Job summary
A great opportunity is available in the Cancer Services team for a Macmillan Personalised Care Cancer Support Support Worker, which is a maternity cover as a one year fixed term, full-time post. It is a patient facing role with no clinical responsibilities. In this role, you will become an integral part of the new, evolving service model, which seeks to ensure that cancer patients are provided with access to high quality information relevant to their needs to support living with and beyond their cancer diagnosis.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will work primarily within their tumour site teams but will be managed and supported by the Macmillan Cancer Information & support Manager. The individual should be able to work as part of a team and yet be able to work autonomously to ensure that a high quality service is delivered across all sites including Herts and Essex and St Margaret's Hospitals. We are seeking an enthusiastic individual with excellent communications skills able provide cancer information and support to our patients in a variety of circumstances . The role will work in collaboration with site specific cancer teams and will signpost patients to external agencies in order to meet patient's information needs. The post holder will be expected to support the delivery of patient's holistic needs assessments and care plans, provision of verbal and written information, supportive listening and refer on to appropriate services where the needs of the patient are more complex.
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
Education
Essential
- Educated to A level or NVQ level 3, level 3 BTEC with knowledge of Health & Social Care
- Good standard of general education to GCSE level or equivalent
Desirable
- Evidence of continual personal development
- Coaching or teaching qualification
Experience
Essential
- Recent experience of working in the NHS or a Healthcare setting
- Prioritising, planning and organising own tasks to meet competing deadlines
- Experience of working as part of a team and individually
- Experience of working with cancer patients, their families and carers
- Insight into cancer and related issues
- Proven experience in data entry and associated documentation
- Experience of working within guidelines, policies and protocols
- Experience of IT packages - Microsoft Office, Excel and IT equipment e.g. ipads and tablets
- Experience of providing and receiving complex and sensitive information and data management
Desirable
- Knowledge / experience of Audit
- Experience of project administration, NHS or public sector experience
- Knowledge / experience of Audit
Skills and Knowledge
Essential
- Understanding of patient-centred care
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including telephone, email, face to face with both colleagues and patients
- Good time management skills
- Understanding of the health and social care environment
- Understanding of Macmillan Cancer Support and its role across the UK
- Awareness of Improving Outcomes: A strategy for Cancer and other national cancer policies including the living with and beyond cancer agenda
- IT Skills
- Ability to communicate both verbally and non-verbally on a daily basis with people at all levels
- Knowledge of health and well being issues and services
- An understanding of the importance of providing clear accessible information and support for cancer patients
- Knowledge of when to seek advice and escalate to the appropriate professional for expert advice and support
Desirable
- A basic knowledge of cancer types, treatments and terminology
- Experience in delivering health education sessions to groups
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Ability to motivate self and others
- Flexible attitude to working
- Accurate written communication of information
- Ability to prioritise own workload
- Ability to show empathy and understand the difficulties faced by people affected by cancer
- Ability to ask sensitively about information needs
- Ability to retrieve information from a wide range of sources and in different formats
- Recognition of own limitations
- Able to travel between sites
- Ability to deal with complex and difficult emotional situations
- Must be able to demonstrate an understanding of equality and diversity
Person Specification
Education
Essential
- Educated to A level or NVQ level 3, level 3 BTEC with knowledge of Health & Social Care
- Good standard of general education to GCSE level or equivalent
Desirable
- Evidence of continual personal development
- Coaching or teaching qualification
Experience
Essential
- Recent experience of working in the NHS or a Healthcare setting
- Prioritising, planning and organising own tasks to meet competing deadlines
- Experience of working as part of a team and individually
- Experience of working with cancer patients, their families and carers
- Insight into cancer and related issues
- Proven experience in data entry and associated documentation
- Experience of working within guidelines, policies and protocols
- Experience of IT packages - Microsoft Office, Excel and IT equipment e.g. ipads and tablets
- Experience of providing and receiving complex and sensitive information and data management
Desirable
- Knowledge / experience of Audit
- Experience of project administration, NHS or public sector experience
- Knowledge / experience of Audit
Skills and Knowledge
Essential
- Understanding of patient-centred care
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including telephone, email, face to face with both colleagues and patients
- Good time management skills
- Understanding of the health and social care environment
- Understanding of Macmillan Cancer Support and its role across the UK
- Awareness of Improving Outcomes: A strategy for Cancer and other national cancer policies including the living with and beyond cancer agenda
- IT Skills
- Ability to communicate both verbally and non-verbally on a daily basis with people at all levels
- Knowledge of health and well being issues and services
- An understanding of the importance of providing clear accessible information and support for cancer patients
- Knowledge of when to seek advice and escalate to the appropriate professional for expert advice and support
Desirable
- A basic knowledge of cancer types, treatments and terminology
- Experience in delivering health education sessions to groups
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Ability to motivate self and others
- Flexible attitude to working
- Accurate written communication of information
- Ability to prioritise own workload
- Ability to show empathy and understand the difficulties faced by people affected by cancer
- Ability to ask sensitively about information needs
- Ability to retrieve information from a wide range of sources and in different formats
- Recognition of own limitations
- Able to travel between sites
- Ability to deal with complex and difficult emotional situations
- Must be able to demonstrate an understanding of equality and diversity
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.
