Bank Investigation Officer - Band 7

About the Trust

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust is the largest non-teaching hospital trust in England. With strong local ties and serving around 675,000 residents in Portsmouth and South East Hampshire, they pride themselves on providing comprehensive acute and specialist services. The Trust has one main site, Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, and looks after six peripheral community sites for outpatient activity.

Portsmouth Staff Bank

Here at Portsmouth Staff Bank, we support the Trust with temporary staff in all staff groups. We offer our workers an excellent service that allows them to work flexibly whilst enjoying several benefits including:

• Online timesheets
• Weekly pay
• Priority over agency workers
• Supportive on-site teams
• And many more

To make sure that our bank workers are fully supported we have a dedicated recruitment and compliance team. They work hard to ensure that our workers can start booking shifts as soon as possible. In addition, a helpful bookings desk and on-site team are there to assist them and answer any questions.

Job Summary

The focus of this role is to complete comprehensive investigations of individual cases in order to facilitate learning and improvements in clinical practice and safety to reduce risk. The Investigating Officer will work with clinical specialists and subject matter experts to ensure appropriate clinical advice is incorporated into investigations. Essential qualities and values for the Investigating Officer will be integrity, objectivity, and honesty in all aspects of their role. It is important that the reports produced will be easy to read, using plain language that will be accessible for all concerned including patients, families, and carers. The post holder will be required to ensure investigations are investigated and meet timelines in accordance with Trust and National procedures. It is expected that the post holder will become a subject matter expert in the field of Patient Safety Investigations and have an excellent knowledge of the national frameworks and associated tools used for critical analysis.

Key Responsibilities

• Undertake investigations of varying nature and complexity in line with agreed timeframes and national requirements.
• Gather, record, and securely retain evidence relating to an investigation in line with legislation.
• Maintain a high standard of investigations and produce timely and factually accurate investigation reports.
• Actively involve patients, families and staff in the investigation process as appropriate.
• Liaise and work with Divisional Governance Leads and the Patient Safety Team as appropriate to produce the final investigation report.
• Use appropriate investigation tools and techniques to investigate incidents. This will include – human factors, system safety, fishbone, etc.
• Identify recommendations to reduce likelihood of incident reoccurrence.
• Ensure all communication with patients, relatives and carers is open, honest, and transparent and in line with Duty of Candour requirements.
• Utilise strong compassionate communication skills to discuss sensitive, contentious information with staff, families, and carers where there may be barriers to understanding or a hesitance to cooperate.
• Escalate any immediate safety concerns which need urgently addressing at any point in the investigation process.
• Contribute to the presentation of investigation reports at inquests and panels as part of the assurance, learning and sign off process within required timescales.

Key relationships

• Patient Safety Team
• Divisional Directors, Directors of Nursing and Operational Directors
• Senior Matrons, Matrons and Ward / Department managers
• Medical and AHP staff
• Divisional Governance leads
• Clinical and corporate staff
• Medical Examiner’s Office
• Deputy Director of Governance and Risk including the wider Integrated Governance Team
• Head of Patient Safety
• Service Users and Carers
• Coroners Officers
• Safeguarding Team
• Legal Services Team

Essential Skills

• Report writing – ability to present complex arguments in an accessible and understandable format
• Report critiquing – ability to analyse information available to identify system issues and good practice.
• Time management, dealing with a high-volume complex workload
• The processing of frequent direct and indirect exposure to highly distressing and highly emotional circumstances.
• Possess qualities of integrity, compassion, objectivity, and honesty.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to pay attention to detail

Education and Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to equivalent of A level standard
• GCSE grade C and above or equivalent level English qualification.

Desirable

• Clinical related qualification / experience.
• Professional registration
• Investigation training certificate

Experience Required

Experience of working in a health or social care environment at a senior role. In-depth knowledge of clinical risk issues in health or social care. Experience of undertaking investigations using RCA and Human Factor methodologies. Experience of critically analysing incidents to ascertain themes for improvement.

Desirable

• Proven experience of managing a portfolio of complex investigations