Physician Associate

Job responsibilities

Under supervision of a GP, you will be required to:

Work clinical sessions consisting of either telephone triage appointments, face to face appointments or both.

Conduct home visits, acute (on the day) and chronic (holistic assessments).

Triage incoming pathology results and documents.

Act upon alerts (e.g., QOF, local enhanced services etc.) and reminders during a consultation.

Undertake surgeries during extended hours in accordance with the access needs of the practice population and the contractual obligation of the practice.

Respond to medical problems presented by patients, including history taking and examination.

Provide confidence to supervising GP in your findings and in you using your clinical findings to justify the differential diagnosis.

Organise investigation, treatment, and referral where appropriate.

Be confident in explaining to patients their clinical management plan and able to modify plan according to age and comorbidity.

Develop consultation skills to enable shared patient practitioner decision.

Be able to justify choice of medication. Able to understand the impact of comorbidities and other medications, polypharmacy) on agent choice and prognosis.

Provide appropriate preventative health care and advice.

Provide medical support as required to patients referred by nursing staff.

Adhere to the practice prescribing formulary, local and national guidelines.

Under supervision of the GPs in the practice, make professional, autonomous decisions in relation to presenting problems, whether self-referred or referred from other health care workers within the organisation.

Record clear and contemporaneous IT based consultation notes to agreed standards. (Using GP IT Clinical recording system and agreed templates)

Collect data for audit purposes.

Attend clinical and practice meetings.

Provide additional enhanced services to the practices that meet the needs of the practices’ patient population and maximise the income streams to the practice.

Undertake additional training where necessary to provide these enhanced services.

Awareness of and compliance with all relevant practice policies/guidelines, e.g., prescribing, confidentiality, data protection, health and safety, annual QOF Assessment of the Practice.

Meet timescales/deadlines for audits and written returns to ensure that the Practice meets quality standards and receives the designated funding (e.g., Quarterly Enhanced Services returns, annual QOF audit etc.).

Under supervision of the GPs in the practice, make professional, autonomous decisions in relation to presenting problems, whether self-referred or referred from other health care workers within the organisation.

To work collaboratively with other practice staff, including those who are not directly employed by the practice.

Participate in annual appraisal which will include staff multi source feedback (MSF) and patient survey.

Participate in teaching and training of medical, nursing, paramedic, and physician associate students.

Participate in and support other staff in ensuring the practice meets targets in QoF and Enhanced Services.

Supporting the practice staff and responding to requests for advice and assistance from the practice reception, secretarial and nursing staff.

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.

Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data.

This responsibility lasts in perpetuity.

Qualifications

Essential

• Postgraduate Diploma/Master in Physician Associate from an accredited UK University.
• Bachelor Degree in Life Science/Biomedical/Nursing or Allied Health Science.
• Member of Faculty of Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register (PAMVR).
• Valid national certification and re-certification every six years as stipulated by PAMVR.
• For USA trained candidates: Current and valid certification with the National Commission on Certification for Physician Assistants (NCCPA).
• Good communication and empathy skills with patients.
• Evidence of willingness to participate in a multi-disciplinary team environment to provide an integrated service.
• Ability to work as a member of a team, both through communication and sharing workload.
• Ability to manage high pressure situations e.g. clinical crisis.
• Ability to prioritise and organise workload and co-ordinate staff.
• Ability to integrate the care of a patient by many and various other clinical staff.
• Willingness to work flexibly to deliver clinically effective and cost effective healthcare.

Desirable

• Basic, Intermediate or Advanced Life Support.
• Evidence of continual learning and development.
• Understands self (strengths and weaknesses) and impact of behaviour on others.
• Evidence of innovation.
• Ability to use word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and internet browser.

Audit and research

Desirable

• Critical appraisal skills.
• Knowledge of Audit principles and evidence of participation in and completion of audit projects.
• Evidence of knowledge of research methodology.

Experience

Desirable

• Experience working as a Physician Associate in hospital or in a community setting.
• Any desirable / additional speciality specific requirements.
• Understanding current issues within the speciality and the future direction of the speciality.
• Understanding current issues within the wider NHS.
• Shows ability to work with and lead others across professions.

Teaching and training

Desirable

• Experience of and enthusiasm for clinical teaching of multi-disciplinary students and qualified staff when appropriate.
• Experience in mentoring students.
• Attendance at relevant teaching course.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).