Biomedical Scientist Histology

Applications are invited from proactive, motivated, enthusiastic HCPC registered biomedical scientists to join the Cellular Pathology Department, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The department is UKAS accredited ISO 15189:2022 and is an IBMS approved training laboratory.

The post holders would be working 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday (occasional weekend working may be required). The post holder will be working as part of a combined team of Consultant Pathologists, Biomedical Scientists, Medical Laboratory Assistants and Secretarial and other support staff to provide a cellular pathology service for Worcestershire.

Main duties of the job:

• To follow agreed protocols and policies seeking advice where appropriate from more senior staff.
• To work in an efficient and timely manner and to be adaptable to change.
• To work in a safe manner in accordance with departmental and Trust Health and Safety policies.
• To contribute to care, maintenance and security of the laboratory premises and equipment.
• To demonstrate a positive attitude to the work of the laboratory, colleagues and service users.
• To respond to requests for information in a polite, helpful and concise manner.
• To maintain confidentiality and conform with the Data Protection Act.
• To work to quality standards for all aspects of the service as defined by the Pathology Directorate Quality Management System (QMS).
• To be able to work alone in conjunction with SOPs with offsite technical supervision.

About us:

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond. The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester. Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do:

• Being open and honest
• Ensuring people feel cared for
• Showing respect to everyone

We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System. We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Job responsibilities:

• To participate in the routine work of all sections of the department to provide our users with accurate and timely results.
• To perform both routine and specialised tasks covering a variety of analytical equipment and manual techniques.
• To ensure that all tasks are performed in accordance with current Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and regulations to ensure a high quality service at all times.
• To ensure that equipment is properly maintained on a day to day basis and operated in accordance with laboratory and manufacturers SOPs.
• To be fully conversant with all forms of automated equipment within the Department, including being able to troubleshoot to ensure minimum downtime as consequence of minor breakdowns/malfunctions.
• To document specimens, including the entry of computerised records.
• To handle, process and dispose of histological and cytological material including sensitive disposal of products of conception.
• To provide assistance to Advanced Practitioners with regard to specimen dissection and sampling of diagnostic material.
• To macroscopically describe and transfer into cassettes, small biopsies, curettings, needle biopsies etc (Category A Specimens).
• To participate in the preparation of cell blocks from cytological specimens to aid histological investigation if necessary.
• To embed and orientate tissue samples selected for diagnostic evaluation, requiring significant knowledge and experience of histological and anatomical structure.
• To produce microscopical preparations, requiring extensive hand and eye coordination to produce high quality diagnostic sections using complex, skilled microtomy and handling techniques, for both paraffin wax and urgent diagnostic frozen sections.
• To prepare complex stains, working solutions and reagents in order to perform routine and specialised histological, histochemical and immunocytochemical investigations.
• To undertake routine and specialised histological, histochemical, and Immunoperoxidase and immunofluorescent investigations on diagnostic tissue specimens in accordance with Standard Operational Procedures.
• To have precise pipetting skills where accuracy and precision are required.
• To undertake investigations arising from UKNEQAS Quality Assessment participation, including Cellular Pathology Technique and Immunocytochemistry.
• To implement quality control measures and checking in conjunction with the BMS Quality Lead and Quality Manager.
• To cut high quality frozen sections for urgent diagnosis.
• To be able to work alone in conjunction with SOPs with offsite technical supervision.
• To undertake quality control sign out of samples including routine and specials stains.
• To carry out any other duties deemed necessary to maintain a Cellular Pathology Services.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

• Approved IBMS accredited degree in Biomedical Science.
• Registration with HCPC - Biomedical Scientist.

Experience:

• At least 2 years experience in a UKAS accredited NHS hospital histology laboratory.
• Desirable: Experience in working with laboratory computers, experience in embedding techniques, experience in manual and automated immunohistochemistry techniques.

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. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.