Clinical Specialist

Unit Summary

McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) is part of the Hamilton Health Sciences’ family of hospitals and provides care to children aged 0-18 years and serves a population of 2.3 million in Southern Ontario and beyond. Quality of Life and Advanced Care (QoLA Care) offers specialist pediatric palliative care consultation services across the region and is a part of the Child and Youth Acute Care Program at McMaster Children’s Hospital. It is also affiliated with the Department of Pediatrics and the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Family Medicine, at McMaster University.

Position Summary

Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC) is “an active and total approach to care provided to children with life-threatening conditions and their families from the time of recognition or diagnosis of disease, throughout the illness, at the time of death and beyond. It is typically provided by an interprofessional team with consideration given to biopsychosocial-spiritual elements to meet desired outcomes. Care is focused on comfort rather than cure, although both approaches may exist simultaneously. PPC includes management of symptoms, provision of respite, co-ordination of services, delivery of end-of-life care, and provision of bereavement support” (Spicer 2015).

Children and families facing serious and potentially life-limiting medical conditions face a multitude of challenges to their quality of life. As the specialist PPC service, QoLA Care seeks to optimize the quality of life of these children and families, now and in the future, by utilizing a child and family-centered approach to care, based on shared decision-making and sensitivity to the family’s cultural and spiritual values, beliefs and practices. QoLA Care is a team comprised of pediatricians specialized in pediatric palliative care, a nurse practitioner, a child life specialist, and clinical specialists.

The Clinical Specialist will collaborate with patients, families, and interprofessional primary and specialist care teams. The Clinical Specialist will optimize linkages and pathways in both clinical and supportive care for children and their families who would benefit from a palliative approach to care. Care is provided in tertiary care facilities, community health centres, and in the home. The model integrates existing areas of service expertise and excellence, caring for the mind, body and spirit, as it provides a continuum of care from diagnosis of a life-threatening illness through bereavement. The Clinical Specialist reports to the Director, Child and Youth Acute Care, and the manager of the program.

Schedule Work Hours

Monday to Friday, Days, 37.5 hours / week

This position is temporary until October 2026

Qualifications

Qualifications

1. Performs formal, standardized holistic clinical quality of life assessments and interventions for children and their families, often in collaboration with a physician-partner; the focus of which may include coordination of care, pain and symptom management, goals of care planning, end-of-life care, and bereavement support.

2. Provides person-centered care; ensuring shared care team is aware of need for and meaning of a person-centered approach.

3. Advocates for clients and families with navigating the system and intervenes within scope of practice on client and family’s behalf.

4. Supports patients and families to remain in their preferred care setting.

5. Supports the development, delivery and evaluation of education provided to patients and families. This activity may occur in an outpatient, inpatient or community environment.

6. Provides leadership and influences clinical standards, quality improvement and change management, facilitating the development and implementation of care pathways.

7.Participates and provides leadership at clinical rounds.

Liaison Role

1. Supports patient and family circle of care, including primary care, specialist teams, home and community care, pharmacies, and hospital teams.

2. Collaborates to determine appropriate strategies to achieve client focused outcomes and to develop plans of care for transitioning patients across health care settings.

3. Assists in the coordination of internal and external community resources, including sharing information, scheduling visits, providing guidance / direction to community resources, ensuring team members are up-to-date on client and family care at all times.

4. Fosters a culture of sharing, openness, education and mentoring to other team members, professionals, students and volunteers.

5. Facilitates an environment and attitude where values and beliefs regarding shared care coordination are clearly articulated.

6. Works with partners in the identification and delivery of palliative care education.

Administrative

1. Documents, tracks and prioritizes care requests to ensure all clients / families receive timely response, including follow-up calls to clients / families to ensure care needs are met.

2. Completes regular and timely documentation and statistical records.

3. Manages client files, ensuring information is up-to-date at all times.

4. Notify team members and updating files when situations change including the death of a client to ensure bereavement services are in place.

5. Adheres to all statistical collection and reporting system requirements of the organization and funders.

Leadership

1. Contributes to program leadership decision-making related to program changes, priority setting, accreditation, staffing, and allocation of program resources.

2. Identifies quality improvement opportunities to staff, managers, directors, and administrators.

3. Acts as a change agent through mentoring and supporting staff (i.e., role models, guides, supports, influences, counsels, and evaluates) in the implementation of best practice / quality improvement initiatives and the provision of care to sustain practice change.

4. Uses various change, transition and communication strategies, drawn from graduate and other educational courses and experiences, to manage organizational initiatives.

5. Analyzes the short and long-term impact of change from a systems perspective.

6. Facilitates the resolution of intra- and inter-professional conflicts as well as patient / family / health professional conflicts.

7. Participates in review of adverse events and near misses including the process of root cause analysis.

Professional Development

1. Identifies and critically appraises research literature to integrate new knowledge into practice setting, patient population or situation to address practice variations and improve patient care and patient outcomes.

2. Acts as a change agent to integrate applicable research findings into clinical practice to improve patient care outcomes.

3. Supervises students (undergraduate nursing, graduate nursing, physician learners, allied health professional learners)

4. Contributes to the learning of other health care disciplines (e.g. undergraduate medical students, residents, physiotherapists, nursing, child life specialists etc.).

Qualifications / Experience

1. Current certificate of registration as a regulated health professional with the appropriate regulatory college.

2. Master’s Degree preferred.

3. Minimum of three to five (5) years recent experience in hospice palliative care or acute care pediatrics. Preference given to candidates with palliative care experience / expertise.

4. Experience in a leadership, administration, or care coordination role.

5. Solid experience in care planning and communication with multiple providers.

6. Proven history of working well within an interdisciplinary team with excellent interpersonal skills

7. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

8. Knowledge of various computer systems and detail oriented.

9. Able to handle significant daily psychological and emotional stress in dealing with patients and families experiencing chronic illness, death, and grief.

10. Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of health professional resources, community services and resources relating to the pediatric population.

11. Ability to deliver culturally safe care, recognize and celebrate diversity, navigate complex situations and advocate for children and families.

Hamilton Health Sciences fosters a culture of patient and staff safety, whereby all employees are guided by our Mission, Vision, Values, and Values Based Code of Conduct. Hamilton Health Sciences is a teaching hospital and all staff and physicians are expected to support students and other learners.

To be considered for this opportunity applicants must apply during the posting period. All internal and external applicants may ONLY apply via the Careers website. This job posting is for an existing vacancy.

Hamilton Health Sciences is an equal opportunity employer and we will accommodate any needs under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code. Hiring processes will be modified to remove barriers to accommodate those with disabilities, if requested. Should any applicant require accommodation through the application processes, please contact Human Resources at 905-521-2100, Ext. 46947 for assistance. If the applicant requires a specific accommodation because of a disability during an interview, the applicant will need to advise the hiring manager when scheduling the interview and the appropriate accommodations can be made.

This competition is open to all qualified applicants, however, qualified internal applicants will be considered first. Past performance will be considered as part of the selection process. If you are a previous employee of Hamilton Health Sciences, please note : the circumstances around an employee's exit will be considered prior to an offer of employment. Proficiency in both Official Languages, French and English, is considered an asset.