The post holder will work in the Islington Rapid Response and Virtual Ward (RRVW) team which is part of the wider multi-agency Islington Urgent Care Response service which supports hospital discharges and admission avoidance.

RRVW is co-located and integrated with therapy and adult social services colleagues and aims to respond to patient referrals in the community within 2 hours to prevent admission to hospital.

The post holder will primarily be working in Islington borough but may be required to see patients in other NCL boroughs.

Key partners are Whittington Health and North Middlesex University Hospital Emergency Departments, assessment units, acute wards, community nurses, LAS and GP’s within the boroughs of Islington and Haringey.

Provide specialist, high quality, expert care and support for patients who are suitable for IURRT care in liaison with the multidisciplinary teams (MDT) through assessment and care planning.

Initiate agreed range of diagnostic tests.

Refer to other disciplines/professions when required.

Support patients to self-manage, monitor their condition, and make informed choices.

Act as a named clinician for designated patients within the service

Ensure that documentation is maintained to required standards and to be a competent user of and participate in the ongoing development of the Trust’s planned Electronic Patient Record

Promote the development of evidenced based practice.

Participate in clinical supervision to agreed standard.

Ensure high standards of care are given to all patients.

Advise patients on the promotion of health and the prevention of illness.

Be responsible for gaining intravenous access and administration of prescribed medication for patients requiring short-term antibiotics and for monitoring their care.

Collaborate with medical colleagues in ensuring that appropriate investigations and procedures are performed to complete the patients’ treatments and that patient, and their families are fully informed and understand the purpose for these.

Working for your organisation should read: Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Promote the service and support clinical staff to facilitate the safe, effective and appropriate transfer of patients identified as suitable for RRVW care from ED, wards and the community.

Work with and be responsible for the case management of patients identified for

Attend multidisciplinary meetings and participate in cascading information from these meetings to relevant parties.

Record data and support the collection of data for performance monitoring and reports.

Maintain a patient database to monitor patient outcomes and to audit the effectiveness of the IURRT with the aim of developing the service.

Understand the protocols and pathways for IURRT and work with the MDT.

Advise and recommend appropriate discharge options to patient, family and MDT in relation to any further care needs following discharge such as community nursing.

Provide a follow up process of contacting patients being case managed, for example following up test results.