Job summary
We are recruiting for a Lead Clinical Scientist who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.
The radiation protection department is part of the wider radiation services team including nuclear medicine and radiotherapy physics at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre. We are looking for a lead clinical scientist to provide MPE support for the Trust and to support a number of external Trusts under service level agreements.
The radiation protection department provides specialist scientific advice and technical support to radiology, and other users of x-ray imaging including radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and breast screening services. The department supports optimisation of a wide range of imaging equipment and is playing an active role in new imaging network activity.
In addition, you will receive a High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of your basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £4,552 and a maximum payment of £5,735 per annum pro rata.
At the heart of everything we do are our core values:Include,Respect, andImprove. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be a HCPC registered Clinical Scientist, qualified to act as an MPE in diagnostic radiology imaging.
The successful candidate should have excellent communication skills as you will lead on the provision of radiation protection and scientific support to several hospitals. Working closely with the head of radiation protection you will be part of the leadership team delivering serves to a number of Trusts.
You will be required to work alongside local service leads to ensure organisations deliver statutory obligations with respect to the safe use of ionising radiation.
Within your role, you will support clinical scientists and technologists as well as contributing to staff development and assist in the supervision of trainees undertaking the STP programme or equivalent.
Ideally, we are looking for someone who already has MPE certification, but if you have begun to work towards this and expect to be able to submit a portfolio within twelve months of appointment, we would still like to hear from you. We would consider an appointment to a developmental role at a lower band and support you to achieve certification.
About us
At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.
We run the following hospitals:
- The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
- New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
- Hertford County, Hertford
- Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood
We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.
We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.
Person Specification
Qualifications / Training
Essential
- Honours degree in a relevant subject (physics or engineering)
- Postgraduate qualification in a relevant branch of physics or medical physics to the level of at least a Master's degree (MSc).
- State registration with the Health & Care Professions Council, as a Clinical Scientist.
- Relevant experience as a clinical scientist
- MPE certificate of competence or on the active RPA 2000 MPE list
Desirable
- Experience providing radiation protection advice in nuclear medicine
Previous Experience
Essential
- Highly specialised training and practical experience in Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Protection, Highly specialised training and practical experience in the use and quality assurance testing of a range of highly technical equipment.
- Experience in the application of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines and be able to communicate their application to other health professionals including senior management.
- Experience of working in teams
- Experience of auditing others
- Experience of clinical service provision
Skills
Essential
- Good communicator of highly complex and sensitive information to patients and members of the public. Able to communicate highly complex scientific data to multi-disciplinary staff.
- Ability to analyse and interpret complex data, compare ranges of options, make judgements from the results and determine the cause of erroneous results.
- Ability to interpret technical and scientific situations, in which facts may conflict, and judging measures required to deal with them
- Highly developed physical accuracy, manual dexterity skills and good eye-sight to achieve precision and speed in the use of sophisticated scientific and technical equipment
- Expertise in using VDUs and have the ability to create and develop electronic documents, spreadsheets and Clinical Applications software.
- Ability to teach, train and supervise students and other members of staff across the whole range of Radiation Protection.
- Ability to apply knowledge and experience of practical diagnostic imaging and radiation protection in order to propose and manage the implementation of new procedures and equipment, and the development of existing ones.
- Ability to manage priorities and respond flexibly to changing requirements.
- Occasional requirement to exert moderate physical effort for several short periods during a shift
- Frequent requirement for prolonged concentration
- Frequent exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances (e.g. when communicating results of radiation dose measurements to staff)
- Occasional exposure to highly unpleasant working conditions
Knowledge
Essential
- Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in Radiation Protection (clinical, technical and scientific).
- In depth knowledge and understanding of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines (IRR 2017, IR(ME)R 2017)
- Extensive knowledge and expertise across clinical, research and development and personnel areas
- Specialist knowledge of the techniques employed to measure the performance and radiological safety of a wide variety of modern X-ray imaging equipment.
- Specialist knowledge on the dose measurement techniques of ionising radiations including the various techniques for measurement of patient dose in radiography, fluoroscopy, cardiology, CT, mammography and dental.
Other requirements
Essential
- Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion
- Must be able to concentrate where the work pattern is unpredictable.
- Be flexible in their approach to coordinating workload
- Be prepared to work in an environment where there is a radiation hazard.
- Be able to work both independently and within a small team.
- Be aware of own limitations and when to ask for advice from senior members of the team
Person Specification
Qualifications / Training
Essential
- Honours degree in a relevant subject (physics or engineering)
- Postgraduate qualification in a relevant branch of physics or medical physics to the level of at least a Master's degree (MSc).
- State registration with the Health & Care Professions Council, as a Clinical Scientist.
- Relevant experience as a clinical scientist
- MPE certificate of competence or on the active RPA 2000 MPE list
Desirable
- Experience providing radiation protection advice in nuclear medicine
Previous Experience
Essential
- Highly specialised training and practical experience in Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Protection, Highly specialised training and practical experience in the use and quality assurance testing of a range of highly technical equipment.
- Experience in the application of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines and be able to communicate their application to other health professionals including senior management.
- Experience of working in teams
- Experience of auditing others
- Experience of clinical service provision
Skills
Essential
- Good communicator of highly complex and sensitive information to patients and members of the public. Able to communicate highly complex scientific data to multi-disciplinary staff.
- Ability to analyse and interpret complex data, compare ranges of options, make judgements from the results and determine the cause of erroneous results.
- Ability to interpret technical and scientific situations, in which facts may conflict, and judging measures required to deal with them
- Highly developed physical accuracy, manual dexterity skills and good eye-sight to achieve precision and speed in the use of sophisticated scientific and technical equipment
- Expertise in using VDUs and have the ability to create and develop electronic documents, spreadsheets and Clinical Applications software.
- Ability to teach, train and supervise students and other members of staff across the whole range of Radiation Protection.
- Ability to apply knowledge and experience of practical diagnostic imaging and radiation protection in order to propose and manage the implementation of new procedures and equipment, and the development of existing ones.
- Ability to manage priorities and respond flexibly to changing requirements.
- Occasional requirement to exert moderate physical effort for several short periods during a shift
- Frequent requirement for prolonged concentration
- Frequent exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances (e.g. when communicating results of radiation dose measurements to staff)
- Occasional exposure to highly unpleasant working conditions
Knowledge
Essential
- Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in Radiation Protection (clinical, technical and scientific).
- In depth knowledge and understanding of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines (IRR 2017, IR(ME)R 2017)
- Extensive knowledge and expertise across clinical, research and development and personnel areas
- Specialist knowledge of the techniques employed to measure the performance and radiological safety of a wide variety of modern X-ray imaging equipment.
- Specialist knowledge on the dose measurement techniques of ionising radiations including the various techniques for measurement of patient dose in radiography, fluoroscopy, cardiology, CT, mammography and dental.
Other requirements
Essential
- Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion
- Must be able to concentrate where the work pattern is unpredictable.
- Be flexible in their approach to coordinating workload
- Be prepared to work in an environment where there is a radiation hazard.
- Be able to work both independently and within a small team.
- Be aware of own limitations and when to ask for advice from senior members of the team
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
