Infection Prevention & Control Practitioner

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£2.1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

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Job overview

The Infection Prevention and Control team provides specialist infection prevention and control advice and support to all clinical and non-clinical services across King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The Infection Prevention and Control practitioner is a key member of the team. The post holder will contribute to the seamless infection prevention and control service working as part of the multidisciplinary team providing specialist support and advice across the organisation to staff, patients and visitors.

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Provision of infection prevention and control (IPC) training and education.

Participate and lead on IPC-related audits.

Assess patients, plan, implement care and maintain associated records.

Assist in the development of policies and guidelines, relevant research, audits and projects to develop and maintain an effective infection prevention and control service.

The post holder will actively undertake and be supported by more experienced nurses to enable them to achieve competence in infection prevention and control, as per the IPS IPC Competencies.

Whilst undertaking the role, the post holder will achieve skills and competence in agreed areas of specialist IPC practice, through exposure, training and education to agreed levels to enable autonomous practice.

To be an effective role model that inspires and motivates others, empowering them to ensure all Trust infection control policies and procedures are implemented.

To have the authority through specialist knowledge to advise patients, their carers and the hospital staff on standard infection control precautions (SIPC’s) and Transmission based precautions (TBP’s), supporting, facilitating and implanting the philosophy of the Infection Control Programme.

Working for our organisation

The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. In June 2026, we launched our new strategy for . Our vision is to transform healthcare, and we have agreed six strategic ambitions to help us improve care for patients, and the working lives of our staff.

Our six strategic ambitions are deliveringhigh-quality patient care ; creating a great place to work ; leading pioneering research, innovation and education ; building strong and successful partnerships ; providing timely and efficient care ; and ensuring long-term financial sustainability .

We have also agreed four new organisational values – Caring, Collaborative, Inclusive, Innovative – and these underpin everything we do, and how our teams interact with the patients under our care.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Working Relationships

• Infection Prevention & Control Clinical Nurse Specialists
• Matron IPC
• Head of Nursing IPC
• DIPC
• Clinical teams
• Consultant Microbiologists
• Surveillance Team
• CEF

The post holder will participate in the infection control ALERT surveillance programme, using EPIC Bugsy, under the guidance of the Infection Control Team.

The post holder will be allocated a division providing IPC advice in relation to audit and prevention of infections.

The post holder will contribute to the review, development and implementation of IPC policies and audit timetables.

Support and conduct SSIS of the surgical specialities as designated under the SSIS lead (both orthopaedic mandatory and voluntary categories)

Will provide advise on decontamination processes under the direction of the Decontamination Trust advisor.

Assist & support IPC validation audits & research including MEG and other cleaning (and efficacy) PLACE audits as required.

Understands the financial implication of infection control advice or recommendations.

Ensure infection control practice is evidence based.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Patient Care

• Act as a credible role model to all clinical and support staff to support the effective provision of Infection Prevention and Control practices across the Trust.
• Assess, plan and communicate actions required by clinical staff for safe infection control patient care.
• Assess, plan and implement clinical care in line with own competence and confidence, supporting patients as required.
• Work with clinical staff across the organisation supporting practice and providing specialist advice to ensure high standards of infection prevention and control practice are embedded.
• Advises on all types of isolation techniques and their introduction and practice.
• Assists in the investigations of outbreaks of infection with particular reference to their source and mode of spread.
• Assists in the collection of relevant clinical data for use by the Infection Control Team, including surveillance team.
• Provide clinical support during outbreaks of infection or contamination events, with the support of the IPC Team. In some circumstances duties may be required outside of normal working hours to effectively manage these.

• Demonstrate an awareness of the complex needs of different client groups when imparting or receiving sensitive, complex or contentious information within a hostile or highly emotive atmosphere.
• Able to cope with staff, patients and carers in distressing or emotional circumstances.
• Due to the nature of the job, needs to be flexible, coping with frequent unpredictable changes within daily workload, for example attending Root Cause Analysis and investigating Health care Associated Investigations

Organisation and Planning :

• Be an active member of the Infection Control Team and relevant Infection Control Committees.
• Maintains and updates records, documenting infection prevention and control advice relating to patient care in accordance with NMC and Kings guidelines whether written or computerised.
• Demonstrates an ability to plan work in accordance with the needs of the service, whilst recognising the need and implementing multi-disciplinary involvement when appropriate

• Work in partnership with Divisions to support a high standard of Infection Prevention and Control clinical practice.
• Act as the key point of contact for designated Division(s) providing specialist advice and support as appropriate.
• Participate in the planning, organisation and delivery of the IPC Education Strategy for all healthcare staff and support staff as well as patients and carers as appropriate.
• Support the Infection Prevention and Control Link Practitioner network.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of local bespoke training and any other teaching, training or education.
• Ensure effective training records are maintained according to Trust agreed processes.

Education Training and Development

• Understand and explain to others standard and transmission-based precautions.

• Works in collaboration with staff to implement infection control best practice.
• Responsible for the delivery of the formal and informal specialist infection prevention and control education of all disciplines of staff on a range of subjects
• Assist in the evaluation and introduction of new methods and practices in relation to the prevention and control of infection.
• Contribute to the education and support of the infection control key worker professional network.
• Participates in the mentoring and supervision of learners allocated to the IPC service.
• Contribute to planning and delivery of IPC sessions and study days.
• Keep up to date with all their statutory, mandatory training together with any professional training requirements, ensuring they are up to date and fully compliant.

Service Development and Research :

• Participate in the development, implementation and ongoing review of Infection Prevention and Control related patient and staff information leaflets, policies, procedures and guidelines setting the required standards.
• Support the programme of audit and surveillance of healthcare associated infections and Surgical site infections, using recognised methods of data collection and analysis.
• Contributes to the development of the infection prevention and control service.
• Contribute to the Infection Prevention and Control Team objectives, annual programme of work and the Infection Prevention and Control annual report.
• Maintain an awareness and understanding of relevant, up-to-date Infection Prevention and Control research studies.
• Critically analyse and evaluate research findings, apply these to clinical practice and use them to inform/maintain updated polices, practice and guidance, sharing knowledge.
• Participate in research studies and national initiatives.
• Act as change agent and support others in the implementation of new practices.
• Participate in team building days/activities as part of the Team.

People Management and Performance

• As required, provides assurance to the Trust regarding levels of compliance with Infection Prevention and Control practice.
• Organises own daily workload, managing time effectively.
• Effective team working and communication across the infection prevention and control service.
• Provides day to day support and clinical supervision of junior staff, students and visitors to the department.
• Contribute to the patient safety and Clinical Governance agenda, specifically supporting and facilitating root cause analysis investigations and Post Infection Reviews (PIRs) following Hospital Acquired infections/outbreaks.
• Review and record all hospital acquired infections to ensure the correct management, respond to any lapses of care that may have contributed to the infection, develop action plans with clinical areas and ensure they have the resources to complete actions within an adequate time frame.
• Support new members of the Infection Prevention and Control Team.
• Facilitate educational placements and visits by link practitioners and student nurses/Allied Health Professionals/Doctors or others, as appropriate, to allow insight into the role of the Infection Prevention and Control nurse specialist.
• Mentor student nurses and other learners on placement with the infection prevention and control team

Information systems and data management

• To become conversant with data analysis and IT support as part of their day-to-day job
• Be confident in suing EPIC Bugsy and other data systems including MS Office, excel, PowerPoint etc Ensuring that IPC Bugsy patient data is identified, acted on and competent to complete MRSA letters and flags, relevant information as requested.
• Be familiar with and develop expertise at flagging, reporting, writing IPC advice under the direction of the senior IPC nurses.
• To help understand and report IPC data as required as part of development and needs of the IPC service.
• Learn how to use EPIC Bugsy reports for the identification and communication of infections as per daily reports.
• Learn how to run infection reports, attribute infections correctly under the supervision of the senior team and surveillance i.e., COHA, HOHA attribution.

Finance and Resources:

The safe use of equipment/maintenance of supplies or stock for the infection prevention and control service.

This job description is intended as a guide to the general scope of duties and is not intended to be definitive or restrictive. It is expected that some of the duties will change over time, and this description will be subject to review in consultation with the post holder.

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King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Annual Reports and Other Corporate Publications

King's Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre Website

King's College Hospital is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

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