Infection Control Practitioner

Job description

Job responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

5.1Responsibility for People Management

To Line manage other members of the IPCT who are band 4 or below.

With support develop own management skills relating to workload and personal and professional development.

To work with other members of the IPCT to maintain high standards of infection prevention and care.

To collaborate with other members of the IPCT in the provision of an efficient and effective service.

To develop the role, with support, maintaining good working relationships with all wards and departments and the independent sector. To work with staff to identify infection hazards, and effectively manage the associated risks

Act as a Practice Supervisor to students and colleagues, participating in induction programmes, guiding practice, and assessing competence to develop staff.

Work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team and participate in the induction of locum staff to policies and routine.

5.2Responsibility for financial and/or physical resources

To work with the Estates Manager. Hotel Services Team and IPC Team Manager to coordinate responses to disease outbreak and management in clinical settings

To support the PPE store and Stocks for the organisation with support from procurement, Professional Lead and IPC Team Manager.

Maintain any equipment within the team.

5.3Responsibility for administration

Collects relevant clinical data for use by the Infection Prevention and Care Team and assisting with maintenance of records and statistics on hospital infection

Assists with the establishment and revision of policies relating to infection control with other members of the Team.

To maintain accurate records of hospital infection and clinical advice given.

To use team resources shared drives, databases and emails.

5.4Responsibility for people who use our services

Sustain effective communications with other roles involved in the Local health Community as required to ensure good team working and collaborative working practices in particular resulting in high standards of clinical care with the IPC team Manager.

To attend regular line management meetings, to include performance against job description

To complete and support other members of the IPC team in completing audits. Once complete ensure reports are sent to the service manager responsible for the clinical area, the IPC Team Manager and the relevant facilities manager. It is expected that each area will produce a plan of action; the IPC Team Manager will oversee these plans.

To ensure provision of leaflets in a range of formats for patients and visitors.

To contribute to regular wellbeing walkabouts with key services such as Risk and Hotel services to produce reports and action plans post visit.

Disseminate new guidance across the organisation.

Investigate outbreaks of hospital infection and at times in the independent sector and implement control measures

To identify, investigate, monitor and rectify hazardous practices or procedures, relating to risk of infection.

To work with the Hotel services in an advisory and supportive capacity to ensure correct decontamination practices are followed.

To assist in projects and developments requiring infection prevention and control knowledge (e.g. Site Redevelopment).

5.5Responsibility for implementation of policy and/or service developments

To assist with the evaluation and updating of Infection Control Policies for LSW in conjunction with the IPC Team Manager and UHP.

To participate in auditing those policies and advise appropriately thus ensuring a high quality service and a safe environment for Patients, staff and visitors

To liaise with other specialist disciplines (e.g. Tissue Viability; Continence; Review Team; District Nurses, Pharmacists and Hotel Services) to ensure infection prevention and control receives a high priority in these areas.

To undertake infection surveillance and to participate in new developments of surveillance

To maintain accurate records of hospital infection as required by the IPCT

To support the Ward Manager with the completion of RCAs patients acquiring any infection or sepsis in Livewell care.

To support the response to Covid-19, ensuring the team response is robust and timely for services.

5.6Other Responsibilities

Education and training Responsibilities

To provide information regarding infection prevention and control issues for all new staff during induction training and to participate in the mandatory training programme when competent to do so

To develop the link nurse scheme supporting the IPC Clinical Assistant, for LSW staff and ensure that they receive regular information and training and disseminate this information to their colleagues

To contribute to the organisation of Micro Teaching, workshops and courses in line with the annual plan which include the independent sector

To participate in the education of all hospital personnel in methods of infection control, and with support from IPCT establish educational programmes to meet the needs of all staff

To develop the role as a nursing resource and provide information regarding infection prevention and control issues to patients and visitors

To undergo further educational opportunities/training appropriate with this role (once fully competent leading to B6 role). To develop and maintain personal development in this speciality, so that advice and information given is based on accurate, current, evidence based knowledge

Health and Safety

With the Team Manager be responsible for ensuring that all necessary risk assessments are carried out within their department in liaison with relevant sources of specialist support and expertise within the LSW. They are also responsible for ensuring that the risk management process is completed appropriately.

To assist with identifying, investigating, monitoring and rectifying hazardous practices or procedures, relating to risk of infection.

To work with Occupational Health regarding infection prevention and control issues which involve staff.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered practitioner with demonstrable post registration experience.

Desirable

• Evidence of or working towards Diploma level study;
• Specialist Infection control qualification or will undertake a course.
• Teaching Experience

Experience

Essential

• Interest/experience with the speciality.
• Band 5 working in a relevant area.
• Working autonomously

Desirable

• Demonstrable experience in infection, prevention and care roles.

Skills

Essential

• Judgements involve complex facts, which require interpretation and consideration against a range of options.
• Effective influencing skills.
• Teaching and mentoring skills.
• Ability to demonstrate organisational skills.
• Ability to facilitate change within any work place.
• Supervisory skills.
• Works in a calm and organised manner and mixes in well as part of cohesive team.
• Ability to set own goals and work without supervision.

Desirable

• Experience of delivering presentations.
• Experience of presenting and simple analysis of IPC data.

Additional Requirements

Essential

• Participate in product evaluation and clinical & environmental audits across LSW and local stakeholders.
• Frequent requirement of concentration.
• Unpredictable work pattern which is often interrupted.

Knowledge

Essential

• Evidence of recent CPD.
• An awareness of research and evidence based practice within setting.
• Awareness of IPC and legislation

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

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

Livewell Southwest

Address

Admin Block

Mount Gould Hospital

Plymouth

PL4 7QD

Employer's website

https://www.livewellsouthwest.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)