Clinical Advisor

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

Call Handling Clinical

• Receive requests for assistance, treatment, or care at Integrated Urgent Care IUC, NHS 111 contact centres. This includes front-ending of calls, clinical validation and assessment and provision of support and advice to other call-handling colleagues via clinical advice line.
• Interact with individuals using telecommunications. You will manage the calls in a controlled, professional, and courteous manner, treating all patients with compassion, empathy and respect. You will receive calls from patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare professionals and undertake an assessment of presenting concerns using a Clinical Decision Support System CDSS.
• Communicate effectively in a healthcare environment with colleagues as well as callers to the IUC NHS 111 service. You will need to adjust the way you communicate to fit their knowledge and deal with callers with empathy and understanding. You will accurately record and check or amend details on the call logging computer system as well as verifying caller responses.
• Assess an individuals health status remotely, using clinical knowledge, probing and advanced communication skills in order to make decisions on the most appropriate action and provide effective home care advice to callers. You will facilitate the patient pathway through primary, secondary, community and tertiary care. This may need you to retrieve and reconcile information about an individuals medication, escalating appropriately as necessary.
• Communicate risks to health, wellbeing, and safety to a range of individuals and advise how the risks can be prevented, reduced, or controlled - ensure safe and effective evidence-based healthcare advice is offered, using a CDSS or another clinical support system.
• Use negotiation skills when necessary to establish agreement with patients on appropriate course of action to take for level of care determined. Where possible assist patients in the correct use of primary care and emergency care services and other healthcare related organisations.
• Support the safeguarding of individuals following local protocols and standards. You will relate to others in ways which support rights, inclusion, and wellbeing of individuals, supporting individuals to keep themselves safe.
• Contribute to the effectiveness of teams: work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, actively contributing to service improvements where appropriate. You will assist new colleagues and provide appropriate clinical advice and support to colleagues on care practices, delivery, and service development within your scope of practice. Provide cover for sickness, bank holidays, annual leave of other colleagues and work flexibly across sites as required by the service.

General Duties

• Act within the limits of your competence and authority, i.e. work within the parameters of your own skills and knowledge, maintaining an awareness of service and practice developments. Adhere to all organisational procedures, protocols, and other relevant memoranda as appropriate.
• Make sure your actions reduce risks to health and safety by maintaining a tidy office/contact centre at all times, cleaning equipment before use and supporting the maintenance of equipment by reporting any faults as per local procedures. Adhere to health and safety policies and report incidents, risks, complaints, and compliments identified through Ulysses or via line manager.
• Comply with legal requirements for maintaining confidentiality by maintaining strict confidentiality to all issues concerned with the service and adhere to requirements of the Data Protection Act 1984, Freedom of Information Act, Information Governance and Caldicott Principles.
• Promote the rights and diversity of individuals including promoting culture which values and respects the diversity of all individuals and their capacity to exercise their rights in the work setting.

People and Personal Development

• Make use of supervision, i.e., participate in regular supervision in line with local guidelines in order to continually improve your performance and gain support following difficult calls.
• Develop your own knowledge and practice - this includes reflecting on your practice and taking opportunities to improve your practice and apply learning in the workplace. You will maintain professional and clinical competence through mechanisms of continuing professional development.
• Monitor your own work practices. You will ensure you remain up to date with new information and system changes. You will attend meetings, essential learning and system updates as requested by managers. You will participate in regular performance reviews with managers as appropriate to individual scope of practice.
• Undertake coaching or mentoring and behave as a role model as appropriate in the development of Health Advisor and clinical triage consultation.
• Provide support to other individuals including peers, Health Advisors and Service Advisors to support their ongoing development.

Professional

• Maintain active registration with professional bodies such as NMC or HCPC.
• Work within your professional code of conduct.
• Successfully complete training on a CDSS and maintain competence in line with pre[1]defined competency framework.

Person Specification

Health

Essential

• Able to fulfil the health requirements of the post as identified in the Job Description, taking into account any reasonable adjustments recommended by Occupational Health

Practical Skills

Essential

• Able to stay calm in the event of the unexpected and work under pressure
• Effective communication and negotiation skills
• Willingness to participate in service development
• Sound clinical decision-making capabilities ability to demonstrate critical thinking
• Awareness of accountability in clinical practice
• Effective time management and able prioritise work effectively
• Understanding of confidentiality issues and Data Protection Act
• Demonstrate interest in and ability to support, coach and mentor others
• Able to demonstrate initiative and motivation
• Good level of IT skills

Experience

Essential

• Significant post-registration training/consolidation and experience
• min 2 years in adult acute or primary/community care
• Experience of working in a multiprofessional/multiagency environment
• Understanding of patient management in primary, secondary and tertiary care setting

Desirable

• Triage/telephone advice experience
• Experience of working independently
• Experience of working in primary care
• Knowledge of local primary care services including key stakeholders

Qualifications

Essential

• Regulated Health Care Professional with existing registration

Desirable

• Recognised minor injuries certificate
• Mentor/coaching qualification

Training

Essential

• Commitment to continuous learning
• Proactively maintain knowledge of current developments in clinical practice
• Complete and be up to date with mandatory training modules

General Requirements

Essential

• Must be eligible to work in the UK
• Demonstrate ability to work in a team
• Ability to deal sensitively with distressing, emotional situations
• Commitment to role with ability to work unsocial hours, including 24/7 shift work and bank holidays

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Integrated Care 24 Ltd

Address

Ashford, Kent

TN24 0GP

Employer's website

https://careers.ic24.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)