PCN Paramedic

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 and other independent clinicians working within the PCN MDT.
• To manage a clinical caseload and deal with presenting patient’s needs in both a nursing a residential care home 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 undertake visits in both residential and nursing homes.
• 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 .

Supervision

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.

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.

Key Relationships

• Leader for the care homes multi-disciplinary team.
• GPs and General practice teams within the PCN
• PCN Clinical Director
• PCN Business Manager
• Multi-disciplinary team. members including but not exhaustive: Clinical Pharmacists, technicians, Physician Associates, Physios, Paramedics, Social Prescribing Link Workers, Care coordinators & Health and Well-being Coaches.
• OHP clinical and non-clinical staff.

   Health and Safety/Risk Management

• The post-holder must comply at all times with the organisation and Practice’s Health and Safety policies, in particular by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisation’s Incident Reporting System.
• The post-holder will comply with the Data Protection Act (1984), The General Data Protection Regulations (2018) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).
• The post-holder will comply with all necessary training requirements relevant to the role as identified by the organisation.
• To assist the with investigating untoward incidents or near misses in accordance with the internal Significant Events.

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 always respect patient confidentiality and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.

Special Working Conditions

• This role requires you to travel between practices within the PCN and/or to make visits to patients who cannot attend the surgery. The post holder is required to hold a full, clean UK driving license and have access to a suitable vehicle with a valid MOT and covered by business insurance.