Hospice Malta

The Malta Hospice Movement was founded on 4th January 1989 when the Founding Members, who assumed the role of the first Council of Management, formally signed the Statute which governed the Movement. The Founding Members drew their inspiration from the work of Dame Cicely Saunders who opened St Christopher’s Hospice in 1967 and the Movement continues to model itself on her ideals. Dame Cicely’s extraordinary contribution to alleviating human suffering has resulted in world wide recognition and the mushrooming of palliative care services across the globe. Hospice Malta’s primary role was to provide and promote palliative care for persons suffering from end-of-life cancer and motor neuron disease. Throughout the years, as the awareness and the need for palliative care increased, Hospice Malta included other conditions within its mission statement so that presently, community-based services are also offered to patients suffering from end-of-life cardiac, respiratory, renal, liver diseases and most recently, Creutzfeldt Jacob disease and Multiple sclerosis. The possibility of including other end-of-life diseases is also being constantly reviewed. Hospice Malta, a registered NGO with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organizations (VO/0062), offers all of its services free of charge to patients in Malta and Gozo. The raison d’etre of Hospice Malta is guided by the philosophy and principles of palliative care as expounded by the WHO. Hospice Malta offers its services through a professional multidisciplinary team along with the assistance of a number of volunteers. The patient-centered palliative care offered, targets the relief of pain and other physical symptoms, as well as emotional, psycho-social, and spiritual issues. Bereavement support is also an integral part of the services provided. Additionally, education, advice and promotion of palliative care remain at the core of Hospice Malta’s services. Hospice’s education unit provides educational sessions at both underg

About

Infection Control Nurse

At Hospice Malta we are dedicated to provide the best possible quality of life to patients and their families when active treatment is no longer an option. We are seeking a dedicated individual to join our team within our Clinical Department.

The principles we embrace are:

Readiness to help.
Eager to learn and share.
Act with compassion.
Committed team player.
Holds high professional standards.

If you identify with these principles and aspire to be part of our team that delivers personalized care through dedicated professionals and responds effectively to the community’s palliative needs, then this opportunity may be the right fit for you.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Standard precautions are basic infection prevention and control strategies that apply to everyone, regardless of their perceived or confirmed infectious status. Strategies include hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, cleaning, and appropriate handling and disposal of sharps.

Areas to be targeted by the Infection control person:

New Staff Training
Vaccines required by certain staff members
Ongoing training to staff
Policies and procedures
Lead during infection control issues

The infection control person is responsible for the Hospice In patient/Community /Day therapy and clinics infection prevention and control program, which is designed to provide a safe, sanitary, and comfortable environment and to help prevent the development and transmission of communicable diseases and infections.

Be the focal person to lead when there is any infection control incident, infection outbreak or during endemic or pandemic situations. The infection control person is also responsible to follow up on any possible contamination incidents including needle stick injuries, and contamination with blood and/or other body fluids.
Facilitates the operation of the hospital Infection Prevention/Control Program and supports continuous quality improvement
Supports the Hospice medical staff, departments and teams through guidance, training, technical support
Support any committee working on new service to ensure infection control is included and targeted when necessary.
Develop /Review policies and procedures that support key infection prevention and control functions
Consults with managers in clinical and non-clinical areas.
Identifies, investigates and reports, health care associated infections among patients and personnel
Ongoing surveillance including spot check visits to all Hospice areas and Calculates infection rates, report findings and recommendations to Management
Maintains logs with infection surveillance data as well as be responsible for all logs necessary in any infection control related incident.
Responsible for providing Infection Prevention orientation and other in-service programs related to infection prevention and control
Collaborates with Management and HR and provide direction regarding employee health issues such as exposures, vaccines or vaccines preventable diseases, communicable diseases and other infection prevention/control related issues involving Hospice employees.
Makes recommendations regarding real or potential problems/improvement opportunities, including desirable approaches toward resolving them.
Collaborates and reports to regulatory organizations including Mater Dei/Public Health regarding communicable diseases