POPS Junior Clinical Fellow in EGS

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Junior Clinical Fellow, in POPS (Perioperative care of Older People undergoing Surgery) team, and Emergency General Surgery.

This post is a fixed term post for 12 months.

The POPS team was formed at UHW in October 2020 as a result of NELA guidance - NELA recommends that those age 65 and over who are frail / all those age 80 and over who undergo an emergency laparotomy should receive input from a consultant geriatrician to reduce perioperative morbidity and mortality.

The POPS team has grown and now consists of a consultant geriatrician, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, physician associate and memory link worker. The team care for older surgical patients living with frailty and those with medical co-morbidities. The current service serves the emergency general surgery patient group, but quality improvement work is underway to develop a service in the elective general surgery setting in the near future.

Main duties of the job

There is an ongoing exciting programme to redesign emergency surgical services with the opening of a dedicated 24/7 same-day emergency care (SDEC) unit and acute admissions ward scheduled for 2022. This will be supported by expansion of the medical workforce and further development of advanced nurse practitioners. Included in this redesign are five day a week SDEC operating lists aimed at managing ambulatory emergency patients with same day surgery. Alongside this existing CEPOD theatre lists will be utilised for the most urgent cases. The ambition within Cardiff and Vale UHB is to develop Emergency General Surgery as a dedicated speciality while maintaining existing subspecialist input.

The appointee will be based at the University Hospital Wales working with the multidisciplinary POPS team. Daily duties would include attending the general surgery handover followed by a ward round with the POPS consultant / team. Patients will be assessed independently using the CGA (Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment) approach, to include assessments of frailty and cognition. The team case load varies with up 20 patients at any one time. Around half of referrals are following emergency laparotomy surgery (as per NELA guidance) whilst others have different surgical diagnoses in addition to frailty syndromes / co-morbidities / acute medical problem

About us

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest Integrated Health Boards in the UK, employing over 15,000 staff, providing over 100 specialist services. Working across 6 hospital sites, we have a diverse range of career opportunities to offer. Serving around 500,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, we are focussed on the health and care needs of our local population whilst working with our partners to develop regional services.

Our mission is"Caring for People, Keeping People Well" and ourvision is that every person's chance of leading a healthy life should be equal. As an organisation we are unashamedly ambitious for our population's health, rising to the challenges of today and tomorrow through our 10-year strategy, Shaping our Future Wellbeing. We are contributing to a healthier Wales with great emphasis placed on innovation and improvement, learning from around the world and leading the way in clinical research. Partnership working is strong at Cardiff and Vale, and we work closely with our staff and our community.

Cardiff, the thriving Welsh capital, is a fantastic city to live and work in with an abundance of sports, arts and cultural attractions. Situated to the west of Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan offers a combination of beautiful Welsh countryside and a dramatic natural coastline. Whether city life or rural living, Cardiffand the Vale offers the best of both worlds.