Job responsibilities
Job Summary
The post holder will be expected to work within the existing Advanced
Clinical Practice (ACP) team. As a qualified or trainee ACP, the post holder is
expected to hold or be working towards an MSc level award or equivalent, and
demonstrate the competencies and capabilities outlined within the
multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice, encompassing the
four pillars of clinical practice.
This role is predominantly focused on the autonomous assessment,
investigation and management of patients presenting with urgent problems within
the primary care setting. Therefore an ability to manage the complexity,
uncertainty and risk associated with undifferentiated and undiagnosed
conditions is essential. The post holder must demonstrate expert level clinical
decision making and critical reasoning skills, based upon both a breadth and
depth of relevant underpinning knowledge and experience.
Established ACPs are encouraged to diversify their role and develop areas
of special interest, including but not limited to home visits/frailty, womens
health or cardiovascular; this aids innovative service delivery and offers
opportunity for the provision of specialist clinics. Educational sessions,
provided by those with areas of special interest, benefit both individual
clinicians and the wider team. It is expected that the post holder would
demonstrate an awareness of ones own requirement for continuing professional
development, whilst engaging in both receiving and facilitating learning within
the team.
Primary
Duties and area of responsibilities
Clinical
Practice:
The post holder will:
Deliver a high standard of care using advanced
clinical skills and in-depth theoretical knowledge.
Provide the first point of contact for clinical
queries from the Patient Advisors on the Unscheduled Care Team, providing
specialist advice and support.
Be responsible for telephone triage of patients.
Undertake Unscheduled Care clinics for patients who
need to be seen on the day.
Undertake home visits as part of the visiting team.
Practise in compliance with respective code of
professional conduct and within own scope of practice, being responsible and
accountable for decisions and actions.
Clinically examine, assess, diagnose, plan
implement and evaluate treatment/ interventions and care for patients, using
expertise and decision-making skills to inform clinical reasoning approaches
when dealing with differentiated and undifferentiated individual presentations
and complex situations; using information from multiple sources to make
appropriate, evidence-based judgements and/or diagnoses.
Diagnose and manage both acute and chronic
conditions, initiating, evaluating and modifying a range of interventions which
may include prescribing and reviewing medicines for therapeutic effectiveness
(appropriate to patient need and in accordance with evidence based practice and
national protocols within scope of practice) , therapies, life style advice and
care into a management plan.
Work in partnership with individuals, families and
carers, using a range of assessment methods as appropriate (e.g. of
history-taking; holistic assessment; identifying risk factors; mental health
assessments; requesting, undertaking and/or interpreting diagnostic tests; and
conducting health needs assessments).
Offer a holistic service to patients and their
families, supporting people in making decisions, planning care or seeking to
make positive changes, with an emphasis on health promotion and self-care.
Where the post holder is an independent prescriber:
to prescribe safe, effective and appropriate medication in line with current
guidance and legislation.
Work with patients in order to support compliance
with and adherence to prescribed treatments, providing information and advice
on prescribed or over the counter medication on medication regimens, side
effects and interactions.
Support and manage health needs of women presenting
for family planning or sexual health consultation.
Assess, identify and refer patients presenting with
mental health needs in accordance with the NSF for Mental Health
Collaborate with other members of the Primary
Health Care Team, accepting referrals and referring to them.
Refer patients directly to other services and
agencies as appropriate.
Exercise professional judgement to manage risk
appropriately, especially where there may be complex and unpredictable events
and supporting teams to do likewise to ensure safety of individuals, families
and carers.
Act as a clinical role model/advocate for
developing and delivering care that is responsive to changing requirements,
informed by an understanding of local population health needs, agencies and
networks.
Deliver care according to NSF, NICE guidelines and
evidence-based care.
To record accurate data in the patient records to
an agreed standard.
Leadership
and management
The post holder will:
Pro-actively initiate and develop effective
relationships, fostering clarity of roles within teams, to encourage productive
working.
Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a
manner that maintains and promotes quality.
Role model the values of the Practice,
demonstrating a person-centred approach to service delivery and development.
Evaluate own practice, and participate in
multi-disciplinary service and team evaluation, demonstrating the impact of
advanced clinical practice on service function and effectiveness, and quality
(i.e. outcomes of care, experience and safety).
Actively engage in peer review to inform own and others
practice, formulating and implementing strategies to act on learning and make improvements.
Help the practice operate cost-effectively.
Actively seek feedback and involvement from individuals,
families, carers, communities and to help improve services.
Critically apply advanced clinical expertise to
enhance quality, reduce unwarranted variation and promote the sharing and
adoption of best practice.
Demonstrate team leadership, resilience and determination,
managing situations that are unfamiliar, complex or unpredictable and seeking
to build confidence in others.
Continually develop practice in response to changing
population health need, engaging in horizon scanning for future developments
(e.g. impacts of genomics, new treatments and changing social challenges).
Attend and contribute to the UC planning meetings.
Demonstrate receptiveness to challenge and
preparedness to constructively challenge others, escalating concerns that
affect individuals, families, carers, communities and colleagues safety
and well-being when necessary.
Education, teaching and mentoring
The post holder will:
Maintain a clinical portfolio that evidences
advanced health assessment skills and competencies. Assess and address own learning needs, growing
a personal development plan that reflects the breadth of ongoing professional
development across the four pillars of advanced clinical practice.
Engage in self-directed learning, critically
reflecting to maximise clinical skills and knowledge, as well as own potential
to lead and develop both care and services.
Participate in regular performance review with
clinical supervisor and take part in the annual appraisal review where personal
learning requirements will be identified and in accordance with Practice
requirements.
Undertake further specialist training as required
by service needs and the changing requirements of service provision
Advocate for and contribute to a culture of
organisational learning to inspire future and existing staff.
Promote a learning environment for patients,
clinicians and other members of the Practice
Share learning and best practice, contributing to the
learning experience of medical and clinical staff in practice such as medical
students, nurse students, GP Registrars etc.
Provide supervision and coaching/ mentoring to
others in the practice to help development of the practice team.
Take part in the in house education events,
delivering sessions where appropriate
Research
The post
holder will:
Engage in research activity, adhering to good
research practice guidance, so that evidence based strategies are developed and
applied to enhance quality, safety, productivity and value for money.
Monitor the effectiveness of their own clinical
practice through quality assurance strategies such as the use of audit and peer
review, using the results to underpin own practice and to inform that of
others.
Support and participate in shared learning across
the practice and wider organisation
Take a critical approach to identify gaps in the
evidence base and its application to practice, alerting appropriate individuals
and organisations to these and how they might be addressed in a safe and
pragmatic way.
Actively identify potential need for further
research to strengthen evidence for best practice.
Disseminate best practice research findings and
quality improvement projects
Facilitate collaborative links between clinical
practice and research through proactive engagement, networking with academic,
clinical and other active researchers, including Practice Research team
