Clinical Fellow Paediatric Cardiology

Job description

Job responsibilities

PROFESSIONAL

CLINICAL:

The successful candidate will provide support for the daily running of the paediatric cardiology service. The candidate will be expected to provide support to inpatient and outpatient services. This post will involve supervision of the daily medical care of all cardiology inpatients, contribution to outpatient services, support for the Heart Investigations Unit, and participation in a full-shift rota at the middle grade level. There is a daily PICU ward round with the Cardiothoracic Surgeons and Intensivists. The individual would be expected to undertake any other duties requested by any of the Consultant Cardiologists, should the need arise.

The post involves working on a 1:11 rota in a full shift system. The working hours are in line with the current European Working Time Directive (EWTD), with an average work week comprising of 40 hours.(Currently the rota is subject to change)

Administration

Administrative duties include the organisation of cases for discussion at the weekly joint cardiac conference and routine letters resulting from clinics and discharges. The standard administrative duties arising from clinical work will be expected to be managed.

Provisional Weekly Activities for Clinical Fellows

Inpatient Activity: The Clinical Fellow would be expected to support inpatient activity for all children requiring cardiac reviews, would work very closely with the on-call cardiology consultant (who has no other programmed activity during this period) and would be responsible for leading the ward rounds, planning the daily management and treatment of patients on the wards. The Clinical Fellow would be accountable to the on-call cardiologist & cardiac surgeon of the week.

Outpatient Activity: We would recommend that the Fellow should be undertaking 2-3 clinics per week. The patients seen in the clinic should be discussed with the consultants, as appropriate.

We also run nurse-led clinics, and the Fellow would be expected to work closely with the advanced nurse practitioners (ANP), other senior nursing staff, cardiac physiologists, cardiac surgeons and dieticians to develop working within a multi-disciplinary team.

On call: The successful candidate will be expected to undertake on-call commitments planned at a 1:11 full shift rota (subject to change). This also involves on-call cover over the weekends. The individual will be expected to undertake an out-of-hours commitment, which will vary depending on the duties of the post but will not exceed the limits defined in the Terms and Conditions of Service. Working patterns are in accordance with the New Deal on Junior Doctors Hours, and the European Working Time Directive (EWTD).

The candidate would be expected to work closely with the PICU and Hospital@Night teams to provide cardiology cover for the hospital and referring centres, with support from the senior cardiologist and the cardiac surgeons. At night, it is expected that the Fellow does a relevant night round with the SHO & nurse-in-charge on both the cardiology wards.

It is expected that the candidate would be present for the PICU rounds on the days that he/she is on an on-call day, and at night, to ensure that there is an appropriate hand-over of clinical activities.

Please note that current PG doctors are looking at changing to a non-resident on call (NROC) rota. This is under review at present but if approved it would be expected that the fellow works on this rota during all or part of their tenure. A sample NROC rota can be provided if requested.

Exposure within specialist areas: The aim of this post is to provide experience in general paediatric cardiology. Though exposure may be provided to subspecialty areas this is not a subspecialty training post.

Administrative: As discussed above, the Fellow would be expected to undertake certain administrative tasks within the department, which would include the preparation of cases for discussion in the Joint Cardiology Conferences after due discussion with the consultants. In addition, the Fellow, depending on the level of experience, would be expected to undertake reporting of investigations done by the Heart Investigation Unit (HIU). We would envisage being able to support a session for administrative/professional developmental activity.

Regular weekly meetings:

The Clinical Fellow is encouraged to attend the following meetings:

Monday: 08:30 12:00 Grand Round

12:30 13:30 Echocardiography Meeting

Tuesday: 08:30 09:30 Morbidity & Mortality/ Journal Club

Wednesday: 08:30 10:00 Joint Cardiology Conference

Thursday: 08:30 09:30 Cardiology/ Surgical teaching

Friday: 08:30 10:00 Cardiac Surgical Conference

13:00 14:00 Cardiology Registrar Teaching

Teaching

The organisation of educational supervision within the department is done according to guidelines and standards set out by the Postgraduate Dean and the Royal Colleges of Physicians, and of Paediatrics and Child Health. The department has access to PG centre with full teaching and projection equipment. Good facilities exist for producing teaching materials such as illustrated guidelines and distance-learning packages in hard copy or in electronic forms. The hospital library has Level 1 accreditation with distinction (1999).

The individual will be expected to contribute to undergraduate medical student teaching and to play a role in the training of other relevant staff groups.

Undergraduate

All medical students who are attached to the Childrens Hospital for paediatric teaching receive tuition in Paediatric Cardiology. The successful candidate will be involved in formal/informal teaching to the undergraduate students attached to the unit.

Postgraduate

The Cardiology Department participates with the other departments in the hospital in weekly case presentations. In addition, there are also weekly pathological conferences, some of which include cardiac cases. Each week there is a teaching session for the Heart Unit alternating Journal Club, Research and Audit. The trainee would be encouraged to support teaching ST1-3 trainees for the MRCPCH.

Training

Although this is a non-training post, the successful candidate will be encouraged to develop & maintain appropriate level of skills to support the individuals role within the department, and his/her professional development. The candidate will have a supervising consultant with whom he/she would be expected to discuss their professional development.

As with other members of the department, the candidate will be required to have annual appraisals in keeping with the guidelines of the General Medical Council.

Audit

There is an opportunity for the appointee to participate in departmental audit. The department has a full time Database and Audit Manager. An updated computer system and data management system (Heartsuite) has been installed throughout the offices, wards, outpatients and Heart Investigation Unit. The Trusts I.T. department supports this dedicated system, which also links to the hospitals Patient Administration System.

Clinical Audit within the department is led by Mr Phil Botha, Consultant Congenital Cardiac Surgeon. In addition to monthly audit meetings of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgical activity, quarterly multidisciplinary Audit meetings involving one session are supported by the Trust with curtailment of clinical activity for these sessions.

Secretary and Office

The appointee will have secretarial support from the existing secretarial group for the department, and office accommodation with a computer and access to the Internet and hospital Intranet will be shared with the other middle grade medical staff in a dedicated office.

Visiting arrangements

Interested applicants are invited to visit on an informal basis by arrangement with Dr. Chetan Mehta , Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist & Training Lead for Clinical Fellows (Tel. No.: 0121 333 9454) or Dr. Vinay Bhole, Clinical Lead and Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist (Tel. No.: 0121 333 9457)

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• MRCP/MRCPCH or equivalent
• GMC Registration

KNOWLEDGE & NATURE OF EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Paediatric cardiology experience for at least 6 months
• Practical skills to include resuscitation, intensive and general care of children and babies
• Previous UK experience

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

Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Birmingham Children's Hospital

Steelhouse Lane

Birmingham

B4 6NH

Employer's website

https://bwc.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)