Job responsibilities
Job Purpose
The role of the Advanced Staff Surgical Podiatrist is to deliver high-quality Advanced Clinical care for patients presenting to Podiatric Surgery with conditions requiring treatment from the Podiatric surgery department, including but not limited to injection therapy, advanced local anesthetic blocks, surgical wound care, pre, peri and post-operative care within Community Services.
To undertake the advanced assessment and appropriate management of patients who are referred into the Podiatric Surgery service.
Dimensions
To independently undertake the detailed comprehensive assessment of patients, including those with a complex physical and medical history, using investigative and analytical skills and to formulate individualised treatment plans, using advanced clinical reasoning. Utilising a wide range of treatment skills and options to formulate a personalised advanced program of care.
Referring to the Podiatric Surgeons for situations outside skill set and/or competencies.
To use advanced clinical skills and knowledge to support the implementation of patient choice at the point of referral for surgical care.
To undertake and lead on letter and telephone triage assessment of e-referral letters and face-to-face Contact roles.
- Request, and interpret a full range of diagnostic investigations (e.g. blood tests, x-rays, MRI scans) to aid the assessment, diagnosis and appropriate treatment planning of patients referred to Podiatric Surgery, seeking the input of senior podiatric surgeons when required.
- To independently act upon the reported diagnostic findings and instigate treatments where necessary e.g. prescribing antibiotics for a post-surgical infection. Reporting to podiatric surgeons the findings and actions taken.
- To individually manage patients with foot and ankle conditions by referring on to other specialist practitioners, health professionals and specialist care (currently Secondary Care), eg, Podiatrists, Orthotists and Podiatric Surgeons, vascular consultants and advanced care nurses.
- To use advanced clinical skills and knowledge to support the implementation of patient choice at the point of referral to secondary care.
- Use advanced knowledge of Podiatric Surgical procedures to discuss possible treatment options including associated risks and benefits with service users.
- To act as a crucial source of advanced clinical reasoning/decision making on the management of foot and ankle conditions to provide advice and education to Podiatrists, GPs and other healthcare professionals. From time to time, this may also include Podiatry/Podiatric surgery Students.
Provides highly specialist clinical services. Responsible for the initial patient assessment including Collection of detailed case history information. Patient assessment and observation. Assessment procedures leading to an individual program of care. Responsibility for decisions leading to review or discharge of patients.
Use advanced knowledge to request and interpret appropriate investigations (blood screens, x-rays, MRI, ultrasound scans) using Trust online computerised systems.
Use advanced training and skills to prescribe appropriate medications within your scope of practice using FP10 forms and/or electronic formats.
- To independently screen and list patients for Podiatric Surgery through pre-surgical assessment. Expediently acting upon adverse findings during the screening process and referring to other agencies as required.
- Communicating effectively with patients during the perioperative period and independently, hold personal difficult conversations around a persons suitability for surgery at a given time.
- To co-lead audit on the clinical effectiveness of the Podiatric Surgery Service using the national PASCOM-10 system.
To use advanced knowledge and clinical skills to independently screen and list patients for procedures, eg: steroid injections and aftercare where appropriate.
To undertake a range of complex podiatric and surgical techniques including but not limited to steroid injections, wound care, administering advanced local anesthetic blocks, vascular assessments and neurological assessments.
To independently provide local anesthesia for Podiatric Surgical procedures and advise/prescribe adequate analgesia for patients post-surgically.
To lead the anesthetic team concerning administering local anesthetic blocks.
To autonomously select the appropriate local anesthetic and block technique for the procedure, assess the patient's suitability for the local anesthetic (allergies, anxiety), to calculate the maximum safe dosage, how to provide rescue anesthesia if required and accurately record in the patients record.
To autonomously provide advice on post-operative care to patients. Including the effective communication of post-surgical advice on discharge from hospital. Advising on dosages of analgesics. Prescribing analgesic drugs when required. Training and administering patients with crutches.
To autonomously treat post-operative patients: including surgical wound care, suture/percutaneous fixation removal.
To be highly skilled in the recognition signs of wound care infection/DVT and to manage such conditions within skill set.
Responsibility for decisions leading to review or discharge of patients.
To take participate in the Podiatric Surgery on-call Rota. Providing an initial point of contact out of hours for patients 24/7 with post-operative emergencies/queries. Expediently and autonomously managing any post-operative complications with face to face treatment or referral to the appropriate service, making the podiatric surgeon aware if necessary.
Use advanced skills and knowledge to form a clinical judgement on when patients need to be reviewed by a consultant Podiatric Surgeon.
Principal Accountabilities
To ensure that you keep up to date with Professional Registration requirements.
To ensure that DBS checks are undertaken as required by the Trust Policy.
- To maintain your clinical professional development (CPD) by keeping abreast of any new trends and developments, and incorporate them as necessary into your practice.
- To ensure Mandatory Training is completed out as per Trust guidelines.
To be an active member of the in-service training program by the attendance and delivery of presentations and training sessions at staff meetings and tutorials. By attending external courses and practicing reflective practice.
- To decide priorities for own work area, balancing other patient-related and professional demands, and ensure that these remain in line with the demands of the service.
- To be responsible for the equipment used in carrying out Advanced Surgical Podiatry duties, adhering to service policies including competence to use the equipment and to ensure the safe use of equipment by others through coaching, training and supervision of practice.
- To maintain accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date documentation in line with legal and service requirements, communicating assessment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports, letters and referrals to other professionals
- To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of your work including the management of patients in your care. To ensure a high standard of clinical care for the patients under your management, and support staff to do likewise.
- To be actively involved in the collection of appropriate data and statistics for the use of the department
- To be aware of health and safety aspects of your work and implement any policies, which may be required to improve the safety of your work area, including your prompt recording and reporting of incidents via Datix and to the manager and ensuring that equipment use is safe
- To comply with the organisational and departmental policies and procedures and to be involved in the reviewing and updating as of these as appropriate.
- To play an active role in the process of developing, implementing and monitoring clinical standards and clinical effectiveness within the Podiatric Surgery service
- Be an active team player, ensuring the teams delivery plans/objectives are met and ensuring these are in line with local and national initiatives and are evidence-based.
- To help manage waiting lists to provide an equitable service across the health economy.
- To assist in providing clinical advice to commissioners, GPs and other AHPs concerning the Service.
3. Contacts
Work across organisational and professional boundaries, to develop effective partnerships and inter-agency joint working under agreed strategic direction and frameworks to provide the best possible patient care.
4. Additional Information
These are the key responsibilities for the post but the job holder will also be expected to carry out duties which are appropriate to the post and the grade.
The duties and responsibilities outlined in this job description are intended to be indicative but not exhaustive of the responsibilities of the job holder. As the Trust develops, the requirements of the job may develop and change. The job description will be reviewed and updated in discussion with the jobholder.
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