APS Nurse Specialist Grant

UPDATE: We are delighted to announce that Leeds NHS Teaching Hospitals Trust is the winner of our APS Clinical Nurse Specialist grant award and we look forward to working with them over the next two years!

Grant funding of up to £70,000 is available to NHS organisations to support the recruitment of an APS Clinical Specialist Nurse through the charity APS Support UK.

We believe this is the first time an APS nurse specialist role has been funded in the UK and, similar to Lupus or Parkinson’s Nurses, APS Support UK hopes this new position can play a vital role in providing extraordinary care and support to people with APS and their families.
 

What are the essential elements of this role?

1. Nurse-led Clinics

This should be on a regular basis (preferably as a dedicated APS clinic) where patients are enabled access to and opportunities for diagnosis, education, drug management, advice, support and counselling. This can be centred in an obstetrics or haematology department but there should be pathways in place that allow other patients from other services to access support.

2. Links with APS Support UK

The successful applicant will be responsible for the management and training of the nurse specialist. However, the post holder and service manager should attend a call with APS Support UK each month to share updates on how the service is developing and share any challenges/successes. APS Support UK may also arrange site visits to monitor progress.

The post holder is expected to submit an annual report of nurse specialist activity to APS Support UK throughout the duration of the APS Support UK grant. This should include information on work completed, patient numbers reached, future plans for service development and any available patient feedback.

3. Continued Funding

Applicants are expected to have a clear plan for how they will secure funding to continue this role once this grant ends.

4. APS Training

The successful applicant will ensure their APS Nurse Specialist completes either the GP or Midwife focused APS online training module within their first month (taking approximately 20-30 minutes).
 

What are the desirable elements of the APS Nurse Specialist Role?

Though the post can be held in a single hospital, applications will be strengthened by demonstrating how patients across a wider area will be helped (eg. outreach clinics, links with primary care, telephone clinics).

Ideally, the nurse specialist should develop web-based materials that could be accessed by patients nationwide.

Preferably, the nurse specialist should already have some prior experience of working with patients with APS, although this is not essential.
 

What will the funding cover?

This funding will cover the salary, national insurance and pension costs for the APS Nurse Clinical Specialist role, based on the Agenda for Change salary bands. This funding cannot be used for maternity or paternity care. Applicants should budget for any required pay increases when developing their application. Applicants can outline in their application the expected hours and duration of the role.

It is not expected that additional funding will be provided once this grant ends. Applicants should consider how additional funding can be secured to retain this post and will be asked to share their plans during the application process.
 

How many posts will be funded?

We expect to fund one APS Nurse Specialist FTE in this funding round. This may be centred within one Trust or be split across different applicants (i.e. 2 x 0.5 FTE Nurses).