Team Leader Therapeutic Radiographer (North Middlesex Hospital)

North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH) is a health unit within Royal Free London. NMUH serves Enfield, Haringey and beyond, with specialist cancer services and access to the Helen Rollason Cancer Support Centre. The role sits in the radiotherapy department within oncology outpatients and involves leading a radiotherapy treatment unit with a focus on high-quality patient care and staff development.

Job responsibilities

• To be responsible for accurate preparation, and delivery of radiotherapy treatment by self and all members of the immediate team.
• To develop and maintain good working relationships with all staff and departments, liaising with all members of the multidisciplinary team, the continuing care team, and other professional health care groups to ensure a quality, patient-centred, seamless service.
• To work as an expert practitioner, monitoring and reviewing the ongoing wellbeing of patients, assessing daily each patient’s fitness for radiotherapy procedures through formal review, ensuring the medical team are informed of any change to a patient’s condition.
• To communicate, guide and encourage patients and carers through all stages of the radiotherapy process, with sensitive support for both physical and emotional reactions.
• To provide specialist information about disease, treatment and side effects for patients, relatives and carers, in a timely, appropriate and sensitive manner.
• To encourage patient feedback on treatment outcome, providing aftercare instructions and facilitating ongoing contact with the Radiotherapy team post-radiotherapy.
• To listen to, counsel and reassure patients, carers and colleagues as required, often in a highly charged, emotional atmosphere.
• To respect ethical, moral, cultural, religious and social values underpinning patient identity.
• To generate and sustain relationships that maintain and promote human dignity, rights and confidentiality.
• To provide patient care to those suffering with dementia as per trust policy.
• To report any injury to patients, visitors or contractors in accordance with Trust policy.
• To be professionally and legally responsible for all aspects of the post-holder’s own practice, within current legislation and the duty of care.
• To comply with and enforce IR(ME)R 2017 employers procedures.
• To work within the team to deliver a high-quality, specialist service responsive to the needs of all service users.
• To be responsible, as clinical lead in a designated work area, for evidence-based decision making within prescribed limits.
• To set high standards of technical expertise, acting as a role model and maintaining professional standards.
• To demonstrate dexterity and coordination when carrying out treatment and planning procedures on complex equipment, escalating faults to appropriate colleagues.
• To plan procedures in the pre-treatment suite under agreed protocols, including patient positioning and data input into Aria.
• To resolve complex planning/treatment issues, ensuring lessons learned are fed back to teams for development.
• To manage patient workload and staffing in the unit, prioritising work to meet patient needs.
• To manage clinical risk, ensuring accurate prescriptions and documentation.
• To maintain awareness of departmental risks and adapt processes to minimise danger.
• To collect data for local and national workload, audit and QA with staff training and supervision.
• To contribute to the Quality Assurance Programme and update protocols as required.
• To work under supervision of superintendent radiographers to develop departmental protocol and workforce.
• To maintain high standards of QA and report clinical errors to inform corrective action.
• To ensure radiotherapy equipment is available for maintenance and suitable after calibration.
• To comply with professional, statutory and Trust policies and procedures.
• To participate in staff support and clinical supervision to maintain department efficiency.
• To undertake other duties as required by service needs.

Person specification

• Essential qualifications: HCPC registration as a Therapy Radiographer, DCR(T) or BSc (hons) in Therapy Radiography.
• Desirable qualifications: Applicable MSc modules.
• Essential skills and abilities: Able to concentrate with interruptions from staff, patients and relatives; practical experience delivering radiotherapy; problem solving and decision-making skills.
• Experience: Experience of student and peer clinical education; experience in radiotherapy planning & imaging techniques; able to analyse images and formulate action plans; significant post-qualification experience.
• Personal qualities: Time management; knowledge of current professional issues; highly self-motivated.
• Other requirements: Moving and handling of patients and equipment; good eyesight with artificial lighting and VDU work; good spatial and hand-eye coordination for manoeuvring machinery, patient and equipment; complies with HCPC Professional Code of Conduct.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks and Sponsor requirements where applicable. UK Registration with current professional status is required.