Associate Practitioner - Microbiology

Job summary

The Northern Care Alliance Microbiology service is currently delivered from two main laboratories situated at Salford Royal and Royal Oldham hospital sites; the laboratory at Salford Royal also provides Microbiology services for The Christie under a Service Level Agreement and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust as part of a joint venture (Pathology at Wigan and Salford - PAWS). The formation of the Northern Care Alliance has led to us transforming service delivery for our patients and Microbiology is actively working towards planning a single service model.

As an integral part of the scientific team, you will receive and prepare samples for analysis, enter relevant data on the laboratory computer system, carry out technical investigations, be responsible for running analysers, running Quality Control and troubleshooting, all following established protocols and procedures. This work covers a wide range of sample types and investigations and is essential in the process of diagnosing infections in our patients.

As part of this transformation exciting opportunities have arisen to appoint motivated and dynamic individuals to work as Associate Practitioners; there are vacancies on both our sites and we are looking for enthusiastic, friendly, and well-motivated individuals with excellent interpersonal skills to apply for these posts; interested individuals are encouraged to contact the Salford Microbiology or Royal Oldham Microbiology team for an informal discussion.

Main duties of the job

If you can show that you are able to work accurately and communicate well, have excellent time management skills, basic IT skills and have a strong commitment to the provision of high-quality services to support the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of infectious diseases and to continuously improve the services we provide to patient care, we really want to hear from you.

You must have a minimum of a Foundation Degree (or equivalent) in a science related subject and preferably have experience of basic Microbiology skills such as the preparation of samples for culture and processing of samples using automated instruments (although all in-house training will be provided).

There are slight variations in the operating hours across the sites, due to current service arrangements, therefore some flexibility in approach to working patterns is important. An extended day service is operational on both sites, with services delivered 7 days a week; however, as the Trust and the NHS move towards providing 24/7 services to support healthcare delivery, there is an expectation that there will be a future requirement to provide round the clock services in Microbiology.Unfortunately, this role does not meet the criteria required to qualify for sponsorship

About us

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) provides hospital and integrated health and social care services to over one million people living across Greater Manchester. Our 20,000 colleagues care for people in hospital and in the community, working across Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and Salford, to save and improve lives.

As a large NHS trust we are committed to enhancing the health of our local population by delivering consistently high standards of care and working closely with local authorities and key partners. We believe in our power and potential to make a difference and we're always looking for people who demonstrate our three core values - care, appreciate and inspire - to join our team.

In return, we can offer you a job role with purpose and flexibility. The size and scale of the NCA means we can provide more challenge and opportunities so your career can always be moving in the right direction. By joining us you can also access a competitive benefits package, including, a fantastic annual leave allowance, flexible working opportunities and protected hours for health and wellbeing activities, helping you to achieve more personal downtime and a better work-life balance.

We are currently in process of updating our values. For the latest information around our values and behaviours, please visit our careers website www.careers.northerncarealliance.nhs.uk