Secondary School Nurse - South Western Victoria Region - Barwon Area (20003222)

About the Department

The Department of Education (DE) leads the delivery of education and development services to children, young people and adults both directly through government schools and indirectly through the regulation and funding of early childhood services, non-government schools and training programs.

Information about the structure of the Department, including details about each of our Ministers, key staff, regional offices, strategy and annual reports are available at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/default.aspx

Role Context

Schools and Regional Services comprises 17 Areas within four regions across the state, as well as five central Divisions. The responsibilities of Schools and Regional Services include:

• service delivery including performance, contract management, funding delivery and acquittal
• program implementation including detailed implementation planning and delivery
• local area engagement, advice, support and partnerships
• workforce capability development, professional practice leadership and delivery
• emergency management including critical incident response
• supporting strong regional partnerships with early childhood services, schools and other education
• providers to deliver high-quality services and outcomes with a 0-18 focus.

The regional model is designed to:

• connect between central government policy and the delivery of high quality services to Victorians
• drive outcomes across all stages of learning through expert advice and support
• connect with families, service providers, schools and communities
• lead, collaborate and partner at a local level to overcome social and economic challenges facing our communities, towns and cities
• deliver health, wellbeing and support services to children, young people and their families to assist them in their learning and development
• improve connectedness and transitions between important points in a child's life - such as between early childhood, kindergarten, school and tertiary education
• assist and support children and young people who are vulnerable, disengaged, and those with disabilities or challenging behaviour.

1. Specialist Expertise:
   • Competency and experience in clinical nursing assessment and ability to work as a sole health professional within schools.
   • Demonstrated expertise in adolescent public/school health, community health, health promotion or development paediatrics.
   • Demonstrated experience in effective client record management, activity recording, assessment, and care planning.
      
2. Cross Cultural Awareness:
   Communicate well with, relate to, and see issues from the perspective of people from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds.
    
3. Communication:
   Confidently conveys information in a clear and interesting way; considerate of others; able to express own views in a constructive and diplomatic way; develops reports and correspondence for clients and others using clear and readily understood language; writes in a clear, fluent, and concise manner; produce written communications that are appropriate and readily understood by the intended audience; organise information in a logical sequence.
    
4. Analytical, conceptual and information seeking skills:
   Deal with concepts and complexity comfortably, be intelligent and perceptive, use analytical and conceptual skills to reason through problems, have creative ideas and project how these can link to innovations; translate creative ideas into workplace improvements
    
5. Service excellence:
   Constantly looks for continuous improvement opportunities and ways to innovate and encourages others to do the same; makes specific changes in work methods to improve outcomes, quality and timeliness of service.

Secondary School:

The Secondary School Nursing Program is managed and led by the Department of Education (the Department) and places nurses within the wellbeing teams of selected Secondary Schools to help reduce negative health outcomes and risk taking behaviours amongst young people. The Secondary School Nurse is a member of the School Nursing team; Health, Wellbeing and Specialist Services team; area and regional teams.

The Secondary School Nurse role supports the school in addressing contemporary health and social issues facing young people with a focus on health promotion and primary prevention including health education, classroom education sessions and small group education and limited primary health care including student assessment, referral and support. The Secondary School Nurse works collaboratively with students, teachers, wellbeing staff, school leadership and school communities to build capacity and improve - health outcomes.

The incumbent is required to practice in accordance with the Department policy and procedure as well as the various Professional Codes, Guidelines and Registration Standards set by Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority.

Secondary School:

Secondary School Nurses undertake a variety of roles and responsibilities that may include (but are not limited to):

• Demonstrate competency and experience, and preferably postgraduate qualifications, in adolescent health and development, primary health care, community health, mental health, public health, education and/or health promotion.
• Function as a sole practitioner in a school setting, providing appropriate high quality preventative health care to assist young people in making healthy life style choices through individual health counselling, health education, assessment, support, and referral and health promotion activities.
• Governed by established departmental policy and procedures, develops, implements, and evaluates a planned evidence based approach to whole of school health promotion activities focussing on identified school priorities.
• Use initiative and judgement to select and apply established procedures and practices to unusual or complex nursing issues in the school environment.
• Work as part of the school community, particularly the school welfare team, to effectively promote a broad social view of health.
• Communicate with a range of people in the school environment, the family and other service providers, promoting knowledge of and facilitating collaborative links between young people, families, the school community, relevant primary health care services and relevant community based organizations.
• Maintain accurate and timely records of clinical activity for assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation purposes as required.
• Cooperate with managers in consultative processes that improve health and safety by using the relevant tools and systems, such as procedures, guidelines and policies.
• Observe safe working practices and protect own and others' health and safety

Secondary School

Essential:

• Current registration as a Division 1 Registered Nurse with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority.
• Current Victorian Working with Children Check.
• Current Victorian Drivers Licence.

Desirable:

• Relevant tertiary qualification and/or experience in the areas of child or adolescent health, health promotion, community health, mental health, sexual health, public health, primary health care, education, experience as an independent practitioner.

Applicants seeking part-time employment are encouraged to apply for any teaching service position and, if they are the successful candidate, request a reduced time fraction. Such requests will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to the operational requirements of the school.

The Department of Education is committed to the principles of equal opportunity, and diversity and inclusion for all. We value diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for roles within the Department. The Department recognises that the provision of family friendly, supportive, safe and harassment free workplaces is essential to high performance and promotes flexible work, diversity and safety across all schools and Department workplaces. It is our policy to provide reasonable adjustments for persons with a disability (see Workplace adjustment guidelines).

Additional support and advice on the recruitment process is available to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders from the Koorie Outcomes Division (KOD) via *******@education.vic.gov.au

Victorian government schools are child safe environments. Our schools actively promote the safety and wellbeing of all students, and all school staff are committed to protecting students from abuse or harm in the school environment, in accordance with their legal obligations including child safe standards. All schools have a Child Safety Code of Conduct consistent with the department's exemplar available at:

 https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/child-safe-standards/policy

The department's employees commit to upholding the department's Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. The department's Values complement each school's own values and underpin the behaviours the community expects of Victorian public sector employees, including those who work in Victorian Government Schools. Information on the department values is available at:

 https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/values-department-vps-school-employees/overview

• Appointment of the successful applicant will be made subject to satisfactory pre-employment conditions check.
• A probationary period may apply during the six months of employment and induction and support programs provided.
• The successful candidate must have a current Victorian Motor Vehicle driver's licence and use of private vehicle may be required depending on availability of fleet vehicles to undertake travel within the region.

• All staff employed by the Department and schools have access to a broad range of employment conditions and working arrangements.
• Appointment of successful applicants will be made subject to a satisfactory pre-employment conditions check.
• A probationary period may apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided.
• Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the Department's Human Resources website at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/Pages/default.aspx