Surgical Advanced Clinical Practitioner

Job responsibilities

Key Result Areas:

Expertise & Excellence in Clinical Practice

Deliver evidence-based personalised and compassionate care which places quality at the heart of specialist practice in a range of clinical settings appropriate to the speciality. Care will be responsive to individual patient needs and reflect current local protocols and national guidelines.

Utilise highly developed clinical knowledge and advanced level physical examination skills as indicated by the patients condition to independently assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate treatments and interventions for patients presenting to the specialty with undifferentiated and complex presentations.

Requests and interprets appropriate investigations such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms (ECGs), ultrasound scans, and radiological investigations in accordance with IR(ME)R regulations and local policies.

Analyses multiple sources of data including patient history, physical examination and investigation findings when making diagnoses, clinical judgements and evaluating care provided.

Manage their own caseload of patients including comprehensive review of patients, requesting diagnostics, reviewing results and creating and implementing management plans within the speciality and prioritise workload to meet patient and service need.

Prescribes and reviews medication for therapeutic effectiveness appropriate to patient need and in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and local protocols and within the roles scope of practice and legal framework. This may not apply to selected ACP roles where prescribing is considered optional and the individual ACP is from an allied health profession that is legally unable to undertake an independent non-medical prescribing qualification.

Performs clinical procedures requiring highly developed skills and precision that are relevant to the speciality and appropriate to the history and physical examination of the patient.

Refer directly to senior medical colleagues, other health care professionals and specialities as required, to ensure optimal efficiency and quality of care with individual scope of practice.

Support development and implementation of personalised care pathways for the speciality through holistic needs assessment, planning, evaluation and a co-ordinated approach to care.

Act as a patient advocate to facilitate the process of shared decision-making in respect to health, choice of treatment and care. Use interpersonal and communication skills where there may be significant barriers in order to build confidence. Ensure that patients individual needs are expressed and valued and individual management plans are understood.

Empower patients to self-manage their condition, undertaking risk stratification to determine those who can self-manage following education, those who will need guided support to self-manage and those who will need ongoing face-to-face support.

Act as a resource, providing clinical expertise, specialist advice and support across service boundaries to ensure optimum liaison and co-ordination of care.

Utilise a professional portfolio and relevant speciality credentialling (where appropriate) to evidence achievement and maintenance of clinical competencies and skills relevant to the speciality.

Leadership (and Management)

Provide clinical advice and leadership to others across the organisation, acting as a role-model and demonstrating high standards of holistic care.

Support trainee practitioners including responsibility for annual appraisal where applicable.

Contribute to budget planning and management as required.

Contribute to the clinical governance agenda including risk assessment and audit.

Works in partnership with clinical and non-clinical teams in the department to drive service improvement and lead delegated projects, monitoring progress in terms of milestones and key measures of performance.

Develops and contributes to local SOPs, policies and guidelines, interpreting and adapting national protocols and standards to enhance patient care and safety.

Education

Support the development of trainee ACPs within own speciality and provide development opportunities for trainee ACPs in other specialities to ensure their access to a wide variety of clinical presentations throughout their training.

Act as a clinical supervisor in line with local, national or course specific guidance for supervisors as appropriate.

Deliver formal and informal teaching initiatives as part of the Trusts education strategy as agreed with the appropriate senior staff to ensure practice development, staff empowerment and improved care for patients.

Identify and use educational strategies to deliver complex information to patients and carers and support self-management and health promotion.

Influence the development of other professionals and promote a culture of learning by leading or contributing to relevant education and training locally or regionally.

Take personal responsibility for life-long learning and personal development through clinical supervision and appraisal. Actively engage with learning and development opportunities needed to work as an ACP and take appropriate action to ensure these needs are met and evidence in a professional portfolio e.g. trust e-portfolio.

Contribute to the Trust-wide advanced practice education agenda.

Research (including Quality, Audit, Innovation)

Attend local forums to network and debate issues to inform the Advanced Clinical Practice role and service delivery.

Use critical appraisal skills to ensure research findings are utilised appropriately in practice, SOPs and guidelines.

Support the development of a research-based culture within the clinical area and act as a resource to others in relation to evidence-based care.

Designs, coordinates and undertakes collaborative audit, research and service development into the specialty and related practices.

Shares research and innovation through publication and abstract submission to relevant healthcare conferences.

Prepares and delivers presentations and participates in workshops on a local, regional and national level, to ensure the communication of good practice.

Participate in relevant clinical trials in the department. Provide support to patients considering entry to clinical trials in relation to informed consent and advocacy.

Develop links and systems to seek the views of patient and carers to ensure research activities and service development is in line with user need and preferences

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered professional, NMC, GPC or HPC registered
• Master's Level (MSc) Degree in Advanced Practice. An MSc in another relevant subject combined with a Post Graduate Certificate (PG cert) in Advanced Practice or credentialed portfolio is an acceptable alternative.
• Recognised level 7 History taking and clinical examination/Health assessment module
• Independent Prescriber
• Evidence of continued professional development within relevant clinical speciality equivalent to local e-portfolio curriculum/capabilities in practice (CiP)
• ALS (or ILS) provider

Desirable

• Recognised Teaching Qualification
• Leadership course

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working autonomously within relevant medical speciality.
• Experience of trainee supervision and teaching
• Experience in delivering patient advocacy
• Experience in contributing to research, audit and evidence-based care
• Able to work with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders

Desirable

• Proven leadership skills
• Experience in delivering service improvement

Skills

Essential

• Demonstrable clinical and procedural skills relevant to the speciality and willingness to expand further to meet service needs.
• Advanced knowledge of the range of presentations, diagnoses and current management options within the speciality area
• Evidence of planning and organisational skills
• Proven listening and counselling skills with the ability to manage complex situations and appropriately deliver sensitive and difficult outcomes
• Ability to clinically lead and influence others
• Excellent verbal, written, interpersonal and communication skills
• Able to manage own caseload
• Able to use skills of history taking and physical assessment to direct patient care
• Excellent decision making abilities and critical thinking skills
• Able to conduct and evaluate own projects successfully
• Demonstrate an understanding of the current national issues relevant to Acute Medicine
• Knowledge of quality standards and relevant NICE guidelines, CQUINs etc
• Knowledge and use of governance and risk assessment to improve quality and service development
• Ability to carry out and evaluate audit and research
• Proficient IT and presentation skills
• Ability to write reports and maintain accurate records

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Problem solver
• Team player
• Creative thinker
• Able to perform under pressure
• Diplomatic

Other Job Requirements

Essential

• Willingness to work weekends, evenings and bank holidays
• Flexible and positive approach to work
• Able to work across the whole health economy
• Maintain trust e-portfolio to demonstrate ongoing CPD and clinical competence

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).

UK Registration

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