Staff Nurse

The Staff Nurse reports into the Inpatient Unit Sister/Charge Nurse and is responsible for providing care to patients within our Inpatient Unit (IPU).

The Staff Nurse will deliver expert, compassionate, and individualized nursing care to patients with life-limiting illnesses. The role involves managing and coordinating the clinical care of patients, ensuring their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are met with dignity and respect. The Staff Nurse is responsible for assessing patient conditions, developing and implementing care plans, administering medications, and providing symptom management.

Additionally, the Staff Nurse offers support and guidance to patients' families, helping them navigate the complexities of end‑of‑life care. By working collaboratively with the multi‑disciplinary team, the Staff Nurse ensures the highest standard of care, enhancing the quality of life for patients and those important to them.

St Giles Hospice is a registered charity founded in 1983 by the Reverend Paul Brothwell, originally to improve the care of local people dying with cancer.

We now support patients, and their loved ones, living with a terminal illness.

Our dedicated team provides individually‑tailored care, free of charge, either at the hospice or in patients own homes across our communities.

We spend close to £10 million a year providing our specialist services. With just 18% of this funded by the Government, we rely heavily on donations and income generation from the local community.

The role entails but is not limited to:

Demonstrate the necessary skills to establish and maintain effective communication for patients, relatives and members of the multi‑disciplinary team.

Communicating with patients and relatives, providing active listening, counsel, providing information and teaching about the dying process. Using proficient interpersonal and communication skills in a frequently highly challenging and emotive atmosphere.

Communicate with other healthcare/allied healthcare professionals within the acute and Primary Care Teams, key workers, social services, nursing and residential homes to enhance the flow of communication and facilitate admission and discharge.

Establish strong effective working relationships with all members of the multi‑disciplinary team.

Ensure that patients are referred to other members of the team such as dietician, occupational therapist, family support and physiotherapist as required.

Ensure that patients are referred to other hospice services as required.

Maintain a good working relationship with the patient and their relatives ensuring that they receive a personalized and sensitive, professional service at all times.

Ensure that support is given to carers and families providing information and explanation on external resources available and referring them to the necessary organizations where appropriate.

Establish excellent professional relationships with primary care colleagues providing information to these professionals, particularly the key worker, enabling them to care well for these patients when in the community.

Manage patient admission and discharge, assessing and advising patients and relatives in crisis situations where significant barriers to acceptance of help will need to be handled using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills. Presenting complex, sensitive or contentious information for patients, clients and staff.

Provide emotional/spiritual support to patient and families throughout the disease and dying trajectory, providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive or contentious information.

Provide out of hours telephone support and advice for patients, relatives and external healthcare professionals regarding symptom control and psychological care and advice when required.

To provide total physical, emotional and spiritual care and support to patients, relatives and carers throughout their admission.

To be competent in the use of syringe pumps and infusions.

To be competent in the use of IT skills (clinical software, electronic patient…