About this role
Job summary
Clinical Nurse Specialist (9 Month Maternity Cover)
- Hours: 37.5 per week (7.5hr shifts Monday to Friday with occasional shift and weekend cover)
- Location: Rennie Grove Peace Geographical Area Watford and Hertsmere Locality
- Salary: Rennie Grove Peace Band 7 - £47,810 - £54,710 per annum (pro rata)
- Closing date: 30 November 2026 at 12 noon
- Interview date: 08 December 2026
Main duties of the job
- You'll provide specialist palliative care to people with complex needs and those close to them, in the Palliative Rapid Response Team managing a small a caseload of unstable patients within SWH and be a clinical leader for the service team.
- You'll exercise significant freedom to act, assessing and managing uncertainty across multiple conditions, making decisions within broad professional guidelines rather than fixed protocols, and acting as the person colleagues escalate to.
- Your advanced clinical reasoning, exercised in peoples homes, and by telephone is at the heart of this role.
About us
At Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, our unique care provides a lifeline of compassion and support to patients, carers, and families facing progressive life-limiting illness. We provide palliative and end of life care support, including bereavement services, within Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire and our patient services are available to adults, as well as patients transitioning into adult services (16 to 25 years.)
Bereavement support is offered for all ages to families of patients and those around them, as well as throughout the community, in schools and workplaces. We are proud to offer care in the place that best suits the individuals needs, whether that's at home, in a care home, in a short stay in our inpatient unit, out in the community, or in our purpose-built Living Well Centre facilities. As a hospice care charity, we have offered this support, free of charge, for over 40 years.
Our staff team of 340+ includes a wide range of patient-facing disciplines plus operational support based in Watford, Tring, St Albans, Chalfont St Giles and Berkhamsted. The Charity is now one of the larger UK hospice charities, reaching a GP population of 797,037 of whom 75% live in Hertfordshire and 25% in Buckinghamshire.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Hold and manage a caseload of patients with complex palliative care needs in the Palliative rapid response team (PRT), from referral through assessment, planning, coordination and evaluation to bereavement support / first contact through assessment, prioritisation and allocation to the right RGP service.
- Carry out advanced holistic assessment, using advanced clinical reasoning to interpret complex, uncertain and competing information and to decide, often without direct observation, what is happening and what should happen next.
- Prescribe as a non-medical prescriber within RGP policy, and support colleagues' safe medicines management.
- Provide highly specialist advice on palliative and end of life care to GPs, district nurses, care homes, hospital teams and RGP colleagues.
- Deliver hands-on care when it is right for the patient, modelling the standard you expect of others.
- Keep and oversee accurate records, and set the documentation standard for the team.
- Exercise significant freedom to act within professional guidelines; be the person others escalate to, and know when to involve medical and senior colleagues.
- Lead the service day to day: allocate and prioritise PRT referrals and visits, oversee the work of the team including bank colleagues, and keep the service safe across the rota.
- Line-manage the posts named in the role summary: one-to-ones, IPR, personal development plans, probation reviews and first-stage people process with HR support.
- Resolve concerns where possible, contribute to formal complaint responses and investigations, lead or take part in duty of candour conversations with patients and families when something has gone wrong, and share the learning with the team.
- Contribute to service reviews, rota planning and resource management with the BOPM, and deputise clinically when asked.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Registered Nurse (NMC) with current registration
- Degree in a relevant subject, plus palliative care study aligned to the NHSE Qualification in Specialism Standard, or equivalent experience with an agreed plan to complete
- Non-medical prescribing qualification, or completion within two years, funded by RGP with a named practice assessor
Additional Criteria
Essential
- Experience of supervising, mentoring or line-managing colleagues
- Evidence of leading audit, improvement or change in practice
- Advanced clinical reasoning: assesses and interprets complex, uncertain and competing information and makes defensible decisions under pressure
- Specialist symptom management knowledge across palliative and end of life care
- Teaches effectively in clinical settings, formally and at the bedside
- Plans and prioritises a service day: allocation, escalation and rota cover across a seven-day service
- Confident use of an electronic patient record and Microsoft 365
- Recognises the limits of their own competence and escalates appropriately
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care
Address
Peace Hospice
Watford
WD17 3PH
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://renniegrovepeace.org/ (Opens in a new tab)