Job summary
The post holder will work alongside the Senior Medical Examiner Officer in supporting the Hospital Medical Examiners, in ensuring a robust death certification system, providing assurance to the bereaved relatives through appropriate discussion regarding circumstances and cause of death. The post holder will support the Medical Examiners in the legislative requirements following a patient and community death, working in close association with the Senior Medical Examiner Officer and Medical Examiners in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death, reporting deaths to the District Coroner and liaising with the coroner's service on a daily basis.
Main duties of the job
To act as an intermediary between the Bereaved families, Senior MEO and Medical Examiners in order to assess/establish if there are any concerns relating to death/hospital care.
To give support in the integration and implementation of systems and processes relating to the ME role service and the national learning from death strategy. To work in liaison and communicative links between the Senior MEO, Medical Examiners, Consultants, Juniors doctors and bereavement officers.
Will liaise with Consultants and junior doctors in relation to the circumstances of death and to assist in training, giving guidance to junior doctors in the death certification process.
To work collaboratively with the Senior MEO, Medical Examiner's and Trust leads with internal and external stake holders for the purpose of ensuring statutory requirements are maintained.
To ensure that the Medical Examiner Service and LFD processes, principles and standards are maintained, engaging and accessing information required for contributing to national and internal death reporting requirements.
While also doing the Mandatory Scrutiny of Community Deaths, working with GPs, care homes and any other community providers.
About us
Our Organisation
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop's Stortford, and St Margaret's Hospital in Epping.
We employ 3,500 staff and serve a local population of around 350,000 people living in west Essex and east Hertfordshire, centred on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Epping. Our extended catchment area incorporates a population of up to 500,000 and includes the areas of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.
Our Values
The Princess Alexandra Promise to our patients as identified by our 3 values which will contribute to improving our patient experiences:
Patient at heart - Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts
Everyday excellence - Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both
Creative collaboration - Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care
The Trust believes in investing in all our staff and rewarding high standards of care whilst building for excellence and in return we expect our staff to uphold the Trust values to the highest level.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached Job description and person specification for the full job details. This is available to download at any time.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached Job description and person specification for the full job details. This is available to download at any time.
Person Specification
Knowledge & Experience.
Essential
- Knowledge of Medical Examiners Service,
Desirable
- To be of a empathetic, understanding, patient and considerate nature
Qualifications & Training
Essential
- Experience of Bereavement and evidence of practical experience
- Knowledge of Medical Examiners Service
- Experience of working in a hospital/ healthcare setting with multidisciplinary teams across organisational boundaries
- Experience of working in a customer-facing service where users may have unpredictable and emotionally charged needs
- Maintains and develops own knowledge and skills through appraisal, participation in further training in order to sustain and enhance a high quality service to patients
- Strong interpersonal skills demonstrating the ability to communicate in difficult and emotional situations
- To be of an empathetic, understanding, patient and considerate nature
- Good proven verbal communication and interpersonal skills
- Maintains and develops own knowledge and skills through appraisal, participation in further training in order to sustain and enhance a high quality service to patients
- Computer literate to use multiple IT software
- Ability to deal confidentially, tactfully and effectively with people at all levels both within and outside the Trust
- Be able to listen to others and represent their views and concerns
- Ability to work as part of a team and organise fluctuating workload around competing priorities, with excellent organisational skills
- Accept responsibility for own area of work and demonstrate a creative and inspirational approach to problem solving
- Proactive and self-motivated with the ability to deputise for senior ME officer at short notice
- Approachable and supportive to all levels of staff and bereaved families in a non-judgemental and discreet manner
- Professional appearance, manner and awareness of impact of own behaviour on others
- Emotional effort & Key stressors: There is significant emotional effort associated with dealing with bereaved families
- Ability to maintain a calm manner in a range of challenging and emotive circumstances and be able to deal with highly emotional and u setting situations
- Knowledge of the statutory process around death certification legal frameworks
- Completed e-learning MEO core training modules prior to starting in the post
Desirable
- Experience of working with bereaved families
- related organisational and NHS initiatives
- An understanding of medical terminology that enables informed discussions about causes/circumstances of death with bereaved families, clinicians, coroners and registration staff
- Knowledge of special requirements of various faith groups and respect for equality and diversity of issues around formalities following death
- Knowledge of the Coroner & Justice Act 2009 reference to medical examiner system
Person Specification
Knowledge & Experience.
Essential
- Knowledge of Medical Examiners Service,
Desirable
- To be of a empathetic, understanding, patient and considerate nature
Qualifications & Training
Essential
- Experience of Bereavement and evidence of practical experience
- Knowledge of Medical Examiners Service
- Experience of working in a hospital/ healthcare setting with multidisciplinary teams across organisational boundaries
- Experience of working in a customer-facing service where users may have unpredictable and emotionally charged needs
- Maintains and develops own knowledge and skills through appraisal, participation in further training in order to sustain and enhance a high quality service to patients
- Strong interpersonal skills demonstrating the ability to communicate in difficult and emotional situations
- To be of an empathetic, understanding, patient and considerate nature
- Good proven verbal communication and interpersonal skills
- Maintains and develops own knowledge and skills through appraisal, participation in further training in order to sustain and enhance a high quality service to patients
- Computer literate to use multiple IT software
- Ability to deal confidentially, tactfully and effectively with people at all levels both within and outside the Trust
- Be able to listen to others and represent their views and concerns
- Ability to work as part of a team and organise fluctuating workload around competing priorities, with excellent organisational skills
- Accept responsibility for own area of work and demonstrate a creative and inspirational approach to problem solving
- Proactive and self-motivated with the ability to deputise for senior ME officer at short notice
- Approachable and supportive to all levels of staff and bereaved families in a non-judgemental and discreet manner
- Professional appearance, manner and awareness of impact of own behaviour on others
- Emotional effort & Key stressors: There is significant emotional effort associated with dealing with bereaved families
- Ability to maintain a calm manner in a range of challenging and emotive circumstances and be able to deal with highly emotional and u setting situations
- Knowledge of the statutory process around death certification legal frameworks
- Completed e-learning MEO core training modules prior to starting in the post
Desirable
- Experience of working with bereaved families
- related organisational and NHS initiatives
- An understanding of medical terminology that enables informed discussions about causes/circumstances of death with bereaved families, clinicians, coroners and registration staff
- Knowledge of special requirements of various faith groups and respect for equality and diversity of issues around formalities following death
- Knowledge of the Coroner & Justice Act 2009 reference to medical examiner system
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
Address
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
Hamstel Road,
Harlow
CM20 1QX
Employer's website
https://www.pah.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)
