Advanced Clinical Practitioner

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work as a paramedic within a committed team working across two sites in Chislehurst. Paramedics now provide much more than just emergency care and are expected to manage a broad range of conditions. This role has emerged out of necessity, patients seeking assistance from ambulance services may have conditions that are able to be assessed and managed within the community.

We are looking to employ an experienced paramedic to support our large patient list. The successful candidate will be expected to work across the two sites.

The role is for 30 hours per week, must be able to work Monday and Friday, can be flexible on the other days. You should feel comfortable working independently as well as alongside our multi-disciplinary medical team which you will help manage routine and urgent appointments as well as telephone triage (including assessment of urgency of illness/injury) and home visits.

You will be seeing patients with long term medical conditions including same-day urgent home visits as well as routine visits to housebound patients with long term conditions for pro-active care to prevent avoidable emergency admissions. You will be patient-focused and will be responsible and capable of delivering safe, effective and appropriate treatment to patients with urgent, emergency and unscheduled healthcare needs.

The Chislehurst Partnership is a friendly high achieving suburban partnership in the London Borough of Bromley with a countryside feel. Currently operating from two sites (The Chislehurst Medical Practice & The Woodlands Practice). The Partnership is passionate about providing a friendly, supportive and caring medical service to our population. The Partnership hopes to move to a purpose-built medical centre in the future but for the time being are operating from two premises.

We have a patient list size of circa 25,000. We are a 9 Partner partnership with a team of Salaried GPs, Advanced Nurse Practitioners and a Nursing team. Our staff are friendly and hard-working and together we provide a high level of care to the local community. We are a well organised, progressive, forward-thinking Partnership. We are part of the Mottingham, Downham & Chislehurst (MDC) Primary Care Network and share across our practices a wide range of additional roles including, Clinical pharmacists, Physicians associates, Social Prescribers, a Mental Health Practitioner and Paramedic.

The Paramedic will have the following key job responsibilities, in delivering health services;

• Will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team within the practice.
• Will assess and triage patients, including same day triage, and as appropriate provide definitive treatment (including prescribing medications following policy, patient group directives, NICE (national) and local clinical guidelines and local care pathways) or make necessary referrals to other members of the primary care team.
• Will advise patients on general healthcare and promote self-management where appropriate, including signposting patients to the practices social prescribing service, and where appropriate, other community or voluntary services.
• Will provide clinical leadership within the practice.
• Will be able to: perform specialist health checks and reviews within their scope of practice and in line with local and national guidance perform and interpret ECGs perform investigatory procedures as required undertake the collection of pathological specimens including intravenous blood samples, swabs, and other samples within their scope of practice, and within local and national guidance.
• Will support the delivery of anticipatory care plans and lead certain services (monitoring blood pressure and diabetes risk of elderly patients).
• Will provide an alternative model to urgent and same day GP home visit for the partnership.
• Will communicate at all levels across organisations ensuring that an effective, person-centred service is delivered.
• Will communicate proactively and effectively with all colleagues across the multi-disciplinary team, attending and contributing to meetings as required.
• Will maintain accurate health records appropriate to the consultation, ensuring accurate completion of all necessary documentation associated with patient health care and registration with the practice.
• Will contribute to quality improvements.
• Will communicate effectively with patients, and where appropriate family members and their carers, where applicable, complex and sensitive information regarding their physical health needs, results, findings, and treatment choices.
• Will mentor and support staff in developing and maintaining clinical skills.
• Will manage a clinical caseload, dealing with presenting patients needs within a primary care setting, ensuring patient choice and ease of access to services.

The Chislehurst Partnership is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people (anyone under the age of 18) and adults. It expects all staff to share this commitment and act in such a way that safeguards and promotes the health and wellbeing of children, young people and adults.

• Staff must ensure that they are familiar with the signs and symptoms of abuse and know what to do if any such concerns are raised.
• Staff are expected to know about and how to follow safeguarding children and safeguarding adult policies.
• All employees have a contractual right and a duty to raise genuine concerns they have with their employer about malpractice, patient safety, financial impropriety or any other serious risks they consider to be in the public interest.

The duties of this post are a guide to the range of responsibilities that may be required. These may change from time to time to meet the needs of the service and/or the development needs of the post holder. This job description will be revised regularly to take account of changes within the organisational structure and the practice business plan.

The post holder will be required to undertake any other duties according to the needs of the service. This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of activities, but rather an outline of the main areas of responsibility. Any reasonable changes will be discussed and agreed with the post holder before any variations to the job description are made.

The post holder may be required to travel.

Practice Manager & Partners

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of two years experience as a paramedic
• Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-terms conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations

Desirable

• Further three years experience as a Band 6 (or equivalent) paramedic
• Evidence of service development, Electronic clinical recording systems
• EMIS, Experience working in a primary or community care setting
• Experience in Triage

Skills

Essential

• Ability to organise and prioritise workload efficiently
• Ability to exercise sound judgement when faced with conflicting pressures
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Fully IT Literate
• Ability to formulate and implement policies, procedures and protocols with the partners
• Organisation skills
• Able to work both independently and in a team
• Able to work with external service providers to ensure seamless delivery of care
• Ability to assess and manage patient risk effectively and safely
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
• Time management and ability to prioritise workload
• Able to analyse data and information, drawing out implications for the individual patient/impact on care plan
• Able to establish and maintain effective communication pathways within the organisation, the local PCT and with key external stakeholders
• Knowledge of Audit principles and evidence of participation in audit/Quality Improvement projects
• Experience of applying evidence to clinical practice

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council
• Completed two-year Consolidation of learning period as newly qualified paramedic
• Further three years experience as a Band 6 (or equivalent) paramedic
• Working towards Level 7 capability in paramedic areas of practice and (within six months of starting on the ARRS) signed off within the clinical pillar competencies of the Advance Clinical Practice Framework