Paramedic

The post holder will work independently, as well as alongside our multi-disciplinary medical team, managing routine and urgent appointments as well as telephone triage (including assessment of urgency of illness/injury) and home visits. The post holder will be seeing patients with long term medical conditions including same-day urgent home visits as well as routine visits to housebound patients with long term conditions for pro-active care to prevent avoidable emergency admissions.

Main duties of the job

• Assess and triage patients, including same day triage, and as appropriate provide diagnosis, support and definitive treatment.
• Prescribe medications following policy, patient group directives, NICE (national) and local clinical guidelines and local care pathways within the scope of your knowledge and qualifications.
• Make referrals to other members of the primary care team and to external organisations where necessary.
• Perform specialist health checks and reviews in line with local and national guidance.
• Use advanced clinical decision making skills to provide evidence based care.
• Advise patients on general healthcare and promote self-management where appropriate.
• Provide home visits when required.
• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) within the organisation.
• Maintain accurate and timely clinical records in line with Practice policies.
• Contribute to Practice audits, quality improvement and service development.

Job responsibilities

• Awareness of and compliance with all relevant practice policies/guidelines, eg prescribing, confidentiality, data protection, health and safety.
• A commitment to life-long learning and audit to ensure evidence-based best practice.
• Contributing to evaluation/audit and clinical standard setting within the organisation.
• Contributing to the development of computer-based patient records.
• Contributing to the summarising of patient records and SNOMED coding patient data.
• Attending training and events organised by the practice or other agencies, where appropriate.

Confidentiality

In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately. In the performance of the duties outlined in this Job Description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential. Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data.

Health and safety

The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the practice Health and Safety policy, to include:

• Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines.
• Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks.
• Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills.
• Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards.

Equality and Diversity

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:

• Acting in a way that recognises the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation.
• Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.
• Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights.

In addition to maintaining continuous education through attendance at any courses and/or study days necessary to ensure that professional development requirements for PREP are met, the post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment, such training to include:

• Participation in annual external and/or internal performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development.
• Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work.

Quality

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice and will:

• Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.
• Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.
• Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance.
• Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs.
• Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.

Communication

The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

• Communicate effectively with other team members.
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers.
• Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.

Contribution to the implementation of services

The post-holder will:

• Apply practice policies, standards and guidance.
• Discuss with other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will affect own work.
• Participate in audit where appropriate.
• Cover duties of partner GPs in their absence.
• Represent the practice and partners professionally with the aim of raising the profile of the practice in a positive manner.

Qualifications

• Completed an approved degree in paramedic science or a degree apprenticeship and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
• Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations.
• Experience managing minor illness and patients with undifferentiated presentations.
• Good numeracy and literacy skills.
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload efficiently.
• Ability to exercise sound judgement when faced with conflicting pressures.
• Ability to analyse data and information, drawing out implications for the individual patient/impact on care plan.
• Knowledge of Audit principles and evidence of participation in audit/Quality Improvement projects.
• An understanding, acceptance and adherence to the need for strict confidentiality.
• Ability to use own judgement, resourcefulness and common sense.
• Ability to work without direct supervision and determine own workload priorities.
• Ability to work as part of an integrated multi-skilled team.
• Professional, articulate and helpful manner.
• Able to work under pressure.
• Able to work in a changing environment.
• Able to use own initiative.
• Punctual and well presented.
• Flexibility of working hours/able to work at the desired times.
• Commitment to personal development and take part in available training.
• Commitment to the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues.
• Independent prescribing qualification (or working towards).
• Knowledge of Docman and EMIS web.

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.