Job responsibilities
Clinical practice
• Participate in all treatment and preventative healthcare services within the network as delegated and agreed by the supervising clinicians(s)/Medical Directorate.
• Deliver clinical care according to NSF, NICE guidelines and evidence-based care
• Consult and refer patients to other appropriate healthcare professionals both internally and externally as required
• Interview patients, take medical histories, perform physical examinations, analyse, diagnose and explain medical problems during surgery consultations and home visits
• Recommend and explain appropriate diagnostic tests and treatment
• Request and interpret results of laboratory investigations when necessary
• Instruct and educate patients in preventative health care
• Conduct telephone consultations which may involve discussing the result and implications of
laboratory investigations with patients as well as dealing appropriately with routine and emergency problems
• Fully document all aspects of patient care and complete all required paperwork for legal and administrative purposes
• Contribute to the clinical development by helping in establishing appropriate systems to manage common chronic medical conditions, ensuring compliance with NSF guidelines, QOF and other quality initiatives as required
Delivering a quality service
• Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by NCCPA.
• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedure
• Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality
• Assess effectiveness of care delivery through self and peer review, benchmarking and formal evaluation
• Utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required
• In partnership with other clinical teams, collaborate on improving the quality of health care responding to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate
• Evaluate patients’ response to health care provision and the effectiveness of care
• Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation
• Use a structured framework (e.g. root-cause analysis) to manage, review and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents and near-miss events
• Assess the impact of policy implementation on care delivery
• Understand and apply legal issues that support the identification of vulnerable and abused children and adults, and be aware of statutory child/vulnerable patients health procedures and local guidance
Leadership – personal and people development
• Ensure continuing education, training and development is undertaken to meet clinical governance guidelines for Continuing Professional Development and a Personal Development Plan.
• Keep up to date with relevant medical research and evidence-based medical practice by attending continuing education courses and professional meetings, reading journals etc.
• Take the national re-certification exam every six years in accordance with the NCCPA (National Commission of Certification of Physician Assistants)
• Perform a variety of research and analysis tasks associated with improvement of clinical care, medical diagnosis and treatment where appropriate using the following means:
Review of relevant literature
Audit of clinical practice
- Research unusual symptoms and treatment options through consultation with General Practitioners, Physicians and other specialists
• Attend regular multi-disciplinary meetings organised by the practices/network in order to discuss and learn from recent significant events relating to clinical practice occurring within the practices/network and in order to keep up-to-date with all practice issues and developments, clinical commissioning and other relevant local and national arrangements and to discuss specific issues with relevant colleagues regularly
• Attend regular educational meetings organised by the Alliance in order to update clinical knowledge, practice policy and guidelines and disseminate other useful information relevant to the provision of adequate healthcare for patients
• Regularly reflect on own practice (and keep a record of learning encounters) in order to identify learning needs and encourage self-directed lifelong learning and continued professional development
• Actively promote the workplace as a learning environment, encouraging everyone to learn from each other and from external good practice
• Critically evaluate and review innovations and developments that are relevant to the area of work
Team working
• Understand own role and scope and identify how this may develop over time
• Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working
• Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence
• Prioritise own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded within the culture of the team
• Work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery
• Discuss, highlight and work with the team to create opportunities to improve patient care
• Manage and lead on the delivery of specifically identified services or projects as agreed with the Medical Directorate.
• Agree plans and outcomes by which to measure success
• Flexibility in working across all sites and in times of working across the day as required by the network.
Management of risk
• Manage and assess risk within the areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to protect staff and patients.
• Monitor work areas and practices to ensure they are safe and free from hazards and conform to health, safety and security legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines.
• Apply infection-control measures within the practices according to local and national guidelines
• Advocate for policies that reduce environmental health risks, are culturally sensitive and increase access to health care for all
• Interpret national strategies and policies into local implementation strategies that are aligned to the values and culture of general practice.
Managing information
• Use technology and appropriate software as an aid to management in planning, implementation and monitoring of care, presenting and communicating information
• Review and process data using accurate read codes in order to ensure easy and accurate information retrieval for monitoring and audit processes
• Manage information searches using the internet and local library databases
• Understand responsibility of self and others to the practices and primary care network trust regarding the Freedom and Information Act
• Collate, analyse and present clinical data and information to the team
• Participating in the health promotion, health education, QOF and the chronic disease management programmes within the practice, which may include CHD, anticoagulation and other developing requirements as well as keeping abreast of National/local directives.
Learning and development
• Disseminate learning and information gained to other team members in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments (eg courses and conferences)
• Participation in appraisal system, practice meetings and other team meetings and in house educational events organised by the Alliance
• Assess own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate
• Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning.
