Physician Associate

Job responsibilities

Job summary

As a PA you will be acting within your professional boundaries, providing care for patients from initial history taking, clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of their care under the supervision of a GP. You will demonstrate safe, clinical decision-making and expert care for patients within the general practice, in consultation with the duty GP. You will work with the multi-disciplinary general practice team to support the delivery of policy and procedures and meet the needs of patients.

Mentorship and supervision will be provided by designated senior medical personnel. The level and type of supervision will be dependent on the post holders skills and knowledge and determined by the organisations clinical governance arrangements. You will follow recommended annual appraisals and continuing professional development set out by the Faculty of Physician Associates (FPA).

1. SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

To deliver a high standard of patient care using advanced autonomous clinical skills with in-depth theoretical knowledge and evidence based practice working under the supervision of a GP

To manage a clinical caseload and deal with presenting patients needs in a primary care setting

To provide clinical leadership where appropriate within the practice and support other members of the team to develop and maintain clinical skills appropriate to your role and expertise.

2. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

See person spec

3. PRIMARY DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical

The post holder will be under appropriate supervision:

• Provide first point of contact for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems, utilising history taking, physical examination, problem-solving and clinical decision-making skills to establish a working diagnosis and management plan working in partnership with patients.
• Undertake as agreed surgery based consultations for emergency or routine problems including management of long term conditions. In addition, undertake telephone consultations / home visits and participate in duty rotas
• Instigate necessary invasive and non-invasive diagnostic tests or investigations and interpret findings/reports within the scope of a PAs practice. Discuss the result and implications of laboratory investigations with patients
• Utilise clinical guidelines and promote evidence-based practice
• Offer a holistic service to patients and their families, developing where appropriate an on-going plan of care/support with an emphasis on prevention and self-care
• Refer patients directly to other services or agencies using appropriate referral pathways
• Ensure safe handover of care within and outside the practice as appropriate
• Work directly with members of the practice primary health care team and support integrated patient centred care through appropriate working with wider primary care / social care networks
• Identify community health needs and participate in the development of patient/family-centred strategies to address them
• Contribute to the practice quality targets to consistently achieve high standards of safe, evidence-based, cost-effective patient care and service delivery

Training and development

• Participate in continuing professional development opportunities to keep up-to-date with evidence-based knowledge and competence in all aspects of the role to meet clinical governance guidelines for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and a Personal Development Plan (PDP) utilising a reflective approach to practice. This requires 50 hours of CPD every year: a minimum of 25 hours must be in accredited direct learning programmes

• Undertake a variety of research and analysis tasks associated with the improvement of clinical care, medical diagnosis and treatment where appropriate using the following means.
• Audit of clinical practice
• Significant event review / root cause analysis
• Review of relevant literature
• Research unusual symptoms and treatment options through consultation with general practitioners, physicians and other specialists
• Promote and support a learning culture within the practice and assist in clinical instruction, mentoring and supervision of medical, nursing or physician associate students and other learners that may periodically be attached to the practice
• Contribute to regular multi-disciplinary and or practice educational meetings
• Participate in multi-disciplinary protocol and patient group directions (PGDs) development as appropriate
• Work closely with other clinical staff and administrative managers in the setting up and/or improving of practice systems for monitoring/measuring performance against Clinical Governance and Quality Indicator targets

Administration

• Fully document all aspects of patient care and complete all required paperwork for legal and administrative purposes in accordance with relevant standards
• Work in accordance with internal administrative systems relating to but not limited to the management of clinical data,

• Send and receive written information on behalf of the practice relating to the physical and social welfare of patients
• Work closely with other clinical staff and administrative managers in the setting up and/or improving of practice systems for monitoring/measuring performance against Clinical Governance and Quality Indicator targets and work to deliver the NHS contract pertinent to the practice including the terms of the Quality and Outcomes Framework and locally enhanced services
• Ensure that all practice policies are fully implemented
• Support, contribute to and participate in external inspections

4. Professional

• Take the UK PA National Re-Certification Exam every six years - required for Physician Associates AND maintain your professional registration working within the latest Code of Professional Conduct (CIPD)
• Undertake statutory and mandatory training as required by the practice
• Demonstrate clinical leadership
• Pro-actively promote the role of the PA within the practice and externally to key stakeholders and agencies
• Respect patient confidentiality at all times and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.

5. Health and Safety

• Comply at all times with the practice health and safety policies by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System (IRS)
• Comply with the Data Protection Act (1984) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).

6. Equality and Diversity

Co-operate with all policies and procedures designed to support equality of employment. Co-workers, patients and visitors must be treated equally irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.

7. Communication and working relationships

• Establish and maintain effective communication pathways with all practice staff and visiting clinical team members such as district nurses, modern matrons, health visitors etc.

8. Job Description

• This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to take into account developments within the practice.

Our commitment to you

• We will provide a supportive learning environment, especially structured in the first preceptorship year

• We will help you set out and revise specific educational goals
• We will ensure appropriate clinical supervision
• You will receive regular appraisals,
• You will be supported and financed to attend agreed CPD i.e. 25 hours courses/conferences and expected to do another 25 hours of learning which can be practice based audits, teaching students or personal study and reflection
• We will develop a system to facilitate a smooth process for the management of signing off X-ray requests and prescriptions

Experience

Essential

• Demonstrable patient assessment skills
• Demonstrates an in depth knowledge of related medical conditions, treatments and pharmacology
• Experience of supporting doctors in clinical decision making
• Ability to work autonomously within the scope of supervised practice
• Detailed knowledge of maintaining confidentiality and implementing data protection legislation requirements including information governance
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload effectively
• Ability to exercise sound judgement when faced with conflicting pressures
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• IT literate
• Knowledge of Audit principles and evidence of participation in audit / Quality Improvement projects
• Experience of applying evidence to clinical practice
• Good communication and empathy skills with patients
• Evidence of willingness to participate in a multi-disciplinary team environment to provide and integrated service for patients
• 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
• Willingness to work flexibly to deliver clinically effective and cost effective healthcare
• Evidence of continual learning and development

Desirable

• Experience of general practice and or secondary care
• Any desirable or additional specialty specific requirements
• Experience and enthusiasm for clinical teaching of multi-disciplinary students and qualified staff when appropriate
• Critical appraisal skills
• Evidence of knowledge of research methodology
• Understands self - strengths and weaknesses and impact of behaviour on others
• Evidence of innovation

Qualifications

Essential

• Must be a Member of the Faculty of Physician Associates at the RCP, which includes registration on the UK Physician Associate Register (the PA Managed Voluntary Register) until such time that statutory regulation of PAs is achieved
• Current and valid certification or re-certification by the UK Physician Associate National Examination
• 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 recertification every six years stipulated by PAMVR
• For USA trained candidates: Current and valid certification with the National Commission on Certification for Physician Assistants (NCCPA)

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).