Physician Associate - Stroke and Neurology

Band 7

Main area: General Medicine

Grade: Band 7

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Full time)

Job ref: 434-IM6771239

Site: Wycombe Hospital

Town: High Wycombe

Salary: £46,148 - £52,809 per annum pro rata

Salary period: Yearly

Closing: 16/01/2025 23:59

We are recruiting three Physician Associates to join the Stroke and Neurology team at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. These are permanent posts and are fully supervised by consultants. The roles will be primarily based at Wycombe Hospital with occasional shifts at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and potentially Amersham Hospital.

The posts will be Monday to Friday (shift patterns include 08:00-16:00, 09:00-17:00, and 10:00-18:00) or a total of 37.5 hours per week as agreed with the department. The post-holder(s) will be required to work 1:6 weekends with the acute medical team (Saturday and Sunday 09:00-17:00).

Please specify within your application if you have successfully completed the Physician Associate National certification and recertification Examination (PANE) and if you are registered on the Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register or whether you are a graduate awaiting the national exam.

The postholder(s) will work across the entirety of stroke medicine with experience in Neurology clinics, including:

• Stroke wards: Hyper acute, Acute, and Rehabilitation.
• Cardiac and Stroke Receiving Unit (CSRU): Gain experience in clerking patients with cardiac and stroke presentations and in the assessment and management of acutely unwell patients.
• Clinics: Stroke Follow-up, TIA Clinic & Neurology Clinics.

There will also be an opportunity to learn advanced procedural skills relevant to the department, including but not limited to:

• USS-guided vascular access.
• Lumbar puncture.
• Botox Injection (following training and certification).

Main duties of the job:

• To assess and examine patients, order investigations, interpret results, form a list of differential diagnoses and recommend a management plan.
• To attend consultant and/or registrar-led ward rounds and provide continuity of care for patients on their ward(s).
• To perform PA-led ward rounds when deemed competent to do so.
• Instruct and counsel patients and their relatives regarding mental and physical health.
• Develop and maintain specialist medical knowledge relevant to area of work.
• Keep up to date with current guidelines and maintain best practice.
• To contribute to the development of efficient pathways of care.
• Develop clinical guidelines within their specialist area for use across the Trust.

As part of our BHT family, you’ll benefit from learning and development opportunities to support your career progression. We offer flexible and agile working opportunities, alongside your NHS benefits of generous annual leave entitlement, pension and access to NHS discount schemes. We provide a range of health and wellbeing services to promote a healthy, happy workforce.

We’re committed to promoting inclusion and making sure all colleagues feel they belong. We encourage new colleagues from a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. As an employer, we aim to create a workplace where differences are valued and colleagues treat one another with dignity and respect. Greater diversity within our BHT family improves positive outcomes for the people and communities we serve.

Our vision is to provide outstanding care, support healthy communities and be a great place to work. Our mission is to provide personal and compassionate care every time. Our CARE values are collaborate, aspire, respect, and enable.

For a comprehensive list of responsibilities and duties, please kindly refer to the Job Description and Person Specification by downloading the JD and PS attachment in the advert.

If you are an internal applicant there is the option for secondment; all applicants must have the endorsement/support of their line manager prior to application.

If you have a disability that makes submitting this online application difficult and would like assistance, please contact us on bht.recruitment@nhs.net quoting the vacancy reference number.

EDUCATION, QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING:

• Member of Faculty of Physician Associates including PAMVR (or registered with the regulating body GMC once regulation has commenced).
• Relevant first BA/BSc degree prior to undertaking Physician Associate programme.
• PG-Dip/MSc in Physician Associate studies OR MPAS Physician Associate studies from UK training programme or equivalent.
• Current certification of Physician Associate National Exam or National Commission on Certification for Physician Assistants (NCCPA).
• Evidence of relevant ongoing personal and professional development.

EXPERIENCE:

• Understands how to perform an A-E assessment in the acutely deteriorating patient.
• Recognises scope of practice for physician associates and current initiatives surrounding progression of the role.
• Awareness of current developments and initiatives in stroke medicine.
• Previous experience working in stroke medicine.
• Experience of conducting clinical audit and quality improvement projects.

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES:

• Ability to travel to other sites within the Trust and to appointments off site.

SKILLS, ABILITIES & KNOWLEDGE:

• Ability to work well with colleagues and within a team.
• Verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to diagnose and initiate management for common diagnoses in stroke medicine.
• Ability to assist in the educational development of students through shadowing and/or teaching.

PPE requirements: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust requires all colleagues to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with our infection prevention and control procedures. COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations remain the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the viruses when working in our healthcare settings. We encourage our staff to be vaccinated when recommended.

If you are successful at interview, we will require you to complete a Covid-19 risk assessment document.

Application deadline: This post will close on the closing date stated at midnight. If we receive a large number of applications or there is a change in circumstance, we may be required to close a job before to the closing date.

Contacting you: We will contact candidates through the email address supplied on their application form. Please make sure you check this regularly.

Application information: If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Shortlisting: The monitoring and safeguarding sections are not made visible to the shortlisting panel. The safeguarding section may be made visible to the interview panel, dependent on the role being recruited into.

Travel expenses: It is Trust policy that travel expenses for interview will not be reimbursed.

Smoking: All Trust sites are NO SMOKING. Smoking in all areas of the buildings and premises is prohibited.