Consultant District Nurse (DN)

CONSULTANT DISTRICT NURSE – District Nursing

The Consultant District Nurse will practice autonomously at an advanced level in the delivery of high quality, safe and effective person and family centred care. The Consultant District Nurse role will blend a significant proportion of direct, higher level clinical care with education, research, service development and evaluation activities. The Consultant District Nurse works with multidisciplinary teams across organisational and professional boundaries. The Consultant District Nurse leads and influence service policy development at a strategic level while continuing to provide a strong clinical commitment and expert advice. They drive improvements in population and public health and wellbeing outcomes across community services and the adult population and work in partnership to progress the digital agenda within District Nursing services.

Listen to the Consultant District Nurse describing their role in District Nursing by clicking on their name.

The specific core competencies and education requirements relevant for Consultant District Nurses are presented below.

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• EXPERT PRACTICE

  The Consultant Nurse/Midwife will:

  • Exercise a high degree of personal and professional autonomy in making complex clinical decisions drawing on advanced knowledge, skills and behaviours.
  • Make decisions where precedents do not exist, challenge as necessary and provide advice and support to colleagues where standard protocols do not apply within multidisciplinary teams across organisational, professional and agency boundaries.
  • Lead and influence service and policy development at strategic level while continuing to provide a strong clinical commitment and expert advice to clinical colleagues.
  • Demonstrate advanced skills for assessment, diagnosis, treatment, management and prescribing within the field of practice and make and receive referrals, where appropriate.
  • Identify and adopt innovative clinical practice models, eg. implementation and evaluation of new treatments, technologies, and therapeutic techniques.
  • Lead/collaborate in the design and conduct of quality improvement initiatives.
  • Actively participate in formalised ongoing supervision with Consultant peers eg. peer review of clinical practice at Consultant level.
  • As an expert, conduct and contribute to systematic reviews of clinical practice.
  • Provide a professional opinion on and where relevant lead clinical investigations/reviews.
  • Lead and support authentic stakeholder engagement, through co-production and co-design, to facilitate improvement in services and patient/service user experience.
• PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP AND CONSULTANCY

  The Consultant Nurse/Midwife will:

  • Demonstrate professional leadership to support and inspire colleagues to improve standards, quality and professional practice.
  • Have a significant role in Quality Improvement, providing expert input and influencing/challenging other professions, the wider organisation and across organisational boundaries to help deliver better services.
  • Provide expert advice to others within and outside of the professions of Nursing/Midwifery, acting as a resources for others and also facilitating support within and outside of the organisation.
  • Provide leadership to national/ international, as well as local, developments in their recognised area of expertise.
  • Have the ability to challenge, motivate and inspire others, including other staff groups and organisations, to deliver the highest quality of care within their area of practice and beyond.
  • Challenge organisational and professional barriers that limit or inhibit effective service delivery.
  • Process complex, sensitive or contentious information in contributing to the development of strategic planning at local and national levels.
  • Contribute to strategic planning to drive service change within and across health care organisations and across organisational boundaries and systems, where appropriate.
  • Assume leadership roles, which promote broader advancement of clinical practice, eg. membership of editorial boards, leadership of position papers and development of advanced nursing practice standards.
• EDUCATION, LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

  The Consultant Nurse/Midwife will:

  • Contribute to the education, training and development of colleagues and others especially supporting experienced colleagues to develop advanced competencies.
  • Support others in achieving their potential by acting as coaches, mentors and role models.
  • Advocate and contribute to the development of an organisational culture that supports continuous learning and development, evidence-based and person centred practice and succession planning.
  • Lead and contribute to a range of Quality Improvement, audit and evaluation strategies which inform education and learning.
  • Work with key stakeholders, including Higher Education Institutes and other education providers, to develop and promote a range of learning opportunities.
  • Self-development towards academic activity, leadership skills, service improvement methodology, leading/participating in multidisciplinary teams and peer supervision, publication and learning opportunities.
• PRACTICE AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

  The Consultant Nurse/Midwife will:

  • Provide direction for professional practice and service improvement within NI, nationally and/or internationally. Mentor colleagues and advise on personal development.
  • Promote evidence-based, person-centred practice, setting of standards monitoring, management of risk and evaluation of care and services.
  • Develop and advance professional practice to benefit patients/ clients/carers and communities by creating, monitoring and evaluating practice protocols.
  • Lead or collaborate in the application of research in practice, and develop research proposals with academic colleagues, business cases and funding applications, in addition to setting research objectives in line with the strategic direction of the organisation.
  • Develop a research culture within the area of practice, act as a role model, establishing appropriate policies, support clinical research activity and contribute to publications and dissemination of work. Liaise and collaborate as appropriate with the Lead Research Nurse/Midwife in the HSC Trust.
  • Maintain a publication record in relevant professional, peer reviewed journals and present at local, national and international conferences.
  • Contribute to evaluations of service developments, which may lead to service redesign and the introduction of new models of care that are evidence-based and person-centred.