives’ and carers’ needs, fears and anxieties 
• Promotes cost-effective care and budget management by ensuring all patient charges and revenues are captured. Ensures compliance with capture of revenue initiatives and ensures appropriate resources are available to do so such as relevant documentation / charge sheets.

Skills & Experience

• Team leadership and staff motivation
• Registered nurse with Intensive care / High dependency experience within the last 2 years.
• ALS qualification
• Evidence of senior nurse level experience
• Able to communicate complex and sensitive information, gain cooperation where required and overcome barriers to understanding
• Demonstrate commitment to personal and professional training and development
• Track record of building and maintaining effective working relationships with all disciplines
• Able to organise own time and make straightforward plans for task, some of which might be ongoing
• Able to participate in moderate physical effort (moving patients/ equipment with the assistance of manual handling aids) frequently during a shift
• Pleasant and positive attitude
• Able to support distressed relatives, care for patients undergoing Termination of Pregnancy or pregnancy loss and deal with emotional consequences for patients/ relatives
• Diplomatic
• Computer literate
• Able to communicate tactfully and clearly with all members of the MDT
• Ability to deal with difficult behaviour/ team dynamics
• Able to resolve conflict

About The Individual

With strong team leadership, excellent clinical experience and staff motivation skills, you will have the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information, gain cooperation where required and overcome barriers to understanding. The ability to organise your own time and plan tasks accordingly is essential, as is a pleasant and positive attitude and a patient focused approach.