Welcome from our Chief Executive

Our organisation is expanding and we're looking for people with the right values, skills and/or potential to join us. We need people with energy, expertise, enthusiasm to help us provide the very best possible specialist NHS mental health and learning disability care. This involves helping us achieve our strategy to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through People, Prevention and Partnerships.

So what can we offer you in return?

We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.

You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.

If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.

Job overview

Are you a passionate, motivated and innovative mental health nurse? Do you want to work in a vibrant and exciting environment within acute mental health inpatient services? If you answered yes to any these questions, then Maple Ward are looking for people like you to join us on the journey to providing outstanding care and support to service users, carers and their families in West Sussex.

We have opportunities for Staff Nurses, both newly qualified, and for those with experience who are looking to further their professional development, and are looking for a new challenge.

Meadowfield is an acute mental health hospital in Worthing, we are part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

We are an open unit, and our open doors are something that we are very proud of and this brings a very different feel to the unit than those that are not able to use this approach.

And we would like you to be a part of our team during these exciting times.

To protect the health and safety of our staff/workers, patients, and those attending our sites, we encourage our workforce to get fully vaccinated against COVID

We are pleased to have welcomed a dedicated Practice Nurse Educator to Meadowfield whose role is to support newly qualified staff in their development throughout the first year of qualification. They are working on a comprehensive induction programme for new band 5 staff and will be offering ad-hoc training to improve your confidence.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for experienced and newly qualified mental health nurses who are motivated, dynamic and forward thinking to work at Meadowfield. You will have a commitment to maintaining and improving service user centered care to the highest standards. Working as part of the multi-disciplinary team you will be able to demonstrate sound communication and clinical skills and be willing to develop these.

All your skills and training will be fully utilised and developed through clinical supervision and training opportunities including a preceptorship academy for newly qualified nurses and modules offered by the University of Surrey and University of Brighton as well as Trust essential training and an Emerging Leadership Course.

This post offers The Trust's Golden Hello for band 5 or 6 Nurses, or a Relocation package up to a maximum of £2000. (subject to terms and conditions. Please see attached Protocol document).

Working for our organisation

We're a large NHS Mental Health Trust in South East England. We're looking for people to help us provide high quality services for the patients, carers and local communities we serve.

We would like to create an environment where service users, nurses, nurse associates, nursing assistants and carers are all leaders and actively involved in making decisions about our services.

We'd love you to join our organisation that is rated 'good' overall and 'outstanding' for caring by the Care Quality Commission. Our staff agree, with 82% of people in our recent staff survey telling us that they recognise that care for patients is our top priority.

Other key staff survey results include:

• 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
• 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team
• 77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles

We encourage flexible working. We know that a positive work/ life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working, for example, home-working, part time hours, flexible start/ finish times or anything else. If it works for you and works for the role, we'll do our best to make it happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Maple Ward is an exciting, vibrant environment to work within, and also has our health based place of safety (136 suite) attached to it.

In your role we would want you to:

• To deliver a high standard of evidence based inpatient nursing care in the designated care group in partnership with the team, the service users and where appropriate their family.
• To act as a primary nurse in the assessment of needs and organising of care.
• To co-ordinate shifts and provide supervision for support workers and students.
• To work within a team of nurses and other professionals who are committed to the delivery of a quality service.
• To adopt a flexible approach to hours of duty, in order to meet the needs of the service over a 24-hour period.
• To take charge of a designated clinical area and deputise as appropriate.
• To represent the Ward Manager and/or care team, at appropriate forums and disseminate information as required.
• To represent the clinical team perspective at multidisciplinary meetings and clinical reviews of patient care.
• To be an active participant in the multi-disciplinary team, formulating care plans and utilising appropriate assessments.

Person specification

Qualifications
Essential criteria

• Registered Nurse with current registration (mentalhealth / LD/ Adult) appropriate to the job role.

Desirable criteria

• Studying towards Diploma/ Degree.

Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria

• Child and Adult safe guarding procedures.

Desirable criteria

• Demonstrates ability to assess and manage clinical risk

Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.

We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers. The Trust works with adult and children's social care to ensure that the integrated service has systems in place to equip staff and bank workers with the knowledge and skills to recognize abuse, and take action to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults and children and young people. It is expected that all staff and bank workers familiarise themselves with the appropriate structures and policies and with the Sussex child protection and safeguarding procedures and the Sussex multi-agency policy and procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults and undertake the relevant essential training and further training appropriate to their role.

Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.