Senior Paediatric Nurse ARFID Pathway

This post will play an integral role in the ARFID Pathway within the Community Eating Disorders Service for Children and Young People (CEDS-CYP), with a focus on providing and coordinating specialist nursing input and physical health monitoring for children and young people with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) or suspected ARFID.

CEDS-CYP is a specialist service offering assessment and treatment to young people under 18 who are experiencing an eating disorder. The ARFID Pathway is a dedicated, community-based pathway within CEDS-CYP for children and young people aged 8-18, delivering early, evidence-based, multidisciplinary assessment, consultation and brief intervention. Our team covers Tower Hamlets, Newham and City & Hackney.

Main duties of the job

? Responsibility for overseeing physical health monitoring for children and young people on the ARFID Pathway, providing senior specialist advice and guidance for families on how to respond to concerns at home.

? Ensuring there are safe and effective blood monitoring systems for children and young people, including for refeeding and vomiting; ensuring results are received in a timely manner and escalating as appropriate.

? Involvement in passing and monitoring NG tubes, where clinically indicated.

? Coordinating DEXA scans and other relevant investigations, ensuring results are received in a timely manner, chasing where appropriate.

? Overseeing the provision of meal support to young people and families at home, in clinic and in hospital, supporting staff to model appropriate support for parents, with time to evaluate the process at each visit.

Person specification

Education/ Qualification/ Training

Essential

• RSCN / RN Child with current registration Interest and enthusiasm for nursing young people with eating disorders
• Preparation for mentorship course or equivalent
• Evidence of continued professional development

Understanding of the impact of mental health difficulties on the young person and their family

Desirable

• Specialist knowledge across a range of paediatric procedures, underpinned by relevant theory
• Leadership course / development programme
• Postgraduate training in eating disorders specific therapies (e.g. CBT-E, CBT, family based treatment)

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of 2-years' experience at band 6 within a paediatric setting
• Experience of nursing young people who are suffering from mental health difficulties
• Experience of developing care plans/packages for young people, and giving specialist advice to young people dependent on their need

Desirable

• Experience of maintaining team medical/nursing equipment, stock levels, ordering stock supplies

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Excellent skills in engaging with hard-toreach young people and families
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to adapt this to build strong relationships with an array of young people, families and professionals
• Competency in NGT insertion, phlebotomy and undertaking ECGs
• Ability to relate sensitively to young people with mental health difficulties and their carers.
• Shows a creative and calm approach to supporting young people through potentially stressful medical procedures
• Excellent skills in paediatric nursing assessment, and in assessing and interpreting complex needs of patients
• Excellent skills in providing a psycho -educative approach to work with young people who have eating disorders

Excellent organizational skills

Displays professional integrity and credibility

Personal and people development

Essential

• A positive attitude towards mental health, and supporting young people towards recovery
• Able to work independently and seek support where appropriate
• Able to motivate others to work collaboratively to achieve best outcomes for young people and families
• Able to use supervision well to improve output
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress, and able to hold the stress of others.
• High motivation to working as part of a multi - disciplinary team
• Positive attitude and ability to work under pressure, be adaptable and able to working in unpredictable situations
• Takes responsibility for own learning
• Responsible for own Individual Performance Review
• Follows policies and practice protocols, and is able to comment and propose changes to these
• Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
• Can supervise the work of more junior staff and students, and provides training to others
• Must be able to exert light physical effort, moving between rooms, carrying out physical nursing assessments, and travelling between spoke areas independently, to sit in constrained positions for a substantial proportion of working time.
• Able to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc

Communication

Essential

• Communicates in a manner that is consistent with relevant legislation, policies and procedures.
• Communicates with people in a form and manner that:
• Is consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating.
• Recognises and reflects on barriers to effective communication and actively modifies communication in response to these.
• Aware of the potential impact of discrimination and disadvantage on mental health
• Provides feedback to other workers on their communication at appropriate times
• Takes a proactive role in producing accurate and complete documentation

About the employer

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations