Job Description
The radiotherapy department sits within oncology outpatients. We treat approximately 1200 new patients including breast, prostate, lung, head & neck and GI. Currently we use a Philips 16 slice wide bore CT scanner, three Varian TrueBeam Linacs running on Aria with Eclipse planning, and an Xstrahl superficial skin unit. This year will be replacing one of our TrueBeam linacs with a Halcyon equipped with Identify.
The service is continually working to implement practice development and all staff are encouraged to contribute to the achievement of these. We are able to provide opportunities for staff development both through robust in house training programmes and commissioned CPD funding. We are continually looking to develop roles and service within radiotherapy, we have a consultant radiographer post and an Advanced Clinical Practice post. We have also implemented SABR for lung and Oligometastic disease and are exploring opportunities to expand advanced practice.
- Provide clinical practice relevant to all areas within the scope of the role.
- To maintain a level of clinical and administrative competence whilst acting within the standards of proficiency expected of the position.
- Maintain and promote high professional standards, providing effective team management for the treatment unit in that rotation, ensuring regard for relevant legal, ethical and professional frameworks.
- To participate in all aspects of treatment and patient care, whilst working on the treatment units within the department on a rotational basis; both during normal and extended working hours; in addition to a commitment to provide an emergency service.
- To take charge of the running of their treatment unit with the consideration of the department as a whole. To ensure that all areas perform as one team.
- The job holder will be expected to actively participate in the training and supervision of other staff, including student radiographers in their working area, supporting CPD programmes
- To be part of a multidisciplinary Team and to be involved in the total care of patients throughout the Radiotherapy pathway.
- To act as a role model for the team of radiographers and students.
- To engage with audit opportunities and participate in departmental improvement initiatives pertaining to technical development, quality and training.
To comply with all Trust and Departmental Policies, procedures and protocols, commenting and suggesting changes as necessary.
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is a medium sized District General Hospital based in Edmonton in Enfield, North London. We serve a diverse multicultural population largely from the London boroughs of Enfield and Haringey. Many of our patients live in wards that are within the 5% most deprived in the UK and a large proportion of our patients were born abroad. This makes it both a fascinating and a challenging hospital to work in.
Over the last decade we have rebuilt almost all of the hospital and now have facilities that we are proud to work in. We employ over 3,500 staff, more than half of whom live locally. We encourage apprenticeships from the local community and work closely with our local Health Watch.
We are primarily an emergency led hospital with more than 90% of our bed days being used for patients admitted via our emergency and ambulatory units. As well as offering everything you would expect from a major acute hospital we have a number of tertiary services treating patients with HIV and Sickle Cell Disease and a large cancer and radiotherapy service. We also run our local community Sexual Health Clinics.
We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George’s University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.
The duties associated with this post require the post holder to carry out practical aspects of medical ionising radiation exposure in accordance with the Employer’s procedures. The post holder is therefore defined as an “Operator” under IR(ME)R 2017. These regulations require that the post holder be responsible for each and every practical aspect of the medical exposures that they carry out.
- 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 centered, seamless service.
- To work as an expert practitioner, monitoring and reviewing the on-going wellbeing of patients, assessing daily, each patient’s fitness for radiotherapy procedures through the process of 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 their 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 instruction on aftercare at the point of finishing a course, and facilitating on-going 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 the ethical, moral, cultural, religious and social values that underpins a patient’s identity.
- To generate and sustain relationships that maintains and promotes human dignity, rights and responsibilities and ensures confidentiality.
- To provide the above elements of 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, completing appropriate documentation and informing the Head of Radiotherapy.
- To be professionally and legally responsible for all aspects of the post-holders own practice, practicing within the framework of current legislation, fulfilling the duty of care to the patient, public and the Profession.
- 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 and to be responsible for evidence based decision making within prescribed limits
- To set high standards of technical expertise, acting as a role model to other staff. To be responsible for enforcing trust/departmental protocol where required to maintaining professional standards of self and other team members.
- To demonstrate dexterity, coordination and palpatory skills when carrying out treatment and planning procedures on highly complex, technically advanced and expensive equipment, being the first line contact for the reporting of any faults or variations, and to escalate these to the most appropriate skilled person i.e. superintendent radiographer, or medical physics lead.
- To be responsible for planning procedures in the pre-treatment suite under agreed protocols (whilst on rotation or on-call duties), including decision on optimum patient position, volume to be imaged and input of data into Aria
- To resolve complex planning/ treatment issues, analysing and solving problems, affirming the accuracy/ suitability of radiotherapy treatment with escalation to the Superintendents or other health professionals as required. To ensure that lessons learned from the management of these variations are fed-back to their respective teams and used as a process of personal, professional, and departmental development
- To manage the organisation and smooth running of the patient workload, in particular organising the re-deployment of staff and re-appointment of patients during scheduled/unscheduled maintenance, liaising with superintendents as necessary. To have a working knowledge of the running of the radiotherapy department as a whole so as to be able to make informed decisions regarding the prioritisation of work to meet the needs of the entire patient cohort.
- To manage clinical risk at all times, ensuring that all prescriptions are calculated and administered accurately and in line with departmental procedures and work instructions, and that accurate documentation and records are kept.
- To maintain awareness of all departmental assessed risks and to adapt processes in order to minimise dangers to all service users.
- To ensure the accurate and timely collection of data necessary to local and national workload, audit and quality assurance requirements by the training and supervision of staff
- To contribute to the Quality Assurance Programme within the Specialty, ensuring that any changes to protocols are noted and brought to the attention of the Head of Radiotherapy.
- To work under the supervision of superintendent radiographers to develop departmental protocol and the workforce in their respective designated areas
- To maintain high standards of Quality Assurance, informing Superintendents and medical staff of clinical errors, recording and assessing these incidents to identify constructive action to prevent further errors.
- To ensure that radiotherapy planning /treatment equipment is available for scheduled maintenance and to affirm its suitability for clinical use following any work/calibrations.
- To comply with and enforce professional, statutory and Trust policies and procedures (e.g. Code of Professional Conduct, SoR Guidelines on Professional Practice and CPD, Health and Safety at Work Act etc.).
- To participate in staff support, through clinical supervision or other appropriate systems provided within the department and assist colleagues in the department as required to maintain the efficiency of the Radiotherapy & Medical Physics service.
- To undertake other duties that may occasionally be required as per service needs