Radiotherapy Treatment Lead

Job overview

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A NEW CHALLENGE?

The successful candidate will cover maternity leave within our busy treatment delivery team, ensuring high standards of radiotherapy treatment are maintained.

The post holder will be a clinical treatment team team leader possessing demonstrable clinical expertise and will be directly responsible for the daily organisation of a busy Linear Accelerator with a varied and highly complex workload. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring highly accurate and consistent standards in the treatment delivery and the management of associated side effects of patients with a cancer diagnosis.

Additionally the post holder works closely with a multi-disciplinary team including Radiotherapy Physicists, Technicians, pre-treatment Radiographers, Oncologists and other professional groups to provide a thorough, efficient service encompassing all aspects of accurate Radiotherapy treatment delivery and patient care.

The post holder provides specialist clinical training and supervision of junior staff, new staff, students and other health professionals within their area of accountability.

• To lead a busy Linear Accelerator with a varied treatment workload using effective clinical and personnel management skills and strategies.
• To provide safe and accurate specialist technical service delivering therapeutic ionising radiation, while maintaining a high duty of care to all patients undergoing Radiotherapy.
• Demonstrate ability to resolve complex treatment issues with problem solving skills and effective autonomous decision-making.
• To communicate and participate with the multi-disciplinary team involved in patient care and service delivery.
• Be able to proactively implement and effectively manage change.
• Demonstrate a good understanding of the IR(ME)R 2017 Regulations to ensure safe compliance with National Standard.
• Provide effective leadership to ensure smooth running of the treatment unit taking into account the needs of the patient, staff and service.
• To set and maintain quality standards for work undertaken on the treatment unit.
• Must organise personnel and daily clinical sessions demonstrating effective time management and managerial strategies using available resources to manage fluctuations in demand.

***Preference will be given to internal Trust staff, as well as ‘Priority’ and 'At Risk' status including NHS At Risk staff throughout Devon who are able to display recent relevant experience as dictated by the Person Specification.***

Working for our organisation

At Plymouth Oncology Centre we value our staff group and appreciate that valued staff work better as a team and are intrinsically motivated to deliver the best quality care and treatment for our patients.

We welcome applications from enthusiastic and highly dedicated therapeutic radiographers who would like to develop their knowledge, care and skills in a forward thinking and technically advancing department.

We focus on giving our patients the best outcomes of care and an excellent experience whilst in our hospital which is supported by our high patient satisfaction feedback. By joining the team you will benefit from working alongside a friendly, well organised staff group.

We offer a diverse patient workload including Total Body Irradiation, DIBH, Gynaecological Brachytherapy, Cranial SRS/T and lung SABR and SABR oligomets providing plenty of learning and development opportunities for all staff members.

We are currently undertaking our machine replacement program whereby our current linacs will be replaced by 2 state of the art TrueBeam linear accelerators and a TrueBeam Edge to facilitate SRS/T procedures. All new machines will be equipped with SGRT technology

We are also having a brachytherapy suite built with theatre facilities to enhance the pathway for our patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and are seeking an opportunity to gain further experience or to take the next step in your radiotherapy career, we would love to hear from you!

1. To ensure that the treatment equipment is safe to operate, both for staff and patients, undertaking the appropriate machine checks and reporting any variances promptly.
2. Manage the specialist treatment unit workload efficiently according to the needs of the patients, ensuring an efficient smooth running treatment unit.
3. To provide effective and safe patient management encompassing all patients’ needs, using specialist knowledge of treatment side effects, skin reactions and their management. Taking responsibility for referring patients for clinical assessment by a consultant or deputy, prior to commencement of treatment when symptoms become acute.
4. Input and check palliative and complex radical treatment plans in Eclipse and ARIA.
5. To maintain and continually develop specialist knowledge of ARIA.
6. Undertake autonomous registration, review of images and take responsibility for ensuring the decision making on the changes required for the patients treatment procedure or non-continuation of patient treatment where appropriate.
7. To maintain and continually develop a working knowledge and understanding of pre-treatment procedures to enable participation in the on call rota for emergency patients.
8. To communicate effectively with Oncology Consultants & Registrars regarding highly complex treatment information to ensure safe and accurate delivery of treatment in accordance with trust and national legislation.
9. Be able to make clinical decisions on delivering accurate, effective and safe treatment based on theoretical knowledge, clinical judgement and departmental policy.
10. To provide, receive and use highly complex or very sensitive information, using developed persuasion, training, empathetic and re-assurance skills while maintaining patient dignity and confidentiality at all times, ensuring that accurate treatment records are produced.

For a detailed description of the role requirements and personal specification please see the Job Description and Personal Specification attached

Person specification

Qualifications

• Degree in Therapeutic Radiography or equivalent
• Current HCPC Registration
• Up to date evidence of C.P.D.
• Proven evidence of MSc Learning
• DCR (T) or BSc (Hons)

• PGCE or equivalent in training

Knowledge and experience

• Specialist proven knowledge of cancer pathology and disease patterns.
• Demonstrable experience of leadership or staff management.
• An active awareness of relevant legislation, national cancer standards, professional guidelines and trust policies. (IRR IR(ME)R ISO9001:2000)
• Specialised proven knowledge of treatment area, including potential radiation risks, acute treatment side effects and their effective management
• Demonstrable experience as a qualified radiographer to masters level or equivalent.

• Proven evidence of project management
• Proven knowledge of CT and planning processes and methodologies

Aptitude and Ability

• Possess a high level of emotional intelligence.
• High level of concentration needed, must be able to concentrate when subject to unpredictable working patterns, whilst delivering highly complex and potentially harmful radiation treatment. (Must be able to manage interruptions by clinical staff, patients and carers with requests or problems whilst treating another patient)
• Ability to teach and educate other professional staff.
• Willingness to challenge poor standards or inappropriate behaviours of care or treatment delivery to safeguard patient well-being and treatment accuracy.
• Highly developed physical accuracy and hand/eye co-ordination.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY INCLUDING YOUR JUNK FOLDER.

If you need support with the online application process or require reasonable adjustments with the application and/or interview process please contact the Recruiting Manager for this post.

We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants about less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. We recommend contacting the manager of the role prior to applying and we commit to giving requests full consideration.

We welcome and encourage applicants who identify with all protected characteristics to apply for our roles. We believe that diversity strengthens our teams and improves our patients' experience. At UHP we aim to create an inclusive workplace and hospital where everyone feels they belong and included.

It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.

Providing false information is an offence & could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal/police action if an applicant is successful.

This is an automated process & the information will only be used for these purposes prior to your taking up the position with us.

For Doctors Roles:

Unsolicited CVs and Candidate Profiles/Details

University Hospitals Plymouth has a commitment to sourcing candidates directly and as such we do not accept speculative CVs from agencies.

We do, however, work with a defined list of preferred HTE Framework suppliers who may be invited to support us in sourcing candidates for particular roles.

In line with our preferred supplier list, we only pay agency fees where we have a signed agreement in place and an agency has been instructed by a member of the Trust’s Medical Workforce team.

We do not pay agency fees where speculative and unsolicited CVs are submitted to the Trust or Trust employees by any other means than the official route above. Where this is not observed the Trust reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and initiate discussions without payment of any agency fee.

Any candidate details (whether written or spoken) or CVs that are referred directly will not constitute an introduction. The Trust will under no circumstances be responsible for any recruitment fees in relation to these contacts.

Submission of any unsolicited CVs, candidate’s details and/or proposals to the Trust will not be considered further and will be deemed evidence of full and unlimited acceptance of this Agency Protocol.

In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s agency suppliers, we ask that this Protocol is adhered to and thank you for your co-operation.