Theatre Practitioner - Neurosurgery - Scrub - Band 5

Our Client:

Our client is a NHS Foundation Trust, which is one of London’s largest and busiest teaching hospitals, with a unique profile of strong local services and a growing reputation for research and development and the provision of tertiary specialties. Over the past few years, our client has been undergoing a transformation and has benefited from a range of initiatives and investments to improve patient services.

Employing over 5,000 people, their main services are based in South East London. They have a number of key satellite units within their immediate vicinity and at other locations within the community they serve.

Seventy percent of their work is providing full hospital services to over 700,000 people in the South East London boroughs where they serve. These areas provide their own challenges associated with such a socially and economically diverse catchment area. As both health service provider and a major employer, our client is keen to play its part in the surrounding area and help reduce social and health inequalities. Their Primary Care Liaison Team has established a range of initiatives to improve communication between GPs and the Trust.

As a Foundation Trust they have a Board of Governors drawn from the local community and former patients, together with representatives from a range of stakeholder groups, who take an active role in helping them improve services. For example, a Trust working group investigated access to the hospital and have been lobbying Government for the retention of the strategically important local rail link to the hospital and to make the station more accessible to the disabled.

In addition to providing local hospital services, the Trust also provides very strong tertiary care services. The high level of national and international referrals attest to their high reputation for liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, cardiology, haemato-oncology and foetal medicine – both as providers of medical services and also as the forerunners in research.

• In 2003 the Trust made headlines when the liver team performed the first successful healthy liver cell transplant on a baby (which can remove the need for a liver transplant).
• In 2004 – Richard Lane became the first UK diabetic patient to achieve insulin independence following a series of three groundbreaking pancreas islet cell transplants. This is being supported by the establishment of a Cellular Therapy Unit at the Medical School.
• In 2006 – Cardiothoracic Consultant Surgeon, Mr Olaf Wendler, carried out a new surgical technique to close a rupture in a patient’s heart.
• In 2007, Consultant Neurosurgeon, Mr Christos Tolias achieved a UK first in successfully performing non-occlusive bypasses on the brains of four patients (rerouting and maintaining the blood supply to the brain by using a graft vein, usually taken from the leg).

In addition, the Trust has been involved in the following national initiatives:

• Standards for Better Health (2004)
• National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death
• Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health.
• The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
• In 2005, the Government named The Trust’s Day Surgery as one of five NHS Centres for Innovation and Training (CITEC) in the UK.
• They pioneered a new approach for patients suffering ‘out-of-hospital’ heart attacks whereby patients are treated directly by the Trusts specialist cardiac centre rather than the local A&E.

Teaching:

The Trust, together with the local School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Institute of Psychiatry, and London South Bank University has become a centre of research and development, as well as training the next generation of Doctors, Dentists, Nurses and Allied Health Professionals.

The School of Medicine and Dentistry along with the Trust undertakes a range of research studies across all clinical specialties e.g. in the field of aortic aneurysms, coronary artery bypass grafts, Sickle cell and Thalassaemia, maternal deaths, stillbirths, and deaths in infancy, and the results of these studies are regularly published. There is also research into the effect of complementary medicine and therapies in areas such as Neurosciences, and with the development of the trust’s professorial day case unit the trust has been nationally designated as a ‘Centre for Innovation and Teaching in Elective Care’.

There is a steady increase in the completion of clinical research studies by nurses, midwives, and allied heath professionals, and also of management and leadership research studies by management staff. These studies are presented at national conferences and also feature in the Trust’s Research and Publications Digest, which is produced bi-annually.

Plans and Developments

Recent new development includes:

• a new Outpatients’ Department and treatment areas
• new wards for medical and neurology patients
• increased bed numbers and flexibility
• the refurbishment of an existing Wing, which has accommodated medical and neurosciences wards and neuro-imaging, enabling former services at one hospital to transfer to another

Other recently approved developments include the building of two new wards and two additional theatres, to enable the Trust to deliver additional activity, and agreement by the Trust to create a new £25 million research laboratory building on the campus.

In recent years, major redevelopment and building programmes have taken place on one of the Trust’s sites and their Day Surgery Centre has become one of the largest units in the country, increasing its theatre capacity from four theatres to seven. Two theatres are dedicated to orthopaedic and laparoscopic work. Over 60% of surgical services are now provided on a day care basis which is well above the Department of Health target and is indicative of the willingness of clinicians to be at the forefront of service developments which focus on improved patient care.

Staffing

An integral part of the delivery of excellent healthcare is the employment, development and motivation of staff. Our client holds an impressively low staff vacancy and turnover rate and has developed many initiatives to improve the working lives of all involved in the Trust. Four key initiatives under the four headings of partnership working, flexible working, supporting staff and career and personal development have been established. Initiates undertaken include:
• A scheme, which offers a range of flexible working options to suit individual circumstances.
• ‘Investors in People’ accreditation
• Three workplace nurseries
• A large range of development programmes for all staff, including mentoring, coaching, tutor-led, hands on, open and e-learning with many programmes leading to qualifications.

Our client has been heavily involved in the ‘Improving Working Lives’ (IWL) scheme and achieved IWL ‘Practice Plus’ well ahead of deadline. In the areas assessed, the Trust achieved an impressing 96% overall score and they are now working towards the next standard to become a ‘Model Employer’.

They provide services in an open and non-discriminatory way, aiming to ensure equality of access to care for patients and equality of opportunity for their workforce. They are fully committed to promoting equality in the way they provide they services and manage they staff, on the grounds of race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion and age. Their Equality Scheme outlines their arrangements for integrating equality into business planning processes.

Job Details
Due to annual growth of this Trust and expansion, our client is currently looking to recruit enthusiastic and motivated Theatre Practitioners - Scrub Nurses or Operating Department Practitioners at Band 5 Theatres to strengthen and provide a valuable contribution to the existing team in Theatres.

Vacancies exist for motivated qualified scrub practitioners in the Neuro Theatres. You must be an RN1 or have an ODP qualification. Current experience in Neurosurgery theatres is essential. Please note that this job is not suitable for newly qualified nurses.

The Theatre Complex comprises 16 theatres and caters for patients of all ages from neonates to the elderly. They undertake 12,000 major procedures a year, within a wide range of specialities and enjoy the reputation of being a world leader in innovative, surgical interventions.

The main complex has 10 theatres and undertakes the following surgery:

 General surgery
 Orthopaedics
 Urology
 Vascular
 Gynaecology
 Maxillo-facial
 Ophthalmology
 Hepato-biliary

They also have a dedicated Laparoscopic Theatre and are a major neonatal surgery centre.

Next door to the Main Theatres is a newly built Cardiac Theatre complex, which has two theatres and its own recovery beds where patients are kept during the immediate post-operative period.

Below the Main Theatre complex are 3 very busy Neurosurgical Theatres, which cater for patients of all ages, and have a 5-bedded recovery unit attached. They also have two completely self-contained Obstetric Theatres with recovery beds.

A 13 bay Recovery is attached to the Main Theatre Complex and accepts all patients including those requiring a high level of observation, such as invasive monitoring, until the patient is stable enough to be transferred to the High Dependency Unit.

The Operating Theatre Department provides a safe and supportive environment in which to care for individuals undergoing anaesthesia and surgical procedures.

Our client has some 130 staff working in Main Theatres and these practitioners come from very wide and culturally diverse backgrounds. All theatre practitioners’ work closely with the Trust’s Surgeons, Anaesthetists and other members of the multi-disciplinary team to provide the highest standard of care to their patients. They are committed to developing both Operating Department Practitioners and Nurses in anaesthetics, scrub and recovery roles.

The bulk of theatre work is undertaken between 08.00 and 17.00 hours, but they have the capacity to run 3 emergency theatres outside these hours. Therefore, staff are required to cover late shifts, weekends, nights, and to be “on-call” from home on a rotational basis.

Our client offers excellent educational opportunities from in-house study courses to post-graduate education through the local university. They support flexible working. Optional overtime from private surgery is available at attractive rates.

Education and Support:

• Practitioners are given opportunities to develop their clinical skills, and are actively encouraged to undertake further academic studies
• A Staff Development Unit provides a wide range of valuable in-house courses
• Among the longer courses most commonly accessed by theatre staff are the Anaesthetic, Perioperative and Mentorship Courses. Most courses are available to Operating Department Practitioners as well as Nurses
• At any one time there may be 15 supernumerary learners within theatres, as well as novice theatre staff. These practitioners work closely with dedicated mentors, who are supported by the Theatre Practice Development Team
• Every month Theatres have a half day audit meeting, where a variety of educational sessions are undertaken, from formal lectures to team meetings

New members of staff:

• All new members of staff attend one week’s hospital induction and then they are supernumerary for a period that will depend on their previous experience
• New members of staff are supported by dedicated mentors and will have on-going performance assessment. A formal review will be undertaken after an initial period of 6 months
• Our client’s theatres are active participants in a new initiative where London Hospitals bring their novice practitioners together to learn core practical skills
• New staff can expect to gain a wide range of clinical experience whilst supported by their team of mentors. They will also be assisted in identifying and pursuing their ongoing education to facilitate their career progression

Qualifications
It is essential that you are an RN1 / RNA or an ODP with extensive experience of Scrub Nursing and with a minimum of three years experience.

You will be registered with the HPC or NMC. No adaptation nurses need apply.

It would be desirable that you have a post-registration specialist course or the overseas equivalent but not essential.

We can review candidates who require work permits, as you will qualify for one as ‘Theatre Nursing’ is considered a skill shortage occupation.

Please note that this job is not suitable for newly qualified nurses.

Skills/Experience
• You will be qualified and experienced in Theatre Scrub Nursing
• You will be competent and up-to-date in operating department practice
• Provide safe, individual care within the different areas of the operating theatre
• You will good at problem solving
• You will ensure that patients and, where applicable, relatives and significant others receive the information and physical and emotional support needed in order to cope with the effects of operative intervention in their lives
• You must be willing to commit to at least 12-month open contract

In addition:

• Interest to develop knowledge of the clinical speciality and own practice
• You will have a good basic level of English Language demonstrated through effective written and verbal communication skills
• Understanding of the NMC Code of Professional Conduct
• All staff are expected to take full responsibility for their own continual personal development
• Able to lead a team to achieve results
• Good interpersonal skills
• Teaching skills
• Able to prioritise and meet deadlines
• Able to manage difficult situations
• Organised time management
• Able to use initiative
• A willingness to participate in continuing professional development
• IT skills
• Awareness of audit & research
• Analytical skills
• Ability to work within a team and independently
• Flexible
• Smart appearance
• Able to work to pressure
• Punctual
• Enthusiastic
• Assertive and positive attitude
• Pleasant disposition
• Caring nature

Benefits
Competitive salaries at Band 5 with a high cost area supplement for working within London, a final salary pension scheme that’s among the best in the world, the ability to buy and sell annual leave throughout the year, flexible working and a modern smoke-free working environment. On-site nursery available, store discounts, complementary therapies clinic, a credit union scheme and staff clinics for physio and travel vaccinations. Hospital accommodation is available.

Key Points

Based: South East London
Salary: £23,610 - £30,508 pa
Contract: Permanent - Full Time
Start Date: Immediate

If you have the appropriate experience and find this opportunity of interest

then please give the Adevia UK team a call on 0870 033 0500
or 0208 400 6280
or register your details now

Tags: