Physician Associate - Reading, United Kingdom - Western Elms & Circuit Lane Surgeries

Description

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE:
Physician Associate (PA) Primary Care


REPORTS TO:
THE PARTNERS (Clinical)

THE PRACTICE MANAGER (Admin)


HOURS:
37.5 hours per week (full time)

As a PA you will provide care for patients including initial clinical assessment, diagnosis, and management with the supervision of a GP.

You will demonstrate safe and effective clinical decision-making.

You will work with the multi-disciplinary general practice team to support the delivery of policy and procedures and meet the needs of patients.

Long-term educational mentorship will be provided by a single designated GP whilst day to day clinical supervision will be provided by GPs working alongside the MDT.

The level and type of supervision will be dependent on the post holder's skills and knowledge.

You will follow recommended annual appraisals and continuing professional development as set out by the Faculty of Physician Associates (FPA).

SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

• To deliver a high standard of patient care using advanced autonomous clinical skills with indepth theoretical knowledge and evidence based practice working under the supervision of a GP
• To manage a clinical caseload and deal with presenting patient's needs in a primary care setting
• To provide clinical leadership where appropriate within the practice and support other members of the team to develop and maintain clinical skills appropriate to your role and expertise.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• See person spec

PRIMARY DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical

The post holder will under appropriate supervision:

• Provide first point of contact for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems, utilising history taking, physical examination, problem-solving and clinical decision-making skills to establish a working diagnosis and management plan working in partnership with patients.
• Undertake as agreed surgery based consultations for emergency or routine problems including management of long term conditions. In addition, undertake telephone consultations / home visits and participate in duty rotas
• Instigate necessary invasive and noninvasive diagnostic tests or investigations and interpret findings/reports within the scope of a PA's practice. Discuss the result and implications of laboratory investigations with patients
• Utilise clinical guidelines and promote evidencebased practice
• Offer a holistic service to patients and their families, developing where appropriate an ongoing plan of care/support with an emphasis on prevention and selfcare
• Refer patients directly to other services or agencies using appropriate referral pathways
• Ensure safe handover of care within and outside the practice as appropriate
• Work directly with members of the practice primary health care team and support integrated patient centred care through appropriate working with wider primary care / social care networks
• Identify community health needs and participate in the development of patient/familycentred strategies to address them
• Contribute to the practice quality targets to consistently achieve high standards of safe, evidencebased, costeffective patient care and service delivery

Training and development

• Participate in continuing professional development opportunities to keep uptodate with evidencebased 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.

This requires 50 hours of CPD every year:
a minimum of 25 hours must be in accredited direct learning programmes

• 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 analysis
• Review of relevant literature
• Research unusual symptoms and treatment options through consultation with general practitioners, physicians and other specialists
• Promote and support a learning culture within the practice 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 practice
• Contribute to regular multidisciplinary and or practice educational meetings
• Participate in multidisciplinary protocol and patient group directions (PGDs) development as appropriate
• Work closely with other clinical staff and administrative managers in the setting up and/or improving of practice systems for monitoring/measuring performance against Clinical Governance and Quality Indicator targets

Administration

• Fully document all aspects of patient care and complete all required paperwork for legal and administrative purposes in accordance with relevant standards
• Work in accordance with internal ad