Nurse Lead- Specialists Clinic at AAR Hospital

 Job Purpose: 

The charge nurse typical daily duties include orientating new employees, creating work schedules and duty rotas for staff, overseeing accurate medical billing, drafting unit budgets, implementing policy changes, starting professional development training, ordering medical equipment, leading staff meetings, and negotiating insurance contracts if need be.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership Attributes

• Being a role model of the nursing profession and always exercising professionalism, while providing guidance, mentorship to staff and new nurses, ensuring all visiting patients are treated with dignity, privacy, respect and are involved in their care.
• Attends administrative meetings, charge nurse’s meetings, procedure committees and other committees as may be required from time to time.
• To be in control of the nursing activities in the special clinics, staff management and utilize hospital disciplinary policy procedure effectively in case of policy violations.
• To protect all confidential information concerning the hospital, consultants, patients and to make disclosure only with patient and Chief Executive Officer’s permission.
• Being able to run the Specialists Clinics effectively and ensuring timely booking of patients and seamless operations.
• Ensuring that all required special clinics utilities are available, are utilized effectively to ensure quality service delivery, profitability, and cost-containment, and that timely charging is done upon their use.

Policies and Standards

• Utilizing the standards and procedures of nursing care to continuously improve the quality of nursing and exceed patients’ expectations and participate in audits within the special clinics.
• Ensuring all special clinics patients are assessed and reviewed on appointment by the consultants and all information is documented in hospital management system.
• Ensure the special clinics policies of care are adhered to, such as daily checks for crash carts, calibration and storage of equipment, timely documentation of incidents, infection control hand hygiene compliance, and patient education to all patients
• Maintaining the Hospitals’ policies, standard and procedures of nursing care in the unit upholding statutory regulations as required by nursing profession and the laws of Kenya.
• Ensure accurate documentation, proper record keeping, and storage of patients records for continuity, quality, and legal reference.
• Assist medical staff in the overall care of the patient and to ensure the prescribed treatment is given.
• Ensuring patients get holistic care especially in the following aspects
• appointment scheduling and following it up with reminders prior to clinic days
• timely discharge of care without delays in waiting times
• accurate documentation of all records, investigations, and progress notes
• the kin or relatives are updated daily about their patient condition and progress
• timely medications administration and safety compliance
• prompt resolution of any patient’s complaint on daily basis

Patient Safety and Customer Focus

• Implement infection control measures to provide a safe environment for patients, staff, relatives, and visitors.
• Identifies present and potential needs of the department assists in formulating courses of action to meet needs.
• Be fully responsible for all equipment on the ward inventory and for ordering supplies and for recommending on the needs of the department.
• Ensures regular maintenance is performed on all equipment and communicating with the Biomedical/Maintenance Engineering in case of breakdown.
• Being observant that all invasive procedures are performed effectively while always maintaining safety and looking for any unexpected outcomes and being keen on mitigating them.
• Being able to interpret urgent critical values / pertinent information related to various lab tests, investigations and diagnostic procedures and acting on time about.
• Safeguarding all confidential information always concerning patients and their treatment and their property.
• Investigating patients’ complaints and incidents promptly in accordance with the Hospital Incident Reporting Policy Procedure and reporting promptly within the same shift.
• Being knowledgeable of the equipment in the special clinics and to ensure they are safeguarded them from damage, wastage, or loss.

Communication

• Communicate with other professionals, consultants, insurance providers and all relevant parties to advocate effectively for the patients and for cooperative and supportive relationships.
• Communicating effectively with other staff, multidisciplinary professionals to enhance patient centered care.
• Ensuring accurate documentation, proper record keeping, and storage for continuity, quality, and legal reference.
• Promoting good interpersonal relationships amongst the nursing team, patients, and other disciplines.

Learning and Growth 

• Provide guidance, supervise, and mentor nursing staff to ensure all patients are treated with dignity, privacy, and respect and that the patients are encouraged to be involved in decision making related to their care.
• Ensuring mandatory participation of all special clinics’ nurses in clinical nursing education towards improving practice and nursing skills.
• Participate in the development of auditable standards of care and initiate and participate in ongoing research, audit and projects as agreed with the nursing head.
• Participate in delivering orientation schedules for new staff and providing relevant feedback to all members of the team.
• Assume an active role in self-development taking personal responsibility for keeping up to date with new procedures and technology in all aspects of nursing.

Operational Performance

• Monitor the performance of the special clinic’s and well-baby services against its agreed key performance objectives with timely reporting and in associations the other clinicians, identify the need for corrective action to ensure improvement in current practices.
• Championing continual quality improvement.
• Prepares department budget as required
• Prepares the monthly rota for staff, vacation, and their daily assignment of duties.
• Ordering, controlling, and utilizing the available resources effectively for quality service delivery, for profitability and cost containment.
• Maintains, monthly and quarterly statistics as required for unit reporting.
• Provides input to determine human resource manpower for the department and continuously monitors the performance of the nurses in the department.
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned from time to time in line with hospital operations

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• KRN, KRCHN, BSc. Nursing
• Valid Certifications in BLS certified and ACLS
• Licensed to practice by the Nursing Council of Kenya and has a valid License
• Previous experience in a leadership position in similar role
• Minimum of seven (7) years post clinical nursing.
• Management / Supervisory skills training
• Mentorship training.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills

Training

• Added advantages in Leadership course.
• Counseling course.