Job responsibilities
- To be an expert clinical practitioner, who ensures patients receive high quality clinical care including medical diagnosis.
- To be a motivated, dynamic practitioner, striving for improvement in care and practice.
- To monitor quality and continuity of patient care, actively participate in clinical audit, taking action to address improvements required.
- To ensure care is based and planned on an individual assessment for a positive patient experience.
- To ensure effective treatment planning and health promotion is carried out.
- To ensure accurate documentation of all care given.
- To communicate effectively with patients, relatives and colleagues.
To be accountable for quality governance within own area of practice.
- To exercise authority and accountability within their sphere of influence.
- To act as a role model and expert clinician, providing support and guidance to all staff delivering care to patients.
- To represent the team and role within the practice and elsewhere as requested, promoting the organisation through local and national activity.
- To access patients at point of entry into health care system with undifferentiated undiagnosed problems.
- To take responsibility for making autonomous decisions in relation to patient care.
- Using advanced assessment skills of history taking and clinical examination, make a diagnosis and initiate an appropriate care plan including necessary tests or referral.
- To promote health and screening in relation to primary prevention.
- Gain an understanding of chronic disease management, develop competence in this area and access training.
- To prescribe within parameters according to prescribing authority for extended and supplementary prescribing.
- To participate in the development and implementation of service/ICB guidelines and protocols.
- Provide expert clinical advice and support to peers.
- Work with nursing and medical teams in providing proactive management of patients with chronic disease according to local strategies.
- Attend training events to maintain professional development.
Ensure confidentiality is maintained at all times as per Caldicott requirements.
Clinical and Professional Leadership:
- To act as a professional role model using appropriate language to address patients and following practice standards in care delivery.
- To champion patient-centred care planning, ensuring staff and patients understand Advanced Practitioner role.
- To uphold Nursing and Midwifery Council/Health and Care Professional Council code and standards, including record keeping and medicines management.
- To be visible and available for patients and carers to discuss care plan or concerns.
- To be responsible with others for clinical supervision, development and training programme for the advanced clinical practitioner team.
To autonomously assess and treat patients with complex clinical needs.
- To communicate effectively in difficult and sensitive situations with patients and carers.
- To use alternative methods of communication in complex situations to gain information required to reach a differential diagnosis and treatment plan.
- To assimilate highly complex strands of information autonomously to reach a differential diagnosis, order appropriate investigations and begin first line treatments in line with local and national guidelines.
- Autonomously use skills of analysis to re-assess patients to judge effectiveness of prescribed treatments and interpret results of investigations in complex cases.
- To deal with patients and relatives in highly sensitive situations, using skills of analysis and judgement to ensure best practice and outcomes.
- To autonomously assimilate and interpret complex information to reach clinical decisions on managing or referring patients on to other specialities.
- To use advanced clinical skills.
- Educational and Practice Development:
- To complete and maintain personal portfolio of skills ensuring possession of current, relevant knowledge and expertise to practice safely and effectively.
- To act as an independent prescriber.
- To be held to account for, and continuously improve skills, competence, capability and knowledge to meet service need.
- To keep up to date with practice and clinical developments.
- To contribute to the learning environment, taking a role in teaching, mentoring and supervising others.
To facilitate training for all members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team.
- To develop evidence-based policies and procedures required by the team and develop clinical competencies for these.
Strategic Development of Primary Care Services:
- Contributes to strategic development of primary care and public health services to meet patient and population needs within the practice and across the wider organisation.
- Works/liaises across multi-professional and agency boundaries.
Works at the forefront of practice innovation.
- Determines how to deal with ambiguous or unique problems to develop and advance primary care services for the benefit of patients, carers and communities.
- Recognition and involvement in the Practice as a teaching unit and helps drive training, including trainee ACPs.
Research, Audit and Evaluation:
- To be actively involved in audit with a view to being involved in an agreed number of audits per year, including responsibility for disseminating outcomes with action plans.
- To provide assurance that care is delivered to standards set by the practice through audit and reporting process.
- To promote and support innovative practice and ensure relevant research findings are incorporated into practice.
- To indicate and support research projects in own team and Clinical team disseminating results for improvement in advanced practice and clinical standards.
- To ensure practice is evidence-based and promote advanced practice and medical ownership of change, within practice policy and procedure guidelines.
Personal and Professional Development:
- To adhere to Nursing and Midwifery Council/Health and Care Professional Council Code of Conduct.
- To undertake CPD activity linked to annual development review process.
- To engage in peer support structures through a variety of activity including meetings, action learning sets and e-learning/e-communications.
- To access designated medical supervisor for guidance, support and clinical advice.
- Maintain portfolio of evidence demonstrating clinical and professional capability and competence.
- Take a lead role to provide high quality patient care.
- Take an active role in clinical governance, particularly clinical audit, guidelines and protocols.
- Contribute and access clinical supervision.
- Provide evidence of ongoing personal development through appraisal and review.
- Understand and access ICB policies and infrastructure.
- To be aware of and utilise risk management strategies (clinical and organisational).
- Attend practice meetings.
- Liaise with providers of care and agencies.
Set up and monitor developments in own practice.
Maintain registration with relevant regulatory body.
Communication:
The post-holder should recognise importance of effective communication within the team and wider practice teams and will strive to:
- Communicate effectively with other team members to build positive relationships.
- Adapt communication style where appropriate.
- Work effectively with all functions to deliver partnership aims.
Quality:
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality and will:
- Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.
- Assess own performance and take accountability for actions, either directly or under supervision.
- Contribute to team effectiveness by reflecting on activities and making suggestions to improve performance.
- Work effectively with individuals in other agencies.
Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.
Confidentiality:
- In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately
- In the performance of the duties outlined in this Job Description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential.
Contribution to Implementation of Services:
The post holder will:
- Apply practice policies, standards and guidance.
- Discuss with other team members how policies, standards and guidelines will affect own work.
Health & Safety:
The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining own and others health, safety and security as defined in the Health & Safety Policy:
- Using security systems according to guidelines.
- Identifying risks involved in work activities and managing them.
- Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills.
- Using infection control procedures, maintaining work areas tidy and safe.
Reporting potential risks identified.
Equality and Diversity:
The post-holder will support equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues:
- Act in a way recognising importance of peoples rights, consistent with practice procedures, policies and legislation.
- Respect privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.
- Behave in a welcoming, non-judgmental manner, respecting individual circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights.
- The post-holder will abide by the equal opportunities policy contained within the employee handbook
Note:
This job description is not intended to form part of the contract of employment or to be a complete list of duties, but is a guide. It will be periodically reviewed.
