Mental Health Nurse

To provide quality evidence-based nursing advice, support and care for service users with mental health needs and their carers within a multidisciplinary setting.

Principle Responsibilities

• The facilitation, promotion and supervision of education, clinical practices and audit.
• Take the lead for clinical workstreams such as infection prevention and control.
• Oversee the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of nursing care within agreed parameters, and have a working knowledge of local and national policies and legislation which govern service provision.
• Identifying and contributing to others’ training needs.
• Ensuring the promotion of equality, diversity, and rights in accordance with good practice and legislation.
• Ensuring effective communication pathways exist.

Clinical

• The assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of the evidence-based care required, including health promotion for a named service user/group.
• Setting quality standards, including monitoring and reviewing in line with current clinical guidance practice and policy.
• Understanding and meeting their professional role and responsibilities under the Care Programme Approach and all other relevant legislation.
• Ensuring the Mental Health Act 1983 requirements are observed, adhered to and implemented.
• Promoting carer and service user involvement within the service and its provision.
• Establishing therapeutic relationships with service users and implementing evidence-based therapeutic interventions with appropriate boundaries per the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code.

Professional

• Participation in the Options for Care appraisal process, identifying own/others’ mandatory professional, personal development and training needs.
• The safe custody and administration of medicines.
• To participate and contribute appropriately to research, service modernisation and clinical governance.
• To respect and value the different therapeutic approaches within the multi-disciplinary team but ensure that the agreed philosophy approach is adopted and followed.
• Ensuring confidentiality is maintained at all times in accordance with the data protection act, trust policy and good practice.
• Maintaining and conducting oneself professionally towards service users, carers, colleagues and other agencies.
• Participate in joint working with appropriate experts/agencies.

Educational

• Providing formal and informal training for pre-post-registration students, staff members, carers and service users.
• The provision of staff induction, mentorship, appraisal and clinical supervision to professional colleagues as appropriate.

Organisational

• Ensuring they contribute and work towards the service/organisational aims and objectives.
• To understand their responsibility for respecting and promoting issues of equality, diversity and rights in accordance with good practice and legislation.
• Reading, understanding and complying with all relevant policies and procedures.

Communication

• Ensuring accurate and timely written records that comply with organisational policy and NMC guidance, reporting on any issues as appropriate.
• Ensuring they comply with current good practice in informing/updating all multi-disciplinary team members, their colleagues, service users and appropriate others of changes involving current nursing care plans, progress, mental state and psychosocial factors in line with best practice.
• Ensuring that they communicate with clients and carers and actively listen to establish an understanding of the needs of the service user and their carers.
• The effective utilisation of nursing/financial resources to ensure adequate clinical care is provided with a requirement that all incidents, which may compromise care, are reported immediately to the registered manager.

Additional Responsibilities

• Attend statutory and mandatory training as necessary as specified by Options for Care Ltd.
• Carry out other duties the senior team identifies commensurate with their role as and when required.
• Attend meetings as necessary.