Assistant Clinical Practitioner - ROSSINI Platform
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it.Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’.Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS.We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
Acting as patient advocate at all times, the post holder will be expected to provide patient-level responses and remote care delivery for patients who are part of the ROSSINI-Platform. They will have responsibility for managing data relevant to the CWH remote wound monitoring system (Isla) for the ROSSINI-Platform.The post-holder will perform a range of clinical assessments in line with accepted standards of practice. They will communicate effectively with the clinical teams to ensure good patient experience, including proactive follow-up of outcomes and results.
The post holder will be responsible for patient form completion, file management (including upload to EPIC) and maintenance of databases. They will be responsible for ordering and sending supplies. The post holder will ensure policies, standard operating procedures, referral pathways and other guidelines related to the research trial as well as clinical care are followed.
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will be the first point of contact for surgical patients under surgical site infection (SSI) surveillance for the Central Digital Wound Hub for the ROSSINI-Platform. Providing timely and appropriate review, along with appropriate escalation as needed.Attention to detail, excellent communication skills and placing the patient first are essential to the role. The post-holder will be responsible for data collection and audit as required.
Working for our organisation
The Surveillance and Innovation Unit (SUI) is a new unit in the Directorate of Infection. The Central Digital Wound Hub provides post-discharge surgical site infection surveillance for a number of surgical specialities. The ROSSINI-Platform team will work under our award-winning digital surveillance programme and will work with the wider Hub team as part of the wider surgical site infection (SSI) team.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical and communication responsibilities- Provide excellent customer care skills to ensure patients and participants come first.
- Responsible for providing timely and patient-centred responses for patients and carers submitting information to the Central Digital Wound Hub and escalating concerns (with support) as appropriate.
- Responsible for collating information to be added to the remote digital wound system (Isla), ensuring record completeness.
- Responsible for gathering, collating and inputting SSI data into databases designed to monitor such infections, conforming to tight timelines. Also to test and provide feedback on new Isla features or functions.
- Assist the SSI team to maintain a proactive approach to the prevention, control, investigation, and surveillance of surgical site infections and other healthcare-associated infections within the Trust.
- The Assistant Clinical Practitioner will perform and record a range of clinical assessments in line with personal competencies and as stipulated in approved CDWH protocols.
- The post holder will demonstrate a level of skill and understanding which enables the individual to take responsibility for specific tasks delegated by the Trust or Team leads or in accordance with agreed policies and procedures. The staff will undertake routine administrative tasks for the surveillance work and/or specifically identified tasks under the supervision of a qualified nurse, and where they have received training, support and instruction to reach a level of competence enabling them to take on this wider role. The post holder will work closely with colleagues in divisions across hospitals to obtain data.
- Responsible for ensuring safe and appropriate storage, shipment and documentation of specimens.
- Provide ongoing support to the patient and carer whilst active on the CDWH.
- Communicate on a regular basis with senior medical staff, nursing, pharmacy, radiology, and pathology and laboratory staff.
- Liaise with other departments and wards at the site/s, in order to promote a good working environment, integration of research and open channels of communication.
- Take responsibility for ensuring own knowledge of amendments and updates to specialisms you work with and assist the CDWH and SSI team in ensuring that information relating to updates in the study protocols and guidelines are disseminated to key areas and personnel.
- Communicate care related information effectively with the CDWH and SSI team and patients and their family members. This information may be complex or sensitive, and there may be barriers to understanding.
- Liaise with primary care services and relevant parties for follow up or to share or care related material, including outcomes and laboratory results.
- Arrange, attend and record minutes for the CDWH and other relevant departmental meeting.
- Assist with the organisation and set up of selection and initiation of surgical specialisms joining the CDWH.
- Update patient and medical records to accurately document CDWH-related activity.
- Administration and maintenance of all Isla and SSI records.
- Ensure the confidentiality of verbal, written and computerised information.
- Complete outcomes in a precise and timely manner, ensuring that all the relevant clinical data in the patient’s medical notes and study file is transcribed accurately.
- Responsible for the maintenance and upload of surgical specialism information.
- Create databases, validate and maintain them and ensure their security and compliance with the Data Protection Act.
- Update and maintain audit data, as required.
- Deal effectively with queries relating to patient data and information in a timely and efficient manner.
- Assist in the creation and maintenance of good office systems for the smooth running of the service.
- Organise and prepare documentation for SSI reviews.
- Provide timely information and reports to reflect Isla activities.
- Escalate any issues regarding data collection or technical issues to the appropriate personnel.
- Provide advice and training to colleagues as relevant to your role.
- Supervise, train or mentor new or more junior staff as required.
- Take responsibility for identifying personal training and educational needs within the context of the service and those identified during the appraisal process.
- Act in accordance with the Health Education England (HEE) Care Certificate framework standards at all times.
- Undertake an Individual Performance Review annually with your Line Manager.
- 5 Other responsibilities
- Assist other members of the multidisciplinary team as required with all aspects of study delivery.
- Act always in a manner which, promotes positive working relationships and maintains the professional image of the study and its representatives..
- Co-ordinate and supervise housekeeping duties and ordering of study supplies as requested.
- Responsibly assist in the management the control of equipment, resources and stock through the adherence of research policies and study budgets.
- Ensure own actions help to maintain quality.
- To work as a member of a multi-disciplinary team
- Work collaboratively with colleagues across the wider study to facilitate the achievement of objectives and shared learning.
Person specification
Knowledge/Qualifications
Essential criteria- NVQ level 4 or equivalent qualification or qualified to NVQ3 or equivalent plus significant previous experience
- Evidence of education related to clinical care, research or quality improvement
- Good Clinical Practice certificate
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working in a healthcare or clinical research role with patient/public communication/ coordination duties and experience working in a public facing role
- Experience of working in a team
- Experience using databases
- Experience performing basic clinical tasks such as clinical observations (height, weight, blood pressure, pulse, temperature)
- Experience of caring for patients/participants in a professional setting
- Experience of working with surgical patients
Skills
Essential criteria- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Ability to communicate well (written and verbally), with clear and legible handwriting
- Able to work in a multidisciplinary team and on own initiative
- Knowledge of medical terminology
- Ability to co-ordinate collection of data to agreed timescales
- Ability to co-ordinate patient visits with multidisciplinary team
- Ability to understand and comply with research protocols and departmental procedures and report difficulties and exceptions to senior staff
- Ability to manage priorities under pressure
- Able to conduct clinical tasks such as blood pressure, temperature, pulse and respiratory observations.
- Ability to acquire skills in phlebotomy and sample collection
- Ability to acquire basic laboratory skills
- IT skills, specifically in database management, Microsoft, Excel
- Willingness and ability to travel between sites and work remotely within the context of this post
- Able to concentrate for prolonged periods when cross-referencing medical case notes
- Frequently need to carry medical case notes from clinical areas for analysis or move equipment.
- Knowledge of mandatory standards for clinical research conduct (including GCP, UK Policy framework for Health and Social Care research, data protection)
- Able to collect blood samples via venepuncture
- Good knowledge of medical and clinical terminology
- Basic laboratory skills
Additional Information
Essential criteria- Flexible and positive approach to work
- Motivated and enthusiastic
- Evidence of understanding Trust business
Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service.We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
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