Clinical Fellow in Sleep & Ventilation, Respiratory Medicine

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Sleep and Ventilation Clinical Fellow

Department: Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine

Grade and Salary Scale: ST3 - ST5 - £51,017pa, ST6 - ST8 - £58,398pa

Hours of work: 40 hours per week

Accountable to: Sleep and Ventilation Lead

Responsible to: Clinical Lead Respiratory Medicine

Overview of post

This new post will provide sub-specialty experience in adult respiratory Sleep and Ventilation medicine, and would be suited to a Respiratory trainee as an out-of-programme experience or as post-CCT sub-specialist training. The post is based in the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, within the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at the Churchill Hospital Site (outpatient care) and John Radcliffe Hospital Site (in-patient care and sleep laboratories).

The post-holder will work with the Adult Respiratory Sleep and Ventilation team, providing outpatient clinics, reporting respiratory sleep studies, assessing patients attending the Respiratory Day Case Unit, for example to be established on noninvasive ventilation or cough assistance, and providing specialist advice for in-patients using acute noninvasive ventilation.

The postholder will contribute to in-patient respiratory care, during Mon to Fri blocks. This is approximately once every two months, with a substantial proportion of these patients being on NIV acutely or long-term, thereby providing experience across the full breadth of respiratory support for patients with ventilatory failure. If desired, there are often opportunities to carry out additional paid out-of-hours duties. The postholder will be encouraged to participate in Departmental, Regional and International Sleep and Ventilation educational meetings and to be involved in relevant service development, governance and research.

Principle Activities

The post holders duties are based predominantly at the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, located at the Churchill Hospital site, and also at the John Radcliffe Hospital where the Osler Respiratory ward and acute medical services are based for in-patient care, including review of patients on acute noninvasive ventilation and for on-call duties. The main role of the post holder will be to provide consistent middle-grade support to the Adult Respiratory Sleep and Ventilation team as required under the supervision of consultants Dr Annabel Nickol (Sleep and Ventilation Lead) and Dr Maxine Hardinge.

Specific duties include:

• Sleep and Ventilation outpatient clinics
• Day Case patient review for ventilator dependent or at-risk patients, and for those initiating home noninvasive ventilation or cough assistance
• Specialist referral triage
• Respiratory sleep study and oximetry reporting
• Management of non-face to face patient care
• Provision of specialist advice for Respiratory and General Medical patients on acute noninvasive ventilation
• Contribution towards undergraduate and postgraduate training in Sleep and Ventilation
• Contribution towards Service Development and Governance
• Contribution to current sleep research projects.

Administrative and secretarial support will be provided for these tasks. Appropriate supervised training will be provided to the post holder, with formal review at start and mid-way though post. It is envisaged that the post-holder will gain significant clinical experience in all aspects of adult Respiratory Sleep and Ventilation management. It will be necessary for the post holder to work closely with the rotational Specialist Registrars (or equivalent) and to work with them flexibly to ensure adequate middle grade cover.

On-call Commitment

There is an option of participating in the respiratory on-call rota.

Education and Research

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust is a teaching hospital Trust, and the post-holder will participate in programmes training and educating clinical students, junior doctors and peers, as an integral part of every day clinical activity. There is also the opportunity to contribute towards the patient support group the Sleep Apnoea Trust Association (SATA) which runs an annual one-day educational meeting, besides being active throughout the year with newsletters and campaigning in key areas.

There is potential for the post-holder to contribute to research. The Oxford Sleep and Ventilation Unit has a long history of practice changing research led by Professor John Stradling, for example defining utility of CPAP in minimally symptomatic patients with OSA (MOSAIC Craig Thorax 2013), examining prevalence of OSA in patients with diabetic eye disease (Mason Retina 2012) and effects of CPAP on insulin resistance (West Thorax 2007), exploring cardiovascular consequences of OSA (Pepperell Lancet 2002) and determining the role of CPAP on oxidative stress (Stradling Eur Respir J 2015). It is part of a UK network contributing to multi-centre trials in both Sleep and Noninvasive ventilation, for example demonstrating benefit of CPAP for OSA in older people (PREDICT McMillan Lancet Respir Med 2014), demonstrating benefit of home NIV in post-acute hypercapnic exacerbations of NIV (HOT MV Murphy JAMA 2017) and the role of CPAP in mild OSA (Wimms 2019). A study investigating the role of positional devices in positional obstructive sleep apnoea is ongoing. There is good support for ongoing research, with the Oxford Respiratory Clinical Trials Unit being led by Dr Najib Rahman. Oxford is one of the UKs five Biomedical Research Centres, funded by the NIHR to support translational research.

Clinical Governance

The post-holder will participate in clinical governance activities, including clinical audit, clinical effectiveness, risk management, quality improvement activities as required by the Trusts, and external accrediting bodies.

Personal and Professional Development

The post-holder will be required to keep themselves fully up-to-date with their relevant area of practice and be able to demonstrate this to the satisfaction of the Trust. Professional or study leave will be granted at the discretion of the Trust, in line with the prevailing Terms and Conditions of Service, to support appropriate study, postgraduate training activities, relevant CME courses and other appropriate personal development needs.

Management

The post-holder will be required to work within the Trusts management policies and procedures, both statutory and internal, accepting that the resources available to the Trusts are finite and that all changes in clinical practice or workload, or developments requiring additional resources must have prior agreement with the Trusts. They will undertake the administrative duties associated with the care of their patients and the running of their clinical department under the direction of the lead clinician and/or directorate chair.

Risk Management

The management of risk is the responsibility of everyone and will be achieved within a progressive, honest and open environment.

Staff will be provided with the necessary education, training and support to enable them to meet this responsibility.

Staff should be familiar with the

• Major Incident Policy
• Fire Policy

and should make themselves familiar with the local response plan and their role within that response.

The post holder is responsible for ensuring that all duties and responsibilities of this post are carried out in compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, Statutory Regulations and Trust Policies and Procedures. This will be supported by the provision of training and specialist advice where required.

Infection Control

Infection Control is everyones responsibility. All staff, both clinical and non clinical, are required to adhere to the Trusts Infection Prevention and Control Policies and make every effort to maintain high standards of infection control at all times thereby reducing the burden of Healthcare Associated Infections including MRSA.

All staff employed by the OUH have the following key responsibilities:

• Staff must decontaminate their hands prior to and after direct patient contact or contact with the patients surroundings.
• Staff members have a duty to attend mandatory infection control training provided for them by the Trust.
• Staff members who develop an infection (other than common colds and illness) that may be transmittable to patients have a duty to contact Occupational Health.

Equality and Diversity

OUH value equality and diversity in employment and in the services we provide. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in employment and will keep under review our policies and procedures to ensure that the job-related needs of all staff working in the Trust are recognised.

The Trusts will aim to ensure that all job applicants, employees or clients are treated fairly and valued equally regardless of sex, marital status, domestic circumstances, age, race, colour, disablement, ethnic or national origin, social background or employment status, sexual orientation, religion, beliefs, HIV status, gender reassignment, political affiliation or trade union membership. Selection for training and development and promotion will be based on the individuals ability to meet the requirements of the job.

Person Specification

Professional qualifications

Essential

• MRCP or equivalent
• Full GMC Registration

Professional training

Essential

• Experience of respiratory medicine at CMT/ST3+ level

Desirable

• Respiratory sleep and non-invasive ventilation experience

Ability

Essential

• Knowledge of respiratory medicine and management of common medical emergencies

Desirable

• Appreciation of principles of care of patients with sleep disordered breathing

Management Ability

Essential

• Good time management, self-motivated and conscientious

Communication skills

Essential

• Communication skills - to be clear, fluent and articulate in communication in English (verbal and written)

Desirable

• Proven ability to communicate in written form (publications, reports etc)

Interpersonal skills

Essential

• Good communication and interpersonal skills to able to work within multidisciplinary team

Desirable

• Track record of ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team

Research

Essential

• Desire to participate in sleep research within the OCRM

Desirable

• MD or PhD

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

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Respiratory Medicine, Churchill Hospital

Old Road

Headington, Oxford

OX3 7LE

Employer's website

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