Medical Examiner Officer

Job description

Job responsibilities

To act as an intermediary between the bereaved and clinicians to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patients death. Work with medical examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation

To organise and manage the rota for the Medical Examiners to ensure daily cover. To coordinate periodic meetings, e.g. quarterly Medical Examiner meetings, to share good practice, provide peer review, feedback and highlight any issues relating to process.

To establish the circumstances of individual patient deaths by performing a preliminary review of medical records to identify clinical and circumstantial information, sourcing additional details where required, for scrutiny by the medical examiner.

To check whether any concerns/complaints have been raised by the patient, bereaved family, carers or staff, and whether any clinical incidents or adverse events occurred during the admission.

To assist in highlighting cases for assessment by the Structured Judgement Review team (SJR), Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP), Clinical Governance teams and the Learning Disability Review Teams (LeDeR).

To refer patients to the coroner for further investigation on approval by the Medical Examiner

Maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of users of the medical examiner system to ensure equality to any particular group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

Full compliance with secure handling of patient identifiable data is essential

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Educated to Batchelors degree level, or evidence of study/equivalent practical experience at an advanced level; this might include nursing and/or other clinical experience.

To have qualifications/skills in day-to-day operational/process management of a customer-facing service where users may have unpredictable and emotionally charged needs.

Highly evolved empathetic and self-awareness skills to deal with bereaved families who may have barriers to understanding information due to their grief or disability.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

To have an understanding of medical terminology that enables informed discussions about causes/circumstances of death with bereaved families, clinicians, coroner and registration service staff.

Knowledge of the statutory process around death certification legal frameworks and how the medical examiner system aligns with other related organisations and NHS initiatives.

The ability to work in a highly pressurised, unpredictable environment where bereavement care is central to the service delivery.

Specialist knowledge of various faith groups funeral wishes/practices to enable respectful compliance with tight and specific timescales and procedures.

Computer literate to use multiple IT software for recording personal identifiable data and producing statistical information for the National Medical Examiners office and Public Health surveillance.

Be able to juggle conflicting demands, prioritise tasks and deal with queries as they arise.

Identify relatives concerns and escalate them appropriately.

Full compliance with secure handling of patient identifiable data is essential.

Contribute to and review departmental policies and procedures to reflect best practice in the delivery of a medical examiner system.

Communications and Working Relationships:

The post holder will be required to communicate with bereaved relatives and the following:

Internal

• Hospital doctors
• Medical Examiners
• PALS / Bereavement Officers
• Service managers, nurses, clinical governance leads, infection control and mortuary staff.

External

• HM Coroner and officers
• Spiritual/Faith community leads
• Registrars of births and deaths
• GPs and practice staff
• Bereaved relatives, carers and executors/solicitors.
• Funeral Directors
• National Medical Examiner
• Regional leads for ME syste

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to Batchelor's degree level or equivalent working knowledge in related field.
• A commitment to life-long learning and undertaking personal development opportunities.
• Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including recently bereaved.
• Completed e-learning MEO core training modules prior to starting in the post.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with people in sensitive and emotional situations.
• Experience of working in a healthcare setting with multidisciplinary teams across organisational boundaries.

Skills

Essential

• Strong interpersonal skills demonstrating the ability to communicate in difficult and emotional situations with empathy and professionalism with all stakeholders.
• Ability to work as part of a team and organise fluctuating workload around competing priorities
• Competent in the use of IT software systems and handling sensitive personal identifiable data.
• Knowledge of the special requirements of various faith groups and respect for equality and diversity of issues around formalities following a death.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the Coroner & Justice Act 2009 reference to the medical examiner system. Full understanding of the medical examiner system operational remit.

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Proactive and self-motivated.
• Approachable and supportive to all levels of staff and bereaved families in a non-judgemental and discreet manner.
• Ability to maintain a calm manner in a range of challenging and emotive circumstances.
• Mature, adaptable & flexible approach to work
• Ability to deal with unpredictable workload and frequent interruptions yet able to meet tight deadlines when required
• Tactful & diplomatic with a high degree of discretion and initiative

Other

Essential

• Evidence of ongoing personal development
• Independent means of transport / willing to travel in the course of undertaking duties
• Ability to work occasionally outside of normal office working hours

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Warwick Hospital

Lakin Road

Warwick

CV34 5BW

Employer's website

https://www.swft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)