The Specialty Doctor reports into the Director for Clinical Services and is responsible for educational and clinical supervision for junior doctors on placement (once GMC accredited) plus daily clinical support and advice to the nurse practitioner team on the Inpatient Unit as required. The Specialty Doctor is responsible for provision of day-to-day medical cover to the specialist inpatient unit and participating in the weekend working rota. The role entails but is not limited to:
Clinical Responsibilities
1. Providing continuity of medical care on the inpatient unit and being responsible with the medical team for the day-to-day management of patients admitted to the IPU.
2. Performing a full holistic assessment of new patients and providing ongoing medical review for existing inpatients.
3. Prescribing appropriately in line with hospice and the West Midlands Palliative Care Physicians Guidelines for Symptom Control, maintaining accurate and legible drug charts. Completing the requisitions for pharmaceutical and other supplies when necessary.
4. Keeping comprehensive notes using the SystmOne electronic patient record.
5. Participating in the consultant ward rounds and appropriate ward multi-disciplinary team meetings.
6. Liaising, as needed, with other health and social care providers to ensure optimal patient care during and after discharge from Hospice services.
7. Completing medical certificates of cause of death, coroners or medical examiner referrals and cremation documentation in an accurate and timely manner.
8. High-quality and timely completion of administrative duties including discharge letters and death notification letters.
9. Participating in the Hospice weekend medical rota.
Clinical Governance
1. Helping to ensure robust organisational clinical governance through active participation in activities such as clinical audit.
2. Reviewing and making recommendations on the implementation of national guidelines (NICE).
3. Keeping up to date with medical developments, new drugs, treatments and medications relating to palliative care and sharing learning.
Teaching and Research
1. Involvement in supervising and teaching medical students and other health and social care professionals on placement, in collaboration with the rest of the multi-disciplinary team.
2. Contributing to the internal teaching programme for members of the multi-disciplinary team and, if appropriate, externally as part of the Hospice's commitment to educating other clinical teams about end-of-life care.
3. Opportunity to develop relevant research interests.
Managerial and Leadership
1. Taking on leadership and management activity, to be determined according to skills and professional development needs.
General Responsibilities
1. Undertaking Continuous Professional Development. St Giles Hospice will encourage and support this.
2. Travel between the 2 St Giles Hospice sites if required. Travelling expenses will be paid by St Giles Hospice.
3. Being aware of responsibilities towards health and safety and adhering to the fire regulations.
4. Understanding and upholding the Hospice Policies and Procedures as applicable.
5. Undergoing annual medical appraisal and engaging fully with Medical Revalidation.
A formal job plan will be agreed during induction and at intervals thereafter, according to service need. The successful candidate will, on initial appointment and thereafter, be required to inform the Hospice of any regular commitments in respect of private professional services or fee-paying services. The post holder must be fully registered with the General Medical Council. It is essential to maintain appropriate membership of a recognised medical defence organisation. Employees at the Hospice do not benefit from NHS indemnity.
Essential Skills and Attributes
1. Empathetic
2. Team player
3. Able to work under pressure
4. Collaborative
5. Ambassador for St Giles Hospice
Other Requirements
Essential
1. Valid driving licence
2. Eligibility to work in the UK
3. Please note that St Giles Hospice does not hold a sponsorship licence and is therefore unable to accept sponsorship requests.
Experience
1. Experience of Specialist Palliative care, or related discipline.
2. Experience of teaching medical, nursing and other healthcare professionals.
3. Understanding of UK hospice movement.
4. Understanding of clinical audit and quality improvement methodology.
5. Demonstrated ability to work in multidisciplinary teams.
6. Confidence to work independently (weekends), with phone support from a 2nd on-call consultant.
7. Ability to gain confidence and trust of patients, families, and colleagues.
8. Ability to respond to change.
9. Commitment to continuing personal development and medical education.
10. Developed strategies for ensuring personal and professional resilience.
Skills
1. Excellent communication skills, with a high standard of spoken and written English.
2. Proven ability to manage patients with complex physical, psychological and social problems effectively.
3. Leadership and management skills.
4. IT literacy.
5. Excellent interpersonal skills.
6. Qualified Medical Practitioner.
7. GMC Registration with licence to practice (no restrictions).
8. Minimum of 4 years post qualification experience with at least 2 years in a UK health setting and related specialty.
9. Palliative care qualification (certificate or diploma) or willingness to work towards.
10. Appropriate Medical liability cover.
Desirable
1. Teaching course.
2. Leadership and Management course.
St Giles Hospice is a leading provider of specialist palliative care services, committed to delivering compassionate, patient-centred care for individuals with life-limiting illnesses. We support patients and families in achieving the best possible quality of life through an interdisciplinary approach, including medical, nursing, psychosocial, and spiritual care. St Giles Hospice is a registered charity founded in 1983 by the Reverend Paul Brothwell, originally to improve the care of local people dying with cancer. We now support patients and their loved ones living with terminal illnesses. Our dedicated team provides individually-tailored care, free of charge, either at the hospice or in patients' own homes across our communities. We spend close to £10 million a year providing our specialist services, with just 18% of this funded by the Government, relying heavily on donations and income generation from the local community.
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