Practice Paramedic

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE:

Practice Paramedic

JOB SUMMARY

As a member of the clinical team, to be responsible for providing high quality care and services, including minor illness, acute care, chronic disease management, and health promotion within the surgery and to those that are housebound.

To work as an autonomous practitioner.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• To assess and diagnose patients that request an acute home visit.

• Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the HCPC)

• Provide care for patients presenting in the minor illness clinic and those that are housebound with minor illnesses and urgent on the day appointments.

• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures

• Make professionally autonomous decisions

• Instigate necessary invasive and non-invasive diagnostic tests or investigations and interpret findings/reports.

• Provide safe, evidence-based, cost-effective, individualised patient care

• Refer to the duty doctor as necessary

• Refer patients to other agencies, secondary care as appropriate and complete the referral paperwork accurately, liaising with secretarial team if required

• Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality

• Manage, interpret and act on blood and other diagnostic test results onto the clinical system.

Clinical

· To identify and undertake specialist tasks, to include minor illness consultations within the surgery as required

· Provide care for patients presenting in the minor illness clinic and those that are housebound with minor illnesses and urgent on the day appointments.

· Provide a first point of contact within the Practice for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems, making use of skills in history taking, physical examination, problem-solving and clinical decision-making, to establish a diagnosis and management plan.

· Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures

· Make professionally autonomous decisions

· Instigate necessary invasive and non-invasive diagnostic tests or investigations and interpret findings/reports.

· Provide safe, evidence-based, cost-effective, individualised patient care

· Refer patients to other agencies, secondary care as appropriate and complete the referral paperwork accurately, liaising with secretarial team if required

· 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

· Undertake mandatory and statutory training

· Apply infection control measures within the practice according to local and national guidelines

· Adhere to policies that reduce environmental health risks, are culturally sensitive and increase access to health care for all

· Participate in the local implementation strategies that are aligned to the values and culture of general practice

Administration

· Maintaining contemporaneous notes

· Meeting attendance – Clinical Governance, MDT and Team meetings

· Individual rota management

· Mentorship of junior colleagues

· Understand own role and scope in the organisation 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

Management

· Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence of those taking on delegated duties

· Ensure clear understanding and utilisation of referral mechanisms within the practice

· Accept delegation from other nurses, prioritise own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded in own practice

· Work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery. Participate in team activities that create opportunities to improve patient care

· Participate in and support local projects as agreed with the practice management team

· Identify patterns of discrimination, take action to overcome this and promote diversity and quality of opportunity

· Enable others to promote equality and diversity in a non-discriminatory culture

· Support people who need assistance in exercising their rights

· Monitor and evaluate adherence to local chaperoning policies

· Act as a role model in good practice relating to equality and diversity

· Accept the rights of individuals to choose their care providers, participate in care and refuse care.

· Assist patients from marginalised groups to access quality care

Quality

· Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures

· Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality

· Deliver care according to the NSF and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines

· Assess effectiveness of care delivery through self and peer review, supervision, benchmarking and formal evaluation

· Participate in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the organisation and its activities

· 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 the patients’ response to health care provision and the effectiveness of care

· Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation

· Participate in the management, review and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents and near-miss events utilising a structured framework

· Participate in the performance monitoring review of the team, providing feedback as appropriate

·

Financial and

Physical

Resources

• Use technology as an aid to management in planning, implementation and monitoring, presenting and communicating information

• Review and process data using accurate Read codes about patients in order to ensure easy and accurate retrieval for monitoring and audit processes

• Manage information searches using the internet and local library databases, for example, the retrieval of relevant information for patients on their condition

• Understand own and others responsibility to the individual organisation regarding the Freedom of Information Act

• Collate, analyse and present clinical data and information to the team using appropriate charts and/or graphs to enhance care

Supervision

· Act as mentor to students, and junior colleagues assessing competence against set standards as requested and if appropriately qualified

· Disseminate learning and information gained to other team members in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments

· Assess own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate

· Make effective use of learning opportunities within and outside the workplace, evaluating their effectiveness and feeding back relevant information

· Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning

Communication

· Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment.

· Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating

· Utilise communication skills to support patients to adhere to prescribed treatment regimens

· Anticipate barriers to communication and take action to improve communication

· Maintain effective communication with individuals and groups within the practice environment and external stakeholders

PERSON SPECIFICATION

JOB TITLE: Practice Paramedic

ATTRIBUTES

Education/Qualification/Training:

Emergency care

Practitioner trained to degree level with evidence of Continued Professional

development

Extended and supplementary prescribing

Post graduate diploma in n either Minor Illness or A&E care or equivalent.

Experience:

Minimum of 2 years’ experience in either primary care, A&E or an acute setting.

Minor Illness / Triage care

Home visit assessment of patients

Previous experience of Autonomous practice in a community or practice setting

Management of chronic disease conditions in general practice, i.e.

Diabetes, Asthma/COPD,

Heart Disease, Dementia Previous experience in developing service provision

Knowledge and Skills

Understanding of issues and developments in Primary Care

Advanced clinical practice

Job Types: Full-time, Contract

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 24 months

Salary: From £41,723.00 per year

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift
• Monday to Friday

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Dunstable, LU6 3SU: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Work Location: One location