Leeds Teaching Hospitals

Senior Assistant Technical Officer (XR03)

This job is now closed

Job summary

Are you looking to advance your current skills in cardiology and respiratory diagnostics and work regular hours for a work life balance?

The Cardio-Respiratory department at Leeds Teaching Hospitals is recruiting two Senior Assistant Technical Officer's (band 3 Senior Cardiographer) to support the delivery of extra diagnostic investigations to reduce the waiting lists. The successful applicants would become part of a large and friendly team of Cardiographers, Senior Cardiographers and other healthcare professionals.

You will work directly with patients undergoing investigations for cardiac and respiratory disorders and perform a variety of basic diagnostic tests on inpatients and outpatients. The Senior Assistant Technical Officer team rotate across all hospital sites, including our expansion into the Community Diagnostic Centres at Seacroft Hospital as well as Armley Medical Centre and Beeston Village Surgery which are soon to open.

The vacancies are full time (37.5 hours a week) however we will accept part time applicants who wish to job share. Working hours are Monday - Friday 08:30 16:30.

Interested in knowing more? Please contact us to arrange a phone call or a visit to our department.

Main duties of the job

This successful candidate will have a varied role and skillset, performing 12 lead ECGs and basic spirometry testing as well as the application of ambulatory ECG, BP and sleep monitors to patients.

In-house training will be provided to support successful candidiates gain the appropriate clinical competencies. Applicants with previous clinical experience will have an advantage with their initial learning.

We are looking for people who are enthusiastic and flexible, who enjoy a challenge and able to work well independently and within a team. Applicants will need to demonstrate maturity and will be expected to support the band 2 Assistant Technical Officer team as well as students and trainees who rotate within the department. We actively encourage professional development and support continuous and future learning opportunities in the department.

About us

Come and join our team in Leeds and become part of The Leeds Way sharing our vision and values. Our Trust is recognised for our staff engagement, great care and is rated GOOD by the Care Quality Commission.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is one of the largest acute providers in the UK and based in one of the fastest growing and vibrant cities in the North of England.

The Cardio-Respiratory Clinical Service Unit aims to be fair and supportive with positive, caring teams who are champions of the Leeds Way values. Our values are part of what make us different from other trusts, so we see this as a strength, as well as a responsibility. These values have been developed by our staff and set out what they see as important to how we work. Our five values are:

Patient-centred

Collaborative

Fair

Accountable

Empowered

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Date posted

12 October 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 3

Salary

£22,816 to £24,336 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

C9298-CRS-137

Job locations

Leeds General Infirmary

Great George Street

Leeds

LS1 3EX

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical Duties

Carries out all aspects of clinical and administration work as approved by their line manager, working within established codes of practice and local departmental standard operating procedures.

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspect of own work, including the management of patients in your care and dealing with their specific needs.

Routinely undertakes assessment of both in-patients and out-patients prior to a range of investigations and uses own discretion in order to ensure the patient is suitable for the investigation.

Communicates with all members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure the best possible care for patients, including: negotiating, reassurance, empathy, and persuasiveness.

Communicates sensitive information about routine and complex investigations to patients and relatives/carers including children and those with learning and/or physical disabilities.

Calibrates and manipulates a wide range of complex, expensive, technical equipment which process, create, update and store information. Identifies any automatically generated reports that are false and or inaccurate, escalating any errors to the appropriate member of LTHT staff.

Performs / provides factual reports on a number of investigations on a region-wide range of patients including acutely ill paediatric and elderly patients and those with a range of physical and learning disabilities.

Requires a high level of manual dexterity and good hand to eye co-ordination in order to ensure the accurate application of a range of diagnostic tools, e.g., performing an ECG, application of ambulatory monitoring and respiratory testing in order to gain comparable diagnostic results.

High level of sensory coordination required in order to immediately recognise life-threatening physiological signs and then respond to those changes, e.g., abnormal ECG findings, reporting this information to members of staff for further detailed analysis and possible intervention.

Clinical investigations would be dependent on the applicants skill set and area of clinical focus and may include but are not limited to:

- Perform, interpret and report 12 lead electrocardiographs (ECG)

- Application and downloading of ambulatory ECG, BP and Sleep monitoring equipment

- Perform basic spirometry respiratory testing

Demonstrates personal duty of care for safe use of expensive and highly complex equipment. Is responsible for ensuring that others are fully trained in the safe use of such equipment within their specialist area.

Responsible for maintenance of stock levels and consumables and for day-to-day security of expensive equipment, e.g., portable devices. Reporting equipment faults in accordance with departmental policy.

Professional

Responsible for maintaining own technical proficiencies and competencies in clinical areas.

Maintains and develops current knowledge of evidence-based practice in each clinical area.

Responsible for reporting clinical incidents and adverse events to the appropriate Team Manager / Service Manager.

Responsible for formal mentorship and input into coordination of training of designated junior staff and students.

Be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at, and participation in, in-service training programmes, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses and peer review.

Regularly provides training in fundamental cardiac techniques to trainees and junior staff members.

Undertakes Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in accordance with Personal Development Plan (PDP) as developed with Line Manager.

Attends and participates in departmental staff meetings.

Frequently undertakes collection of data for use in audit, research projects and equipment testing.

Works in close liaison with other staff members to ensure efficient and effective delivery of service, contributing to maintaining a friendly and welcoming working atmosphere.

Organisational

Responsible for ensuring the Leeds Way Values and LTHT vision is integrated within the Cardio-Respiratory CSU.

Demonstrates the ability to prioritise and organise the clinical caseload within a designated area of cardiology.

Responsible for obtaining, transmitting and storing information relating to the delivery of a care service.

Keep accurate and timely records, inputting accurate data into the departmental databases allowing for the production of statistical resource information for accurate billing.

Other

Communicates with all members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure the best possible care for the patient. Including giving detailed advice to other specialist professions which will influence patient care/outcomes. Communication skills including:

- Negotiating, e.g., with physicians who demand investigations not achievable within the service limitations.

- Reassurance, e.g., to patients who are anxious about their clinical findings.

- Persuasiveness, e.g., to young children who are scared to undergo clinical procedures.

Immediate Life Support training essential during procedures performed on acutely ill patients and those at very high risk of sudden cardiac death.

Expected to undertake informal training by means of periodic in-house assessments.

On a rotational basis, performs duties at all LTHT sites, including Community Diagnostic Clinics sites.

To comply with the Trusts manual handling policy at all times.