Specialist Cardiac Physiologist (XR06)

Leeds Teaching Hospitals

The closing date is 20 May 2025

Job summary

Due to expanding services, Leeds has an exciting opportunity to recruit a number of Specialist Cardiac Physiologists to join our friendly Healthcare Scientist team.

We are looking for people who enjoy working with others, motivated to learn new skills and provide the best care to our patients. We welcome applications from those seeking both full and part time work and can offer flexible working & 4 long days to support a work life balance.

The role of a Specialist Cardiac Physiologist is exciting and varied. This role should appeal to those wanting to enjoy the offerings of a renowned NSHCS & BSE accredited tertiary cardiac centre. Applicants should hold level 2 BSE accreditation or be practically competent in echo and working towards accreditation. For the right applicant we may offer an Annex 21 band 6 contract whilst you complete your training.

You will have the opportunity to rotate and learn new/maintain skills across the wider invasive and non-invasive department as well as offer support to students, trainees and junior members of the team.

Although a large centre, Leeds is committed to supporting individual development and we offer a vast amount of CPD opportunities to allow you to reach your goals.

You should be AHCS/HCPC registered or able to secure registration within 6 months of starting. For further info or to arrange a visit to the department and meet the team please contact Hilary.jessop@nhs.net

Shortlisting Date: 16th May

Interview Date: 27th May

Main duties of the job

The successful applicants will perform transthoracic echocardiography, writing factual reports to BSE standard, rotating between inpatient and outpatient lists, informing senior colleagues of any concerns regarding the patient or test results, as per departmental protocols. In addition, you will work alongside consultants in TOE and have opportunity to gain skills in specialist clinics; valve, HF, ICC, arrhythmia, oncology and PAH. Leeds champions development and has an increasing number of physiologist-led echo services; stress, valve and ICC clinics.

As the supra-regional accredited centre, Leeds delivers close to 30,000 transthoracic, 1,600 stress and 600 TOE scans each year and has 15 scanning rooms across 5 hospital sites and over 25 high spec Philips/GE machines.

The successful applicants will be offered rotation through the wider invasive/non-invasive areas to maintain or learn new skills. Those with lab skills will join the on call rota for Primary PCI (1 in 20). As specialists you will work closely with students, trainees and junior members and contribute to their continued education.

Successful applicants will work as part of a team to contribute to high quality and efficient services. We promote autonomous practice but support is always available from highly specialist and consultant colleagues.

The department has a monthly governance and audit meeting where training is provided to keep up to date with any new equipment and technology.

About us

Come and join our team in Leeds and become part of The Leeds Way sharing our vision and values. Our Trust is recognised for our staff engagement, great care and rated GOOD by the Care Quality Commission.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest acute health providers in the UK and based in one of the fastest growing and vibrant cities in the north.

At Cardio-Respiratory CSU, we aim to be a fair and supportive CSU with positive, caring teams who are champions of the Leeds Way values. Our values are part of what make us different from other trusts, so we see this as a strength, as well as a responsibility. They have been developed by our staff and set out what they see as important to how we work. Our five values are:

Patient-centred

Collaborative

Fair

Accountable

Empowered

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Date posted

29 April 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£37,338 to £44,962 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

C9298-CRS-271

Job locations

Leeds General Infirmary

Great George Street

Leeds

LS1 3EX

Job description

Job responsibilities

PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical Duties

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspect of work, including the management of patients in your care.

To undertake routine assessment of inpatients and outpatients prior to a range of cardiac investigations to ensure the patient is suitable for the investigation.

Participates in the on-call rota (7day/24hour) for acute emergencies in the Cardiac Catheter Lab and/or for those with implantable cardiac devices and performs clinical duties out of hours. This requires a high level of autonomy, often giving advice to medical staff with limited specialist knowledge thus directly influencing patient care/outcomes.

Routinely undertakes assessment of both inpatients and outpatients prior to a range of cardiac investigations and uses own discretion in order to ensure the patient is suitable for the investigation.

Provides clinical technical advice to patients, carers and other members of the multidisciplinary team both within and outside the cardiology department.

Carries out all aspects of clinical work as approved by the clinical management team.

Works as an autonomous practitioner within established departmental Standard Operating Procedures and codes of practice.

Communicates with all members of the multidisciplinary team and trust-wide staff to ensure the best possible care for patients by using negotiating, reassurance and persuasiveness skills.

Communicates information about routine and complex cardiac investigations to patients and relatives/carers including children and those with learning and/or physical disabilities.

Calibrates and manipulates a wide range of complex, expensive technical equipment which processes, creates, updates and stores information.

Carries out a broad range of fundamental and complex cardiac investigations and following analysis and interpretation of physiological data, provides accurate and factual reports.

Clinical investigations would be dependent on the applicants skill set and area of clinical focus and may include but are not limited to:

- Advanced ECG assessments/calculations

- Ambulatory and remote monitoring analysis

- Cardiac angiography/intervention and heamodynamic assessment, both adult and paediatric

- Cardiac ultrasound imaging

- Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise (CPX)

- Electrophysiology studies

- Permanent Pacemaker (PPM) and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) implantations

- Physiologist led PPM and ICD follow-up

- Physiologist led and medically supervised exercise testing

- Temporary pacemaker insertions

- Therapeutic radiofrequency ablations

- Tilt testing

This does not provide an exhaustive list of roles and responsibilities, and these may be subject to change with professional and service developments.

Demonstrates personal duty of care for safe use of expensive and highly complex equipment and reports equipment faults in accordance with departmental policy.

Maintains stock levels of consumable items and for day to day security of expensive equipment e.g. implantable devices.

Professional

Maintain professional registration; RCCP, AHCS, HCPC.

Responsible for maintaining own technical competencies in clinical areas including achieving professional exams/membership appropriate to clinical area, e.g. BHRS, BSE etc.

Experience and knowledge of specialist cardiac investigations and techniques at postgraduate level.

Responsible for reporting clinical incidents and adverse events to the appropriate responsible clinical service manager.

Expected to undertake informal training by means of periodic in-house assessments.

Responsible for formal mentorship and input into coordination of training of designated junior staff and students.

Be an active member of the departmental clinical governance meetings and in-service training programme by attendance at, and participation in, in-service training programmes, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses and peer review.

Undertakes Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in accordance with Personal Development Plan (PDP) as developed with Line Manager.

Attends and participates in departmental staff meetings.

Maintains and develops current knowledge of evidence based practice in each clinical area.

Frequently undertakes collection of data for use in audit, research projects and equipment testing.

Regularly provides training in fundamental cardiac techniques to Trainee Cardiac Physiologists and junior staff members.

Organisational

Demonstrates the ability to prioritise and organise the clinical caseload within a designated area of cardiology.

Effort

Required to exert moderate physical effort. Frequent transferring of patients and equipment on both trolleys and wheelchairs.

There is a frequent requirement for prolonged, but often predictable, periods of concentration.

Frequent exposure to highly distressing situations, e.g. cardiac arrests during rescue coronary intervention while the patient is having a heart attack.

Frequent exposure to highly emotional circumstances, e.g. catheterisation of small babies who will inevitably die due to the nature of their congenital heart defects or disabling cardiac devices of the terminally ill in whom lifesaving treatment has agreed to been withdrawn.

Requires a high level of manual dexterity and good hand to eye coordination in order to ensure the accurate application of a range of diagnostic tools.

Requires a high level of sensory coordination in order to immediately recognise life threatening physiological signs and then respond appropriately.

To comply with the Trusts manual handling policy at all times.

Frequent exposure to unpleasant working conditions on a regular daily basis, e.g. bodily fluids including blood, sputum, vomit, urine, fleas and lice.

Occasional exposure to verbal and physical aggression.

Deals sensitively with patients who have high levels of anxiety and aggression caused by pain, dementia or limited mobility.