Diabetes Specialist Nurse
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it.Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’.Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS.We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
We are looking for a dynamic, motivated and enthusiastic experienced diabetes nurse to join the Diabetes service at Guy’s & St Thomas which includes our Lambeth and Southwark Community Sites
As a department we are very patient focused supporting innovation and service development to continually improve care for people with diabetes. We are a busy tertiary specialist diabetes centre with over 2000 people with type 1 diabetes and 600 people on Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion (insulin pumps).We also have a forward-thinking community service across the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark actively supporting patients with T1 and Type 2 diabetes. Education of patients and other health care colleagues is an essential part of this role
We are looking for a nurse who has experience in diabetes specialist nursing across any of the specialist care pathways. If you enjoy multidisciplinary team working in a busy progressive environment that is continually striving to improve care for the population it serves, this post is for you.We require a nurse who is flexible, dynamic, self-motivated and reliable in addition to being passionate about diabetes and nursing.
The successful candidate will join a relatively large diabetes nursing team that provide specialist care across integrated clinical pathways working across in-patients, specialist out-patients and the community/intermediate care setting.
Closing date: 20th January 2025Interview date: 28th January 2025
Main duties of the job
The primary function of the role is to act as highly specialised diabetes nurse working autonomously to assess, treat and prescribe for patients with diabetes and advise non-specialist practitioners on diabetes management plans as required. The specialist diabetes nurses are one integrated team across the community and secondary care diabetes services.
This is a hybrid integrated hospital / community DSN post based within GSTT Diabetes service.
In partnership with members of the multidisciplinary team the post holder will develop, implement and evaluate a seamless specialist service, ensuring that patients receive the highest standard of clinical care. They act as a lead specialist and will demonstrate a high level of expertise within the specialist service, providing specialist advice, education and support to health care professionals and patients.The post holder will actively undertake clinical audits and research within the specialist area.
The post holder will be responsible for contributing to the ongoing development of clinical practice, research and standards of care within the service, including development of policies, protocols and guidelines and contribute to service developments in collaboration with multidisciplinary colleagues.Also ensures the safety and well being of services users, and always working in a manner that promotes dignity and human rights through the adoption of person centered care principles.
Working for our organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.
We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.
We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research.We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The primary function of the role is to act as highly specialised diabetes nurse working autonomously to assess, treat and prescribe for patients with diabetes and advise non-specialist practitioners on diabetes management plans as required. The specialist diabetes nurses are one integrated team across the community and secondary care diabetes services.
This is a hybrid integrated hospital / community DSN post based within GSTT Diabetes service.
In partnership with members of the multidisciplinary team the post holder will develop, implement and evaluate a seamless specialist service, ensuring that patients receive the highest standard of clinical care. They act as a lead specialist and will demonstrate a high level of expertise within the specialist service, providing specialist advice, education and support to health care professionals and patients.The post holder will actively undertake clinical audits and research within the specialist area.
Person specification
Qualifications/ Education
Essential criteria- BSC/1st degree (health related) or equivalent qualification/training and experience
- Your professional knowledge acquired at degree level
- Post registration qualification in Diabetes
- Non medical Prescribing
- Advanced Assessment Skills
Previous experience
Essential criteria- Extensive experience of working autonomously at a specialist level in diabetes
- Working with people with type 1 and complex type 2 diabetes
- Previous experience group education
- Experience of delivering change management both personally and as a facilitator
Skills and Knowledge
Essential criteria- Excellent verbal, written, interpersonal & communication skills
- Developed skills of group education
- Able to use skills of history taking and physical assessment to direct patient care
- Ability to interpret and analyse data and findings
Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service.We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis.
Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now."