Lead Practice Nurse

Job overview

To Apply - email your completed surgery application form (attached to this advert) to c.pearmain@nhs.net.

Managing the nursing care of more than 18,000 patients across three sites, alongside leading a nursing team of 13, requires a strong clinical strategist, an inspiring people leader, and a highly organised, detail-focused completer-finisher. As a dynamic practice, led by four partners we view our Lead Nurse as a core member of our operational and clinical leadership team.

We are looking for a Lead Nurse who will play an active role within our leadership team, combining strategic thinking with effective operational delivery. The successful candidate will be visible, approachable and trusted, with strong communication skills, a clear sense of ownership and accountability, and the confidence to use data to inform decisions, challenge constructively and support the development of others.

The successful candidate will lead by example, maintaining a visible presence across all three sites and building strong, collaborative relationships with staff, management and GP Partners. They will uphold high clinical standards, proactively address issues, support staff through change, and identify opportunities for improvement rather than simply responding to problems as they arise.

You will work directly with our Partners and management team to design, standardise and deliver a high-standard nursing care model across our entire practice.

Job description

Role Purpose and Key Objectives

The Lead Nurse will provide strategic and operational leadership to our nursing and frailty teams, ensuring that patients receive safe, effective, evidence-based and consistently high-quality care.

Key objectives include:

• Providing visible and effective clinical nurse leadership across all three sites.
• Promote evidence-based nursing practice.
• Supporting and developing the nursing workforce.
• Ensuring high standards of clinical governance and patient safety.
• Promoting consistency of clinical practice while recognising site-specific needs.
• Leading workforce planning and professional development.
• Provide clinical mentorship, supervision and professional support.
• Identify opportunities for service improvement.
• Ensure nursing practice reflects current guidance and professional standards.
• Supporting effective use of clinical data, templates and recall systems.
• Driving quality improvement and service innovation.
• Supporting the practice to meet its regulatory and governance responsibilities.

Job responsibilities

Working in accordance with the NMC Code of Conduct, practice protocols and clinical guidelines, the post-holder will provide high-quality nursing care, including patient assessment, treatment, screening, prescribing, health education and advice. They will provide nursing care independently and in collaboration with nursing colleagues and GPs, ensuring care is delivered safely, effectively and in line with agreed practice standards.

To provide leadership to the practice nursing team, working collaboratively with the partners, practice management and wider practice staff to develop and maintain an effective, high-quality and patient-focused nursing service. To promote integrated working across the wider nursing team, including practice, PCN, and district nurses, through collaborative care, evidence-based practice and effective clinical guidelines, while monitoring key quality indicators to ensure clinical effectiveness and continuous improvement.

Ensure that all regulatory requirements are met in relation to the practice nursing team. This includes infection control and any requirements relating to CQC.

The post-holder will have the required level of training and competence and will work within patient group directions where these are available. A nurse with prescribing qualifications will practice within their competencies.

Practice nurse team leadership:

Ensure continuation of own personal and professional development, facilitated by utilisation of clinical supervision networks.

Provide focus for nursing expertise within practice, advising nursing staff, appropriate to level of competence

Identify training needs of practice nurse team and actively promote life-long learning.

Undertake annual appraisals for practice nurse team.

Share responsibility for ensuring effective internal communication and collaborative working across the practice, working closely with Operations and Practice Managers, the Clinical Pharmacist and other team leads to promote joined-up working, consistent communication and effective information sharing across all teams and sites.

Ensure care is delivered by practice nurse team members with relevant and appropriate skills.

Ensure an effective nurse appointment system, in collaboration with practice manager, including Enhanced Access allocation.

Ensure that efficient and appropriate stock control is in place.

Ensure adequate and appropriate nursing team cover is available within practice.

Review and approve annual leave requests, ensuring clinical system remains up to date of any changes.

Take a lead role in ensuring compliance with CQC requirements, relevant regulatory frameworks and infection prevention and control standards. This will include coordinating and delegating appropriate tasks to members of the nursing team, while retaining overall responsibility for oversight, monitoring and ensuring actions are completed to the required standard and within agreed timescales.

Co-ordinate and administrate monthly nursing focus meetings for practice nursing team and 1:1s as required.

Provide clinical leadership and oversight to the Frailty Team, offering appropriate clinical support, guidance and direction through the Lead Frailty HCA, who will report to the postholder.

Provide clinical leadership and oversight of immunisation programmes for care home and housebound patients, coordinating with the Frailty Team to plan and deliver annual Flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, Spring boosters, RSV and other relevant national immunisation programmes.

Assist management with nursing team recruitment, including creating and completing appropriate induction plans.

Support the facilitation of specialist clinics in relation to staffing, equipment, and operational needs.

Training

Ensure mandatory training requirements are fulfilled, including online and face-to-face training for all nursing team staff.

Actively participate in educational programmes for whole primary health care team, including medical students and GP registrar, in relation to areas of clinical and practice nursing expertise.

Act as the practices main point of contact for the University of Gloucestershireand University of the West of England in relation to student nurse, Nursing Associate, return-to-practice and top-up placements.

Coordinate placement arrangements with the universities and ARC, develop and oversee student induction plans and learning programmes, and manage students placements within the practice, including allocation to appropriate nurses, departments and learning opportunities.

Act as the main assessor for students, providing ongoing support and supervision and completing required mid-point and final assessments.

Ensure clinical supervision for practice staff undertaking training courses, facilitating their availability whilst maintaining appropriate staffing levels.

Compliance

Advance clinical nursing practice across the wider nursing team through the development, implementation and review of shared, evidence-based practice guidelines. Facilitate collaborative relationships with District Nurses, PCN Practice Nurses and other relevant nursing professionals across the local healthcare network, actively sharing knowledge, learning and best practice to promote consistency, strengthen clinical pathways and support continuous improvement in patient care.

Lead the development and monitoring of key quality markers for practice guidelines including QOF; Enhanced Services; and PCN initiatives; thereby promoting clinical effectiveness.

Plan, develop, implement and evaluate new health promotion and chronic disease management services.

Provide professional advice on practice developments, recommending changes to working practices in line with evidence-based knowledge.

PSD and VGD management.

Managerial

Awareness of, and compliance with, all relevant organisation policies and procedures, e.g. prescribing, confidentiality, data protection, health and safety and infection control. Apply these to all aspects of ones own work.

Undertake all mandatory training as determined by the practice.

Committed to life-long learning and audit to ensure evidence-based practice.

Contribute to evaluated audit and clinical standards setting within the organisation.

Communication

The post-holder must recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to communicate effectively with other team members, patients, carers and recognise peoples needs to alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.

Infection Control

Practice lead for infection control. Responsible for ensuring regular updates are attended and disseminating information to the practice team.

Undertake regular infection control audits.

Ensure policies and procedures are reviewed at least annually.

Report any concerns to the practice manager.

Management of Long-Term Conditions

Identifying significant abnormalities.

Specific area of interest diabetes, asthma, COPD

Diagnosis, monitoring and development of individual management plans; agreeing these as appropriate with the patient and other health professionals

Therapeutic monitoring

Checking compliance with and adherence to appropriate treatments using an holistic patient-centred approach

Recognising abnormalities

Identifying the impact of treatment and implementing or recommending changes as appropriate.

Wound Care

Assessing routine wounds including trauma

Assessing to support good wound management in complex situations

Patient health checks

Identifying significant abnormalities

Obtaining appropriate information using a lifestyle questioning approach and identifying appropriate health promotion issues

Working with patients to develop a management plan where health problems or potential health problems are identified

Risk assessment

Recognising issues and gathering sufficient information to refer (e.g. drugs; domestic violence; child protection; vulnerable adults; senior patients; social problems)

Health screening

Recognising issues and gathering sufficient information to refer (e.g. womens and mens health, sexual health, older people)

Undertaking monitoring tasks and providing advice as appropriate

Providing in-depth monitoring and advice as appropriate to the level of the post-holders specialty and working with the patient in deciding on management plans.

Travel health

Administering injections and providing guidance in accordance with guidelines

Identifying problems

Provision of specialist and evidence-based support to the team.

Immunisation (adult and child)

Administering appropriate immunisation autonomously

Working with patients with more complex immunisation issues.

Mental health

Communicating with key workers

Administering appropriate prescribed therapies and monitoring for side effects.

Service Development

Be involved in developing primary care services to meet the needs of the practice population.

Working in close collaboration with the practice team to ensure that access targets are reached.

Support health development and ensure health promotion work is undertaken to allow the practice population to make informed choices.

Quality

Maintain accurate and timely medical records.

Maintain and complete accurate and timely HR records including training and development, competency assessments, and other managerial forms as required.

Reflect on personal practice through SEA, NHS appraisal, patient complaints

About the organisation

Culverhay Surgery began as a single-site practice in Wotton-under-Edge. The organisation subsequently expanded to incorporate our Berkeley site in 2021 and our Frampton-on-Severn site in 2023. We now look after over 18,000 patients, and employ 86 members of staff.

Although we operate across three physical locations, we function as one integrated practice, with:

• A unified patient list whereby patients can book appointments and be seen at any site.
• A shared management and leadership structure.
• Fully integrated SystmOne.
• Staff working across sites where appropriate.
• Shared clinical policies, processes and governance arrangements.
• A strong emphasis on collaboration and resilience across the organisation.

Our three sites work closely together as one surgery in three locations. This model provides significant benefits, including greater workforce resilience, shared expertise and the ability to develop services across a larger patient population. It also creates unique leadership challenges, particularly around clinical standardisation, communication, workforce planning and recognising differences between individual sites and patient populations.

Person specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a primary care environment
• Experience of chronic disease management
• Experience of working autonomously
• Wound Care / Removal of sutures & staples
• ECGs
• Venepuncture
• Chaperone procedure
• Requesting pathology tests and processing the results, advising
• patients accordingly
• Travel medicine
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Asthma
• Spirometry
• CHD
• Immunisations (routine, childhood and travel)
• Womens health (Cervical cytology, contraception, etc.)
• Understands the importance of evidence based practice
• Broad knowledge of clinical governance
• Ability to record accurate clinical notes

Desirable

• Experience of working as a practice nurse or community nurse
• Experience of leading a nursing team in a primary care environment

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse
• Post graduate diploma or degree (Chronic Disease Management)

Desirable

• Nurse Prescriber

Clinical Skills

Essential

• Wound Care / Removal of sutures & staples
• ECGs
• Venepuncture
• Chaperone procedure
• Requesting pathology tests and processing the results, advising patients accordingly
• Travel medicine
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Asthma
• Spirometry
• CHD
• Immunisations (routine, childhood and travel)
• Womens health (Cervical cytology, contraception, etc.)
• Understands the importance of evidence based practice
• Broad knowledge of clinical governance
• Ability to record accurate clinical notes
• Ability to work within own scope of practice and understanding when to refer to GPs
• Knowledge of health promotion strategies
• Understands the requirement for PGDs and associated policy
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral)

Desirable

• Knowledge of public health issues in the local area
• Awareness of issues within the wider health arena
• SystmOne user skills
• Experience with audit and able to lead audit programmes
• Experience with clinical risk management

Supporting documents

• Full Person Specification (DOCX, 23 KB)
• Job Description (PDF, 205 KB)
• Application Pack (PDF, 312 KB)
• Application Form (DOCX, 43 KB)