Job Description
Paramedic
Job title
Paramedic Practitioner
Salary
DOE
Hours
Full Time / Part Time
Contract type
Permanent
Employer
Newton Place Surgery
The role
Job Summary:
The post holder’s main responsibility will be to work within the clinical team to provide high quality patient care. The PP will provide clinical assessment and management for patients of all ages with undifferentiated and undiagnosed problems seeking a primary health care service, including minor illness face-to-face consultations, home visits, care home visits and telephone triage.
The Paramedic Practitioner will have ideally have experience in treating common minor illnesses in a primary or urgent care setting. Training in this field is preferable but can be provided after appointment.
The Paramedic Practitioner will carry out home visits in the locality for patients who are housebound and registered with the practice.
The Paramedic Practitioner will have responsibility for an agreed number of care homes for which they will be primarily responsible for clinical care, including weekly care home rounds. The Paramedic Practitioner will work in partnership with the care home lead GP, clinical team including practice pharmacists, community health and social care team members and care home staff.
Scope and purpose of the role
A Paramedic is authorised to undertake treatments and procedures for which they are trained, and which are within the College of Paramedic Guidelines in line with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards framework. The postholder will have access to appropriate clinical supervision and an appropriate named individual in the PCN to provide general advice and support on a day-to-day basis.
- To deliver a high standard of patient care using advanced autonomous clinical skills with in- depth theoretical knowledge and evidence-based practice working with the support and guidance from the GPs
- To manage a clinical caseload and deal with presenting patient’s needs in a general practice setting.
- To provide clinical leadership where appropriate within the MDT, supporting other members of the team to develop and maintain clinical skills appropriate to your role and expertise.
Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility
- Alongside the medical team, to provide a first point of contact within the practice for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems, making use of skills in history taking, physical examination, problem-solving and clinical decision-making to establish a diagnosis and management plan
- To provide assessment, treatment and diagnosis at point of first contact by attending to patients in a variety of clinical or non-clinical settings according to patients’ needs
- To undertake home visits in accordance with the relevant protocols
- To make professionally autonomous decisions for which he/she is accountable
- To refer patients to an alternative care setting or treat and discharge as appropriate
- Advise patients on general healthcare and promote self-management where appropriate, including signposting patients to other community or voluntary services, PCN services and to self-care.
- Be able to:
- Perform specialist health checks and reviews
- Perform investigatory procedures as required
- Undertake the collection of pathological specimens including intravenous blood samples, swabs, etc.
- Perform investigatory procedures needed by patients and those requested by GPs and the wider PCN
- perform a domiciliary (home) visit
- Support the delivery of anticipatory care and end of life care plans and lead certain community services (e.g. monitoring blood pressure and diabetes risk of elderly patients living in sheltered housing).
- Provide an alternative model to urgent and same day home visits for the PCN and undertake clinical audits.
- Communicate at all levels across PCNs and other organisations, ensuring effective, patient-centred service.
- Communicate proactively and effectively with all colleagues across the multidisciplinary team, attending and contributing to meetings as required and accepting referrals and referring to specialist services where appropriate.
- Assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate treatment and or interventions and care for patients presenting with an undifferentiated diagnosis, and patients with complex needs within the clinical and domiciliary setting.
- Clinically examine and assess patient needs from a physiological and psychological perspective, and plan clinical care accordingly
- Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care.
- Take an active part in achievement of contractual markers.
- Implement and participate in vaccination programmes as appropriate.
Quality Requirements
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the PCN, and will:
- Enhance own performance through continuous professional development, keep up to date with current evidence-based practice, and impart own knowledge and skills to PCN colleagues to meet the needs of the service.
- Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the HCPC and College of Paramedics.
- Assess effectiveness of care delivery through self and peer review, benchmarking and formal evaluation.
- Participate in research and utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required.
- In partnership with other clinical teams, collaborate on improving the quality of health care responding to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate.
- Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk .
Training and Development
- Participate in continuing professional development opportunities to keep up-to-date with evidence-based knowledge and competence in all aspects of the role to meet clinical governance guidelines for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and a Personal Development Plan (PDP) utilising a reflective approach to Practice.
- Undertake a variety of research and analysis tasks associated with the improvement of clinical care, medical diagnosis and treatment where appropriate using the following means.
- Audit of clinical practice
- Significant event review / root cause analyses
- Review of relevant literature
- Research unusual symptoms and treatment options through consultation with general practitioners, and the wider MDT.
- Promote and support a learning culture within the PCN MDT and assist in clinical instruction, mentoring and supervision of medical, nursing or physician associate students and other learners that may periodically be attached to the PCN and partner practices.
- Contribute to regular multi-disciplinary, PCN and OHP educational meetings.
- Undertake Audits, Appraisals and teaching and mentoring staff.
- Participate in Multi-Disciplinary Protocol guideline development as appropriate.
- Work closely with other clinical staff and administrative managers in the setting up and or improving of PCN and practice systems for monitoring and measuring performance against PCN DES targets.
Professional
- Registration with Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) to be renewed every 2 years to maintain registration.
- Undertake statutory and mandatory training as required by the organisation.
- Demonstrate clinical leadership.
- Pro-actively promote the role of the Paramedic within the PCN, practices and OHP and externally to key stakeholders and agencies.
- Respect patient confidentiality at all times and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.
- Membership of the College of Paramedics Voluntary Register is not mandatory but desirable.
Health and Safety/Risk Management
The post-holder must comply at all times with the Practice’s Health and Safety and other relevant policies, in particular by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System. The post-holder will comply with the Data Protection Act (1984) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).
Equality and Diversity
The post-holder must co-operate with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment. Co-workers, patients and visitors must be treated equally
irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.
Respect for Patient Confidentiality
The post-holder should respect patient confidentiality at all times and not divulge
patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.
Special Working Conditions
The post-holder is required to travel independently between practice sites (where applicable), and to attend meetings etc. hosted by other agencies. The post-holder will have contact with body fluids i.e. wound exudates; urine etc. while in clinical practice.
Role Profile Agreement
This role profile is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities only. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to take into account development within the Practice. All members of staff should be prepared to take on additional duties or relinquish existing duties in order to maintain the efficient running of the Practice.
This job description is intended as a basic guide to the scope and responsibilities of
the post and is not exhaustive. It will be subject to regular review and amendment as
necessary in consultation with the post holder.
Personal Specification
Person specification – Paramedic
Qualifications
Essential
Desirable
Educated to degree level in paramedicine or equivalent experience
✓
Registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council as a paramedic
✓
Post graduate qualifications in minor injury/illness and advanced patient assessment
✓
Experience
Essential
Desirable
Completed two-year ‘Consolidation of Learning’ period when a newly qualified paramedic
✓
Experienced in triage
✓
Experienced in dealing with a range of clinical conditions
✓
Experience of working in a primary care environment
✓
Personal qualities
Essential
Desirable
Ability to listen, empathise with people and provide person centred support in a non-judgemental way
✓
Courteous, respectful and helpful at all times
✓
Able to get along with people from all backgrounds and communities, respecting lifestyles and diversity
✓
Commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities
✓
Able to support people in a way that inspires trust and confidence, motivating others to reach their potential
✓
Ability to use discretion and sensitivity
✓
Ability to work on own initiative
✓
Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with people at all levels by telephone, email and face to face
✓
Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
✓
High levels of integrity and loyalty
✓
Ability to deal with non-routine and unpredictable nature of the workload and individual patient contact
✓
Ability to take part in reflective practice and clinical supervision activities
✓
Knowledge of when to seek advice and refer to a registered care professional
✓
Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
✓
Demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and work well under pressure
✓
Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
✓
High level of written and oral communication skills
✓
Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety
✓
Other requirements
Essential
Desirable
Willingness to work flexible hours when required to meet work demands
✓
Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check
✓
Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own home
✓
Clear polite telephone manner
✓
Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports
✓
Has previously worked in a primary care setting or a Primary Care Network
✓
Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent
Salary: From £40,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- On-site parking
- Sick pay
Schedule:
Work Location: In person