Advanced Clinical Practitioner

Job description

Job responsibilities

Responsibilities and Duties

The Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) will assess and triage patients, including same day triage, and as appropriate provide definitive treatment (including prescribing medications following policy, patient group directives, NICE (national) and local clinical guidelines and local care pathways) or make necessary referrals to other members of the primary care team. There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels.

Demonstrate a critical understanding of their broadened level of responsibility and autonomy and the limits of own competence and professional scope of practice, including when working with complexity, risk, uncertainty and incomplete information.

The ACP provides an opportunity for patients to receive timely care and negate unnecessarily delay in receiving treatment and without the need to refer to a GP.

Manage undifferentiated undiagnosed conditions and identify red flags and underlying serious pathology and take appropriate action.

ACPs in primary care can develop close, long-term relationships with their patients and work in partnership with them to achieve optimum health. They are autonomous in making decisions based on assessment, diagnosis and interpretation of test results.

Use complex decision making to inform the diagnosis, investigation, complete management of episodes of care within a broad scope of practice.

Exercise professional judgement to manage risk.

Actively take a personalised care approach and population centred care approach to enable shared decision making.

Complete the relevant training to provide multi-professional clinical practice and CPD supervision to other roles within primary care, for example first contact practitioners and the personalised care roles.

ACPs can independently prescribe appropriate medication, evaluate or refer to other specialists if necessary.

Be a professional role model for the organisations.

Actively seek feedback and involvement from individuals, families, carers, communities and colleagues in the co-production of service improvements.

Critically assess and address own learning needs, negotiating a personal development plan that reflects the breadth of ongoing professional development across the four pillars of advanced clinical practice (clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research).

Provide chronic disease patient care as necessary, referring patients to secondary/specialist care as required.

Chaperone patients where necessary.

Support the team with all safeguarding matters in accordance with local and national policies.

Communication

Connect with various support agencies, both statutory and voluntary, to ensure individuals have access to comprehensive support. Establishing positive working relationships and effective communication with the Huntingdon PCN GP Practices, integrated care health and care teams, and a range of local voluntary sector and community organisations.

Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment.

Communicate effectively and empathetically, to overcome communication barriers with patients and the general public displaying emotional crisis, vulnerability, verbal/ physical aggression, learning difficulties, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication.

Ability to cope with frequently challenging, diverse and stressful situations.

Admin & Professional

Engage in discussions about service direction, improvements, audits, and policy implementation. Contribute to maintaining health and safety.

To use highly developed knowledge and skills to provide high standards of patient centred care.

To maintain accurate contemporaneous records on all aspects of the care process and patient contact.

To ensure that all project paperwork e.g. performance information is completed and available in a timely manner.

Provide intelligence to the system on the impact of patient lifestyle changes via outcome measure reporting.

Contribute to the development of the service, e.g. developing service pathways, paperwork and sharing good practice.

Awareness of, and compliance with, all relevant local/clinical policies and guidelines.

Participate in data collection data for audit purposes and be responsible for monitoring progress against key performance targets.

Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.

Value and respect colleagues, other members of staff and patients and show commitment to working as a team member.

To attend and participate in practice clinical meetings and other multi-disciplinary meetings where necessary.

Record keeping, information collection and communication

To ensure data recorded (by post holder and by those staff supervised by post holder) on all electronic systems conforms to necessary policies, processes and protocols.

To be responsible for the accurate maintenance of clinical record keeping and the required communication of individual patient care packages for which the post holder has responsibility.

To be responsible for the accurate recording of information relating to the patients in receipt if care as determined by the PCNs operational policies or when directed by the Clinical Director.

Development and Supervision

Participate in clinical audits and research as necessary to own work.

Provide the day to day supervision and direction of junior staff as allocated by the Community Matron.

To measure own personal goals ensuring they align to the wider PCN goals and strategic objectives.

To assist service projects as and when required.

Professional & PCN Policies

The post holder must comply with all national, statutory, legislative, professional and local policy.

The post holder should proactively contribute to improve local policy and any changes to improve service or protocols.

To be responsible for the application in practice of the PCNs policies and procedures and the limit of the authority and responsibility the post holder has within these.

To operate within the PCNs standing financial instructions and their application to financial and physical resources. Qualifications and Skills

Person Specification

Skills

Essential

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively at all levels including with patients, carers, specialist services, GPs and colleagues.
• Good technical literacy with e.g. Office and Outlook
• Able to work independently and to manage your own workload
• Able to build strong professional relationships
• Demonstrable experience of effective planning and organisation skills to deliver targets to deadlines
• Sound clinical reasoning and decision making.
• Able to analyse and interpret information and present results in a clear and concise manner
• Excellent IT skills

Knowledge

Essential

• Is working at a masters level aware or equivalent that encompasses the four pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research, with demonstration of core capabilities and area specific clinical competencies.
• Advanced Clinical Assessment skills.
• Evidence of research and audit

Desirable

• Experience of using a clinical record keeping system such as SystmOne.

Personal Qualities and Attributes

Essential

• Ability to reflect on and share best practice with peers
• Able to travel locally as required
• Passionate about combatting disadvantage and inequality in healthcare
• Able to work as part of a team
• Being a Can do problem solver

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified healthcare professional.
• Educated to Masters degree in the relevant area of expertise.
• Registered on your appropriate professional register such as NMC, MCPara, etc.
• Qualified independent prescriber.
• Minimum of 5 years post registration experience at a senior level in specialty area.
• Evidence of on-going CPD.

Desirable

• Teaching & Mentoring qualification.

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of 5 years post registration experience at a senior level in specialty area.

Other Requirements

Essential

• Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Huntingdon PCN

Address

Huntingdon PCN Office

St. Marys Street

Huntingdon

PE29 3TN

Employer's website

https://www.huntingdonpcn.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)