Community Mental Health Nurse

Job summary

Lead with compassion. Support recovery. Strengthen communities.

Join MHWT South as a Band 6 Mental Health Nurse and help deliver high quality, person centred mental health care across Leyton and Leytonstone.

Main duties of the job

To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for own unsupervised actions guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.
The post holder will have Current Effective Status on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Nurse (RN12).
To be responsible, and accountable, for service delivery to clients/patients.
To be able to assess and develop plans of care to meet the complex needs of patients with a variety of conditions. This includes chronic, acute and palliative care within own competencies, recognising own limitations and seeking advice when necessary. This will include continuously evaluating and acting on outcomes.
To be able to initiate referrals to other health professional specialist services and agencies.
To provide patients and relatives with information and education thus ensuring they have meaningful choices that promote dignity, independence and quality of life.
To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence-based practice, literature and peer review.

About us

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health and community services for over 4.9 million people living in the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, Havering, and across Essex. We work to ensure our patients, their friends and family, feel confident that their health needs are well met. With an excellent reputation for research and development, our skilled health professionals are at the cutting edge of evidence-based innovation, opening up the possibilities for better ways of working and delivery of care.

Job responsibilities

The purpose of this job description is to outline the level of responsibility and accountability of this post. This will ensure that all work undertaken by our staff is clearly identified and carried out under clear lines of accountability.

Aim of the role:

The expectation of this post holder will be to support their team, department and organisation to achieve the Trust’s Values in their day to day work. These are:

We are kind

We are respectful

We work together with our communities

The post holder will achieve this by:

Playing a key role in assessing needs, planning and delivering interventions, and supporting individuals to improve their mental health, resilience, and overall wellbeing. You will work collaboratively with service users, carers, and partner agencies to ensure a holistic approach to care, promoting recovery, independence and reducing reliance on secondary services.

The successful candidate will demonstrate excellent communication skills, sound clinical judgement, and a commitment to delivering safe, effective, and compassionate care.

This role is ideal for someone who is proactive, flexible, and passionate about improving access to mental health support within the community, while contributing to continuous service development and innovation

Key Responsibilities:

To be responsible for organising and prioritising own and others workload in the day to day allocation of work.

To deputise when required in the team managers/ Clinical lead’s absence and delegate appropriately to junior staff.

To have organisational knowledge relating to Trust protocols and procedures and adhere to them, particularly administration of medicine and moving and handling.

To be responsible for providing accurate records of information required by the Trust for audit purposes.

To ensure effective risk management at team level by accident/incident reporting, assessing and controlling risk and ensuring residual risks are added to the Trust register.

To supervise pre-registration students.

To employ professional curiosity in your day-to-day role and act upon any findings appropriately.

Clinical Skills

To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for own unsupervised actions guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.

The post holder will have Current Effective Status on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) – Registered Nurse (RN12).

To be responsible, and accountable, for service delivery to clients/patients.

To be able to assess and develop plans of care to meet the complex needs of patients with a variety of conditions. This includes chronic, acute and palliative care within own competencies, recognising own limitations and seeking advice when necessary.  This will include continuously evaluating and acting on outcomes.

To be able to initiate referrals to other health professional specialist services and agencies.

To provide patients and relatives with information and education thus ensuring they have meaningful choices that promote dignity, independence and quality of life.

To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence-based practice, literature and peer review.

Leadership

To participate in the development of an effective team and the development of productive working relationships throughout the Trust.

To actively promote integrated health professional working internally and externally.

To facilitate the development of a positive and supportive team culture.

To take an active interest in working parties and groups within the Trust to develop and improve on service delivery, protocols and guidelines.

To participate in the audit process, linking in with the clinical governance agenda.

To advise, encourage and share knowledge utilising the latest research and practice development, through literature and peer reviews.

To provide supervision to junior colleagues.

Administration

To be computer literate.

To ensure accurate recording of actions, and updating patient’s records, maintaining confidentiality at all times.

To take part, and assist, in the planning and administration relating to day to day running of the caseload.

Communication

To have a wide range of knowledge in approaches to communicating and managing patient care.

To be able to effectively communicate with colleagues, peers, senior managers and clinical leads within the Trust.

To be able to communicate complex patient related information facilitating positive outcomes and ensuring collaborative working.

Participate in the review and development of clinical policies and identifies improvements to service provision.

Training

To act as mentor to students, providing effective education, facilitating their development and promoting high standards of nursing care.

Ensure students are actively supported to enable them to achieve their learning needs.

To ensure own continued professional development and support a culture of lifelong learning in self and others.

To undertake, and assist, in the planning of own mandatory training and workshops.

To undertake a regular appraisal, developing a personal development plan that includes clinical competencies reflecting the health needs of the local population and relates to Trust strategy.

To support new staff and their integration within the team.

To support training as part of the role including changes to professional development and implementation of new policies and guidelines.

Specific tasks directly related to the post

Operating as a senior nurse, Supporting Triage/ duty and care coordination, under the supervision of a Clinical Leader

To work in a positive manner , adopting a recovery focused approach to care delivery and well being

Providing high quality evidence-based and individualised mental health care to a clearly defined group of patients, relatives and carers.

Supervising Junior and unqualified staff in the delivery of their care

Working and acting as a key member of the multi-disciplinary teams, supporting each service user in achievement of planned outcomes.

Ensure consideration of contemporary evidence base and policies to clinical practice.

To administer, supervise and monitor medication

Work closely with GPs with an emphasis on safely discharging Mental Health patient to primary care.