Speciality Doctor - Palliative Care Medicine

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder will participate in the planning, development and delivery of care to those patients under Birmingham Hospice. This includes inpatients and those attending Day Services throughout the Selly Park and Erdington sites, and the post holder would be expected to provide clinical cover at both sides according to clinical need.

This post is integral for the care of patients, the training of current and future healthcare professionals and the delivery of medical education.

Main duties and responsibilities

1. Clinical

Clinical responsibilities in hours

• Supervise Resident Doctors and work alongside Palliative Medicine Registrars and Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) to support the care of Hospice in-patients
• Attend and support consultant ward rounds
• Ensure excellent communication within the MDT to enable holistic patient care
• Assist with prioritisation and communication surrounding admissions and discharges from the hospice IPU
• Oversee allocation of duties/workload across the ward based doctors and ACPs each day.
• Provide advice to nursing staff, ACPs and other MDT members where necessary.

• Participate in delivery of care to in-patients, including directly admitting patients as well as review of admissions completed by junior medical team.
• Provide support to the Day services as required.
• Where appropriate and depending on experience, offer advice to the community team and support domiciliary patient review, clinic reviews and review of patients attending living well services.

On-Call Arrangements

The post holder will participate in the Hospice non-resident on-call rota, providing 1st on-call support to the hospice in-patient units; this may require attendance in person out of hours. Weekend on call duties are also included.

2. Managerial and Leadership

The post holder will take on some management activity, to be determined according to skill mix. Specialty doctors already working for the team are involved, for example, in new doctor induction, audit, research, policy reviews and IT development.

Supervision

• Oversee supervision of Medical Students during visits to the hospice
• Participate in ward Resident doctor inductions and actively encourage workplace-based assessments e.g. DOPS, mini-CEX.
• Regular involvement in the provision of Medical Officer training sessions.

• Supervise more junior doctors in clinical work, offering advice when requested

3. Financial

The post holder will play a role in ensuring that good clinical care is delivered within the financial constraints of the Hospice setting.

4. Communication

The post holder will be an essential part of the Hospice multi-disciplinary team and will engage as such in appropriate multi-disciplinary clinical communication forums, including in weekly MDT meetings.

5. Teaching

• Formal lectures to medical students, junior hospital doctors, nurses and multi-professional groups
• Informal teaching of medical students, junior doctors, nurses when necessary

6. Research

The hospice is research active, and the post holder may become involved in research recruitment or screening, with support and training from the research team.

7 . Governance

The post holder will be involved in audit, review of policies and procedures, and other activities in discussion with the team to support the medical role in governance within the organisation.

8. Other

A session/programmed activity will normally have a timetable value of 4 hours. The balance between the two types of programmed activities will be subject to agreement with the appointee and should reflect the actual typical distribution of Direct Clinical Care Activities and Supporting Professional Activities. A formal job plan will be agreed on appointment with the successful candidate.

The successful candidate will, on initial appointment and thereafter, be required to inform the Hospice of any regular commitments in respect of private professional services or fee-paying services. There will be a similar requirement in respect of additional NHS responsibilities or other external duties.

The post holder must be fully registered with the General Medical Council with no restrictions on their licence to practice. It is essential to maintain appropriate membership of a recognised medical defence organisation.

The appointee will be required to live within a distance that allows the appointee safely to fulfil their clinical commitments at Birmingham Hospice.

General duties

Confidentiality

All employees are required to uphold the confidentiality of all information records in whatever format, encountered in the course of employment and after it.

All employees are bound by the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations when, in the course of their employment, they deal with information records relating to individuals.

Equality and Diversity

The hospice is committed to promoting an environment that values diversity. All staff are responsible for ensuring that they treat individuals equally and fairly and do not discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. The hospice expects all staff to behave in a way that recognises and respects diversity in line with the appropriate standards.

Health and safety

All employees have a responsibility under the terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect and promote their own health and that of others in the workplace.

All employees must comply with all hospice health and safety procedures infection control.

The prevention and control of infection is the responsibility of everyone who is employed by the hospice. Employees must be aware of infection control policies, procedures and the importance of protecting themselves and their clients in maintaining a clean and healthy environment.

Information governance

All employees are responsible for ensuring they undertake any training relating to information governance, read the hospices policies, procedures and guidance documents relating to information governance, and understanding how this affects them in their role.

Professional development

All employees must participate in an annual appraisal and develop a personal development plan with their line manager.

All employees are responsible for maintaining their statutory and mandatory training.

Safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults

The hospice is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All employees and volunteers are expected to behave in such a way that supports this commitment

In the event of a pandemic or major incident, the post holder may be asked to undertake other duties not necessarily commensurate to the banding of this role. This could include duties in any part of the hospice. Prior to undertaking any duties, the member of staff will have full training and induction. We wont ask any member of staff to undertake duties for which they are not competent or where they feel unsafe in their environment or could put patients or themselves at risk.

The job description is not exhaustive and may be amended following appropriate consultation in the light of business needs.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Full GMC Registration with a license to practice
• At least 12 months of Whole Time Equivalent Clinical Experience post-full registration with GMC

Desirable

• European Certificate in essential Palliative Care, or intention to undertake
• APM membership
• Previous experience of delivering Palliative Care
• Diploma in palliative medicine, or intention to undertake

Experience

Essential

• Excellent clinical skills
• Knowledge of evidence-based practice
• Excellent communication skills
• Proven ability to manage palliative care patients and families
• Evidence of involvement in the whole audit cycle.

Desirable

• Awareness of research methods and literature review.
• Experience of leadership and management

Personal Skills and Attributes

Essential

• Excellent communication skills
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to gain confidence and trust
• Ability to work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team
• Ability to recognise personal stressors and cope with pressure
• Ability to respond to change
• Awareness of own limitations

Desirable

• Ability to recognise and supports other team members who are experiencing stress

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Birmingham Hospice

Address

76 Grange Road

Erdington

Birmingham

B24 0DF

Employer's website

https://www.birminghamhospice.org.uk (Opens in a new tab)