Healthcare Scientist Practitioner, Band 5- Chemical Pathology

at  Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

To take an active role in the support of the Clinical Biochemistry Department which services the Health Community in Gloucestershire, including all inpatients/outpatients in the acute and community hospitals and all GP surgeries.
You will be supporting fellow state registered Healthcare Scientists in the provision of an effective, 24/7 high quality service.
You will actively support the team being able to process in excess of 3000 samples per day and enable the department to play a key role in supporting allied healthcare professionals who are reliant on our service.
This includes communication of any confidential urgent/abnormal results the technical validation of own work, maintaining and troubleshooting equipment and initial investigations into poor analyser performance.
To assist with training of new staff of all grades. Help to maintain turnaround times for all samples and stocks for hundreds of different reagents and Quality Control materials.
Working pattern details: Monday-Friday with weekends included as required. Night working is essential in this pattern.
Responsibility for ensuring all tests are performed according to established laboratory standard operating procedures and within agreed turnaround times.
Ensure the quality of the analytical service is maintained to the UKAS ISO 15189:2022 standard.
Responsibility for ensuring safe use and maintenance of expensive, complex equipment, maintaining appropriate records.
To supervise Trainee Biomedical Scientists, Associate Practitioners and Medical Laboratory Assistants.
Full participation in a 24 hour shift pattern is expected. This includes working at both sites, sometimes as a lone worker

WE ARE LOOKING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS:

The ability to train & develop
Excellent communication skills
Demonstrate a high level of concentration
Understands own limitations and is not afraid to ask for help.
Flexible and able to demonstrate initiative.
Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
Friendly, enthusiastic team player with good demonstrable interpersonal skills.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest employer in the county and with over 8,000 staff, we are one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK. We offer a generous annual leave allowance, excellent bank rates, access to the excellent NHS Pension Scheme, discounts for local shops, restaurants and services, access to our health and well-being hub, access to our two on-site nurseries, flexible working options, discounted public transport, reward and recognition schemes, exercise and activity classes and membership to our popular hospital choir.
The Chemical Pathology Department provides a UKAS accredited analytical and clinical interpretive service to support over 600,000 individuals within the Gloucestershire health community. We process over 1,000,000 patient requests (7 million tests) per annum within a 24/7, 365 day service.
We are a hard working team focused on improving patient outcomes and delivering high quality and fast turnaround times for all patient test requests.
Benefits include holiday entitlements of 27 days per year, plus eight general and public holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years’ service
An annual personal development review to support your career aspirations
Automatic membership of the NHS Pension Scheme (unless you choose to opt out). New entrants to the scheme receive employer contributions of 5 - 14.5% dependant on salary.
Study leave for sponsored courses
To work closely under the management of the Healthcare Scientist Team.
Key working relationships will exist between the post holder and all members of the Chemical Pathology staff across both sites.
The post holder will also be dealing with a variety of key personnel including clinicians, GP’s, nursing staff, other hospital and primary care staff, supplier representatives, and engineers.
The post holder will have good working relationships with all members of the Chemical Pathology staff and Clinical Trials Staff who are in regular communication with the department.
Responsibility for ensuring all tests are performed according to established laboratory standard operating procedures and within agreed turnaround times.
To ensure the quality of the analytical service is maintained to UKAS ISO 15189:2022 standards.
Responsibility for ensuring safe use of expensive and complex equipment by undertaking regular in house maintenance and maintaining appropriate records.
To prepare samples for analysis on a range of different analytical platforms. This may include barcode labelling, centrifugation, preparation of aliquots, and measurement of sample volume.
To comply with quality control procedures and utilise the data to ensure accuracy of patient results.
Responsible for initiating repeat analysis where the validity and accuracy of the results are in doubt.
To partake and support the variety of clinical trials that the department supports.
To assess and check the validity and accuracy of any results produced by MLAs, Trainees & Associate Practitioners and to authorise their work.
To supervise Trainee Biomedical Scientists, Associate Practitioners and Medical Laboratory Assistants.
Ensure good communications in order to create an efficient well motivated group of staff.
To assist with the induction of new staff.
To act as mentor for new members of staff, as required
To liaise directly with all service users to ensure there are no unnecessary delays within the results process and to provide information as requested.
Responsibility for the use of all reagents and consumables in a cost efficient way.
Regularly review the appropriate usage of all materials.
As commensurate with the access level of BMS band 5 perform routine tasks on the laboratory computer system.
To contribute to the performance of all routine ‘housekeeping’ tasks on the laboratory computer system.
Use Microsoft office to produce standard operating procedures and other bench based record sheets etc.
Use statistical packages to run correlations for new methodologies or equipment.
Perform daily temperature checks on fridges & freezers.
To assist in the management of waste within the department.
To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
To be involved with the training of Trainee Biomedical Scientists, Associate Practitioners and Medical Laboratory Assistants. To include the preparation and presentation of tutorials.
Uses Q Pulse to record activities and issues such as NCRs, audits, document control.
To keep abreast of developments in the discipline.
As resources allow - to undertake formal courses of study e.g. Specialist Diploma
Daily pressures and stresses of processing a high workload with frequent interruptions using sophisticated equipment to obtain accurate timely results.
Full participation in the 24 hour shift pattern is expected. This includes working at both sites, sometimes as a lone worker and under taking all shifts on a rotational basis.
With reference to work undertaken, especially outside routine hours, provide advice to users of the service.
Responsible for the initiation of repeat analyses, troubleshooting and adherence to the IQC policy in the absence of a Team Leader.
Attend relevant training courses and user group meetings.
Attend laboratory meetings (including educational meetings) whenever possible but to the minimum attendance standard set by the department.
Ensure all competencies are kept up-to-date.
To fully participate in CPD tasks required by the Dept. e.g. Monthly QC Conundrum
Ensure Health and Safety (including Clinical Governance and Management of Risk) standards are maintained in order to create a safe environment for staff to work in.
To participate in an annual appraisal and development review meeting.
To comply with the Trust no smoking policy.
To comply with the Trusts policies with regard to kindness and respect.
Requirement to work with absolute accuracy and speed during periods of prolonged concentration. Handle potentially infectious blood and bodily fluids, faeces etc. with unpleasant smells/odours together with the risk associated in handling hazardous chemicals.
Working in hot conditions with protective clothing, coats, gloves and goggles.
Working on contaminated equipment or work areas.
Potential of sharps injury.
Constant background noise from equipment.
Make frequent repetitive movements.
Requirement for a considerable amount of manual dexterity in processing paediatric samples and maintaining equipment.
Maintenance often involves use of delicate instruments whilst working on highly sensitive and complex analytical equipment where accuracy of setup is crucial to the delivery of correct results.
Limited amount of lifting, bending but a considerable amount of standing.
Frequent long periods of use of a VDU
Please see attached full job description.

Please refer the Job description for details