HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE
Job Specification SOP R4
Job Title and Grade
Discharge Co-ordinator – Clinical Nurse Manager 2
Location of Post
Connolly Hospital
Competition Reference
CH96/15
Closing Date
12 Noon on Friday 25th September 2015
Interview Date
Early October
Organisational Area
Dublin North East
Reporting
Relationship
Reports to Director of Nursing.
Operationally reports to Head of Bed Manager, Patient Flow or nominated deputy
Purpose of the Post
To effect safe and timely patient flow and discharge of all patients from acute/nonacute care and to ensure seamless transition into community living.
Details of Service
Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown is located in West Dublin with a catchment
population of 331,000 (Census 2011).It serves an urban and rural catchment
which includes Finglas West, Lucan, Dublin 15, North Kildare and South County
Meath. It is a level 3 academic teaching hospital providing a range of medical and
surgical services, residential care, day care, outpatient, diagnostic, clinical
therapies and support services. Emergency services are provided on a 365-day,
24 hours basis.
The hospital is an Academic teaching Hospital affiliated to the Royal College of
Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).Connolly Hospital is the site for the National Children’s
Hospital Satellite service.
Principal Duties and
Responsibilities
Clinical Management Skills:
 To work primarily as Discharge Coordinator and internally rotate to cover
annual and/or unplanned leave in the Bed Management department as
required.
 To liaise with the Operational Patient Flow Manager’s, CNM’s, Senior
Nurses, Clinicians, Director of Nursing, Multidisciplinary and Senior
Hospital Management teams as appropriate to identify and help resolve
barriers to discharge and where appropriate to adjust anticipated
discharge date.
 To liaise closely with Patient Flow Manager’s, CNM’s and/or Senior
Nursing Staff on discharges and pending discharges on an ongoing basis
to facilitate an effective admission and/or transfer of patient.
 Work in partnership with patients, their relatives and carers to develop
optimum plans for discharge providing resource information to assist with
informed decision-making.
 Liaise with, Community Care facilities, Nursing Homes and Liaison
Nurse’s to facilitate the placement of patients.
 Ensure that adequate and appropriate communication systems are in
place on a multidisciplinary level facilitating effective and efficient
discharge of each patient including the management of long term patients.
 Ensure processes are in place to effectively manage with members of the
multidisciplinary team the long term patients awaiting discharge.
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To liaise with the relevant members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure
best possible planning and co-ordination access to diagnostic
investigations.
To participate in meetings and working groups on issues surrounding bed
utilisation and discharge planning, representing the hospital, if required
Administration:
 Ensure appropriate discharge documentation has been generated for the
management of long term patients awaiting discharge.
 Review and update documentation relating to discharge planning to
improve quality, accuracy and timeliness of documentation information.
 To support the Fair Deal Coordinator with documentation relating to
managing the discharge planning processes for long term patients.
 To input delayed discharge data to the BIU (Business Intelligence Unit)
when the Fair Deal Coordinator is on annual and/or unplanned leave.
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Participate in the development of appropriate Admission and Discharge
policies.
Training and Education:
 To play an active role in education of all staff Medical, Nursing , Allied
Health Professionals, Management and Clerical Staff in relation to
discharge planning, discharge and transfer hospital policies.
 Provide training and education for clinical staff on the admission and
discharge policy, practice and procedure, to improve the quality of the
patient’s experience of hospital discharge, to improve patient outcomes
and reduce delays in transfer of their care.
 Initiate and participate in research and education relating to discharge.
Governance, Quality, Patient Safety and Risk Management:
 To liaise with CNM’s to ensure that they have an active discharge
planning process in place to facilitate the safe and timely discharge of all
patients when deemed medically fit.
 Support CNM’s and other members of the multidisciplinary team with
identifying predicted date of discharge (PDD) and LoS (Length of Stay) for
patients to facilitate effective discharge planning.
 To be informed on data relating to HIPE, Bed Utilisation and Capacity.
Audit and Quality Improvement:

Collate and analyse contributory factors and/or causes of delay in the
patient’s planned discharge process and to report these to the interested
parties to implement quality improvement initiatives.

Audit effectiveness of planned discharges.

Report on Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), including performance
indicators, such as lengths of stay and bed occupancy and action same.
General:
 To undertake other relevant duties as may be determined from time to
time by the Chief Executive Officer, Director of Nursing, Nursing
Administration or other designated officer.
 To internally rotate covering annual and/or unplanned leave for the Patient
Flow Coordinator and/or Patient Flow Manager as required.
 To engage with Out-Patient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) and
Community Intervention Team (CIT) when the Patient Flow Coordinator is
not available.
 To play an active role in the waiting list initiative within the hospital.
The above Job Specification is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all
duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to
perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to
him/her from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post
while in office.
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Eligibility Criteria
Qualifications and/or
Experience
Candidates must, at the latest date for receipt of completed applications for
the post:

Be registered in the General Division of the Register of Nurses kept Bord
Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann (Nursing Midwifery Board
Ireland) or be entitled to be so registered AND
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Have at least 5 years post registration experience of which 2 must be in
the speciality or related area. AND
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Have the clinical and administrative capacity to properly discharge the
functions of the role. AND
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Demonstrate evidence of continuing professional development at the
appropriate level.
Please note that appointment to and continuation in posts that require statutory
registration is dependent upon the post holder maintaining annual registration in
the relevant division of the register maintained by Bord Altranais agus
Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann (Nursing Midwifery Board Ireland)
Health:
A candidate for, and any person holding the office must be fully competent and
capable of undertaking the duties attached to the office and be in a state of health
such as would indicate a reasonable prospect of ability to render regular and
efficient service.
Character:
Each candidate for, and any person holding the office must be of good character.
Age:
No age restriction shall apply to a candidate except where s/he is not classified as
a new entrant (within the meaning of the Public Service Superannuation
(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2004). In this case the candidate must be under
65 years of age on the first day of the month in which the latest date for receiving
completed application forms for the office occurs.
Applicants who do not meet in full the eligibility criteria set out above on the
closing date will be deemed ineligible and their application will not be
processed for this competition.
Post specific
requirements,
additional
qualifications and/or
experience.
Skills, competencies
and/or knowledge

A management qualification is desirable.

Have experience in discharge planning with acute and long term patients.

Have computer skills
Demonstrate the following:
 Demonstrate flexibility regarding role and responsibilities
 The ability to manage complex discharges safely.
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The ability to manage conflict with families and/or with members of the
multidisciplinary team effectively.

Strong influencing and communication skills.
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The ability to build effective teams that deliver high standards,
collaborative working and integrated solutions to complex and challenging
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problems.
Demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and openness to work effectively in a
constantly changing environment and internally rotate between roles in a
department covering annual and/or unplanned leave as required.
The ability to lead change and achieve results.
The ability to evaluate complex information from a variety of sources, and
disseminate appropriately.
Highly developed oral, written, presentation and leadership skills.
A patient and service user centred approach to provision of acute health
services.
Planning and Organisation Competency Skills to:
 Allocate and co-ordinate resources to achieve goals.
 Prioritise and meet demands under pressure and in emergencies.
 Keep records for operational activities.
 Plan meetings, case conferences or other events.
 Procure and evaluate material resources to support early discharge
planning initiatives.
 Track expenditure and work within budget constraints.
 Review and manage how productively resources are being used to meet
service needs to ensure effective discharge planning with acute and long
term patients.
 Maintain up to date records of activities associated with Discharge Coordinating services.
 Participate in the management and auditing of events including adverse
events pertaining to Discharge Management services.
Building and Leading skills:
 Lead and support the management of interdisciplinary care for service
users.
 Empower staff through team meetings, coaching, education and
promotion of staff initiatives to support discharge planning.
 Ability to work independently and a part of a team.
 Leadership and delegation skills.
 Excellent interpersonal skills.
 Motivation skills and ability to work on own initiative and be decisive.
 Communication skills.
 Negotiation skills.
 Assertiveness skills.
 Capable of Interdisciplinary networking to ensure high quality effective
systems for discharge planning.
Professional and Job related knowledge and experience:

Competence knowledge of patient systems and processes including
clinical risk, safety and infection control.
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Detailed knowledge and understanding of National Health Care Policy.

Demonstrate an awareness of quality performance measurement, KPIs
and quality improvement.
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Continuous professional development.
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HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE
Terms and Conditions of Employment
Discharge Co-ordinator – Clinical Nurse manager 2Connolly Hospital
Terms and Conditions of Employment
The appointment is whole-time, permanent and pensionable.
Tenure
Appointment as an employee of the Health Service Executive is
governed by the Health Act 2004 and the Public Service
Management (Recruitment and Appointment) Act 2004.
Remuneration
The Salary scale for the post is: €47,089 - €55,852
Rate @ 1/11/13
Working Week
The standard working week applying to the post is: 39 hours.
HSE Circular 003-2009 “Matching Working Patterns to Service
Needs (Extended Working Day / Week Arrangements);
Framework for Implementation of Clause 30.4 of Towards 2016”
applies. Under the terms of this circular, all new entrants and staff
appointed to promotional posts from Dec 16th 2008 will be
required to work agreed roster / on call arrangements as advised
by their line manager. Contracted hours of work are liable to
change between the hours of 8am-6pm over seven days to meet
the requirements for extended day services in accordance with the
terms of the Framework Agreement (Implementation of Clause
30.4 of Towards 2016).
Annual Leave
The annual leave associated with the post is as per years of
service and will be confirmed at job offer stage.
Superannuation
Membership of the HSE Employee Superannuation Scheme
applies to this appointment.
Existing Members who transferred to the HSE on 1st January 2005
pursuant to Section 60 of the Health Act 2004 are entitled to
superannuation benefit terms under the HSE Scheme which are no
less favourable to those to which they were entitled at 31st
December 2004.
Appointees to posts in the Mental Health Services which formerly
attracted fast accrual of service should note that the terms of
Section 65 of the Mental Treatment Act 1945 do not apply to New
Entrant Public Servants as defined by Section 12 of the Public
Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004.
Probation
Every permanent appointment of a person who is not already a
permanent officer of the Health Service Executive or of a Local
Authority shall be subject to a probationary period of 12 months as
stipulated in the Department of Health Circular No.10/71.
Training
The HSE is committed to education and life long learning which
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enables staff to improve their performance and professional
competence. In this regard the HSE encourages and supports
staff to seek opportunities for their own development. In addition
the HSE provides education and training opportunities for staff on
a regional basis. The HSE’s Education/Training Guidelines sets
out the range of support available for staff undertaking further
education.
Confidentiality
Please note the
following General
Conditions:
In the course of your employment you may have access to, or
hear information concerning, the medical or personal affairs of
patients and/or staff, or other health service business. Such
records and information are strictly confidential and, unless acting
on the instructions of an authorised officer, on no account must
information concerning staff, patients or other health service
business be divulged or discussed except in the performance of
normal duty. In addition, records must never be left in such a
manner that unauthorised persons can obtain access to them and
must be left in safe custody when no longer required.
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Employee must attend fire lectures and drills periodically
and must observe fire orders.
All accidents within the department must be reported
immediately in line with the Safety, Health and Welfare at
Work Act, 1989, and all staff must comply with all safety
regulations.
In line with the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts 2002 &
2004, smoking within buildings of the Health Service
Executive is not permitted.
The Health Service Executive is not responsible for the
loss or theft of personal belongings.
Protection of Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act 1998
As this post is one of those designated under the Protection of Persons Reporting Child
Abuse Act 1998, appointment to this post appoints one as a designated officer in accordance
with Section 2 of the Act. The post holder will remain a designated officer for the duration of
the appointment to the current post or for the duration of his/her appointment to such other
post as is included in the categories specified in the Ministerial Direction. The post holder will
receive full information on his/her responsibilities under the Act on appointment.
The reform programme outlined for the Health Services may impact on this role and as
structures change the job description may be reviewed.
This job description is a guide to the general range of duties assigned to the post
holder. It is intended to be neither definitive nor restrictive and is subject to periodic
review with the employee concerned.
The Health Service Executive is committed to a policy of equal opportunity, and
welcomes applications from persons with disabilities.
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