Physician Associate Integrated Respiratory Service

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB DESCRIPTION

POST: Physician Associate Integrated Respiratory Service

BANDING: Band 6 - Preceptorship year or Band 7 depending on experience

ACCOUNTABLE TO: Community Respiratory Consultant Clinical Lead

Physician Associate Team Leader

JOB SUMMARY

This post is suitable for newly qualified or experienced Physician Associates who will join a large multi-disciplinary community respiratory team. The post will rotate between primary care and urgent/secondary care, with continuing support and mentorship from the community respiratory team. During a preceptorship year, there will be a strong emphasis on personal development, mentorship and support with the expectation to develop and move to a Band 7 role once core competencies have been achieved. For qualified Physician Associates there will be an initial induction period for introduction to the service and ensuring relevant baseline knowledge is present before the rotation starts.

The post holder will be supported to develop professionally and will be encouraged to undertake additional qualifications such as Non-Medical Prescribing once appropriate regulation is in place. In their preceptorship year, 20% of their time will be purely for educational purposes to enhance knowledge and skills. The Physician Associate will have a named Respiratory Consultant supervisor, as well as a senior clinical mentor to support their development.

The LHCH Community Respiratory Team is a well established, large multi-disciplinary team with an excellent reputation for delivering community services. We are rated Outstanding by the CQC and have won many national awards. The clinical team consists of 2.4 WTE Medical Consultants, 20 nurses, 7 physiotherapists, 2 exercise physiologists, 1 clinical pharmacist, a clinical psychologist, counsellor, assistant practitioner, healthcare assistants and many more. The team provide 24/7 clinical care to patients. Care is delivered in a variety of locations including community clinics, leisure centres, patients homes and emergency departments. We aim to deliver excellent patient care, closer to home, getting care to those who need it most, offering outreach programs to reach vulnerable patients groups.

The post will be based in primary care during the Spring and Summer months, when the focus will be on improving the long-term management of patients with chronic cardio-respiratory conditions. In Autumn and Winter, the post holder could rotate into urgent care services or integrate with/support front line primary care staff, community services and secondary care. The focus will be the management of patients having acute exacerbations of their underlying cardio-respiratory condition, supporting patients both within a community setting and assessing patients within the emergency department to divert appropriate patients into admission avoidance pathways.

Primary Care role: The post holder will review patients in their Primary Care Network (PCN), who have been identified as requiring optimisation/review of their underlying cardio-respiratory condition. They will be supported by their community Respiratory Consultant supervisor and a named General Practitioner within the surgery where they are based. The post holder will rotate between primary care centres within their PCN. The reviews will involve taking a clinical history, clinical examination if appropriate, reviewing investigation results (e.g. chest x-rays, blood tests, spirometry results, radiology investigations, other tests) and then formulating an appropriate evidence based management plan. Respiratory medication optimisation will be key to the role, in addition to supporting patients to manage their long-term condition more effectively. Treatments will be based upon national and local guidelines for excellent respiratory care.

Urgent/Secondary care role: The post holder could integrate with local community or hospital-based specialist respiratory services. There will be an opportunity to clinically assess patients, arrange appropriate investigations and interpret their results, and then formulate an appropriate management plan. Patients will be assessed in a variety of settings including telephone consultation, primary care clinics, urgent treatment centres, patients homes and emergency departments. The post holder will have the support and mentorship of their community Respiratory Consultant supervisor and a locally based doctor in the setting where they are based. There is an expectation that the post holder will gain a breadth of experience across a range of healthcare settings. Due to the urgent response nature of this element of the post, the post holder will be expected to work a shift pattern with some unsociable hours during this placement.

Please note dependent on the requirements of the service there may be a winter Primary Care placement.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

Main Tasks/Overview of Responsibilities

Promote lung health

Diagnose and treat respiratory conditions

Provide education to patients and support their self-management

Improve respiratory knowledge and management in primary care

Provide education to healthcare professionals

Engage in the Trusts vision of patient and family centred care

To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of their own work, including the management of patients in your care and to ensure a high standard of clinical care for the patients under your management

Please see attached documents for the full job description.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Postgraduate Physician Associate qualification (PgDip/MSc)
• Passed Physician Associate National Examination - or awaiting results/ due to sit upcoming exam
• Registered on the Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register (PAMVR) if qualified
• Registered Member of the Faculty of Physician Associates at RCP
• Evidence of on-going personal/professional development (CPD 50 hours)

Experience

Essential

• Ability to plan, organise and prioritise own workload
• An understanding of the national policy context in respiratory care
• Knowledge of current issues within the NHS

Desirable

• Evidence of working in a clinical setting with evidence of achievements in clinical practice
• Evidence of relevant clinical experience in hospital based respiratory care

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Ability to demonstrate a high level of personal and professional accountability and autonomy
• Dynamic and able to use own initiative
• Ability to teach others
• Good problem solving and decision making skills
• Ability to manage work load effectively
• Effective communication skills, written and verbal
• IT skills (internet, databases, formatting)
• Presentation skills to a wide and varied audience
• Flexible to work at times towards the best interest of the patient
• Evidence of being a team player and work effectively in a multidisciplinary team

Desirable

• Experience in collection, collation and analysis of data for clinical audit and research

Values & Behaviours

Essential

• Patient and family centred
• Accountability
• Continuous improvement
• Teamwork

Other

Desirable

• Access to an effective method of transport and willing to use vehicle in course of duties and be insured appropriately

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

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital

Address

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital

Thomas Drive

Liverpool

Merseyside

L14 3PE

Employer's website

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