Nurse Lead – Theatre & CSSD at AAR Hospital

Job Purpose: 

The primary goal of operating room coordination is to ensure prompt, safe, and effective care of surgical patients. The Charge Nurse-Theatre is accountable in an oversight capacity for the effective delivery of competent, compassionate, and efficient care for the patient, undergoing anesthesia, surgery and/or procedures, and recovery.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

Unit Leadership

• Being a role model of the nursing profession and always exercising professionalism, while providing guidance, mentorship to staff and student nurses, ensuring all patients are treated with dignity, privacy, respect and are encouraged to be 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 operating rooms, staff management and utilize hospital disciplinary policy procedure effectively in case of policy violations.
• To protect all confidential information concerning the hospital, patients and to make disclosure only with patient and Chief Executive Officer’s permission.
• Being able to run the theatres effectively by ensuring timely and efficient care is provided to surgical patients and a seamless booking of elective patients.
• Ensuring that all required operating room 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

• To utilize the standards and procedures of nursing care to continuously improve the quality of nursing and exceed the patients’ expectations.
• Ensure the unit participates in audits and in continuous quality improvement.
• Ensuring all patients planned for surgery are seen the previous day before wheeling to theatre and that all information is documented and shared with muilti-disciplinary teams.
• Ensure the theatre unit clinical policies are adhered to such as daily checks for crash carts, calibration and storage of equipment’s, timely documentation of incidents and infection control hand hygiene compliance.
• Maintaining the Hospitals’ policies, standard and procedures of NICU nursing care while upholding statutory regulations as required by nursing profession and the laws of Kenya.
• To ensure accurate documentation, proper record keeping and storage for continuity, quality, and legal reference.
• Assist medical staff in the overall care of the patient and to ensure the prescribed treatment is given accordingly.

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 communicate with the Biomedical/Maintenance Engineering.
• Ensure that all surgical procedures are performed effectively while always maintaining safety and to look out for any unexpected outcomes and being keen on mitigating them.
• Being able to interpret critical values / pertinent information related to surgical investigations for patients and procedures and acting on time about it.
• 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 operating rooms and to ensure they are safeguarded from damage, wastage, or loss.

Communication

• To communicate with other professionals and all relevant parties to advocate effectively for the patients and for cooperative and supportive relationships.
• Communicating effectively with other professionals, patients and their significant others including staff of other departments to advocate for the patients effectively.
• 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

• To provide guidance, supervise and mentor staff and trainees 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 nurses to clinical nursing education towards improving practice and surgical process skills.
• Maintaining and regularly updating own professional knowledge and competence through education, research findings and self-motivated learning.
• Participate in the development of auditable standards of care and initiate and participate in ongoing research, audit and projects as agreed with the Assistant Head Nurse (Special Units).
• Participate in delivering orientation programmes 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 safe surgical process.

  Operational performance

• Monitor the performance of the operating room services against the agreed key performance objectives with timely reporting and in association with the other clinicians, identify the need for corrective action to ensure improvement in current practices.
• Develops unit staffing patterns and time scheduling practices which:
  • Facilitate the delivery of consistent and efficient nursing care.
  • Comply with budgetary constraints and applicable policies according to individual patient acuity.

Staff development and staff education

• 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 & Experience

• KRN/KRM/KRCHN/ POST RN Degree/ Bachelor of science Nursing
• Higher Diploma in Peri- operative nurse (KRPON) with relevant Certification
• Current nursing license, in good standing with the Nursing council of Kenya
• Minimum five (5) years’ progressive leadership experience in theatre
• Certifications in; – Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS)
  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
  • Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)
  • Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), recommended
• Good managerial skills.
• Mentorship training.
• Good interpersonal & communication skills
• Good customer care skills.

Training

• Leadership course.
• Counseling course.