Advanced Clinical Practitioner

The Christie International; Manchester; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester invites applications for an Advanced Practitioner role within the Head and Neck oncology team. You will lead advanced clinical practice, coordinate patient pathways and contribute to service development.

We expect an MSc in Advanced Practice or equivalent, and registration with the appropriate regulator. The post requires strong communication, teaching and collaboration across multidisciplinary teams.

Qualifications

• High level advanced clinical knowledge and leadership in a clinical service.
• Post-registration MSc in advanced practice or equivalent.
• Maintenance of professional registration and CPD.

Responsibilities

• Provide advanced and specialist level assessments for complex patients.
• Lead and develop services, ensuring safe, effective and personalised care.
• Promote audit, service improvement and education within the team.
• Communicate clearly with patients, staff and partners in high-stress situations.

Skills

Advanced clinical practice

Leadership

Communication

Audit and quality improvement

Teaching and mentoring

Education

MSc in Advanced Practice

NMC/HCPC registration

Tools

Non-medical prescribing

IRM(E)R trained

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the dynamic multi-disciplinary head and neck oncology team based at the Christie.
The Christie head and neck team provide specialist care and management for patients diagnosed with a head and neck malignancy. The service is always striving to improve patient care and outcomes through service development and clinical trial activity. The post holder will work alongside clinical oncology and medical oncology consultants prescribing sact treatments and reviewing radiotherapy patients as well as providing specialist information, support, co-ordination of care and these patients, in both outpatient and inpatient settings.
We welcome applications from those from a nursing or allied health background with an advanced clinical practice masters. Oncology experience or head neck experience is desirable but not essential as we are a teaching hospital, but the right candidate would expected to practice within the 4 pillars of advanced practice.
The post holder will be motivated and eager to improve the quality of patient care and the patient experience and have skills in audit service innovation. The post demands excellent oral and written communication skills and good interpersonal skills are paramount together with the confidence to engage and work with a range of colleagues at all levels and from all professional groups. Flexibility in working is also essential.

Main duties of the job

Along with the service line senior leadership team, including Advanced Practitioners and Consultant Practitioners, Advanced Practitioners will provide positive leadership, connecting patients, staff and partners with the vision and values of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
They will use their expert knowledge and skills to assist in leading and delivering safe and clinically effective, quality driven, personalised care for people within our communities. Working alongside the senior managers and clinicians, they will assist in leading services that meet the needs of patients and their families to achieve improved health outcomes and promote health and wellbeing while demonstrating care, compassion, competence, communication, courage, and commitment.

The post holder will provide advanced and specialist level comprehensive assessments for patients with highly complex presentations, case management, treatment, and education. This will predominantly be delivered within the setting of their service line and may extend into inpatient and clinic settings to support with highly complex cases and patient pathways.

Please refer to job description for further details.

Working for our organisation

The service is committed to providing the highest quality of care, advancing practice through clinical trials, quality improvement and clinical audit. The post-holder would be integral to service development and delivering a high standard of care for this complex disease.
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country. We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years. We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication

• Produce accurate and complete documentation and patient records consistent with legislation, policies, and procedures. These should develop to demonstrate the use of expertise in decision making skills which have informed advanced clinical reasoning.
• Communicate effectively, in a highly emotive, antagonistic, or hostile environment about highly complex, sensitive, and potentially distressing information – such as in an oncology setting, giving prognostic information for poor clinical outcome based on diagnostic cancer markers, or breaking bad news, relapse or progression of disease and discuss options with sensitivity and compassion.
• Anticipate barriers to communication, be empathetic and offer reassurance. Establish methods of overcoming these barriers, ensuring patients and significant others are kept fully informed and consent to treatment is maintained and fully documented.
• Provide and receive highly complex reports that may contain highly sensitive or highly contentious information. This information will be completed to a high standard to ensure accuracy, relevance, and sensitivity, with clear outcomes and recommendations.

Knowledge Training and Experience

• The post holder will have highly specialist knowledge through the attainment of a post registration master’s (MSc) in advanced practice or through the e-portfolio supported route and have a digital badge. They will have theoretical knowledge and extensive relevant practical experience, acquired through a combination of in-depth experience and postgraduate post-registration study. They will have received significant formal training in, or experience within their clinical specialty.
• Work independently and autonomously within medico-legal frameworks, making highly complex expert clinical decisions, working within local and national policies being responsible for how these policies are interpreted.
• They will maintain and develop this expertise and competence to enable collaboration with senior colleagues and medical staff, and to facilitate the management of patients.
• To act autonomously as an expert resource and provide advice and support to ward/departmental areas and to The Christie’s local, regional, national, and international partners.
• The post holder will practice in compliance with relevant code of professional conduct and maintain professional registration and practice through CPD including maintaining a professional portfolio to demonstrate competency in line with the trust competency framework to ensure that skills remain optimal and new elements can be added to the skills portfolio and presented at annual appraisal.
• They will identify their own development needs in line with service requirements and participate in setting a personal development plan. To support this, they will work with a named mentor from within the medical team or a senior advanced practitioner.
• Through ongoing supervision and mentorship identify personal learning needs, participating in personal continuing education and other activities to promote one’s own personal growth across the four pillars.
• Practice the skills to interpret and evaluate information from diverse sources to make informed judgements about its quality, appropriateness for practice and service delivery.
• Develop and maintain expertise, skills and appropriate competencies in their clinical area ensuring the highest level of precision to ensure patient safety.
• Identify and support the development and implementation of advanced practice within services.
• Assist in maintaining and disseminating knowledge and expertise within their specialist field.
• Seize opportunities to apply new knowledge to their own and others practice in structured ways, which are capable of evaluation.
• Be expected to autonomously assess patients, receive, and make referrals, assess patients, receive, and make referrals, interpret, and act upon assessments, consider differential diagnosis, evaluate, treat, plan, refer and discharge patients within the Trust. Using non-medical prescribing skills and radiology requesting as relevant to professional background and training, have IRM(E)R training.
• Actively engage in and promote the organisational learning culture within their service line in all aspects of clinical practice, facilitating staff to develop specific areas of expertise and proficiency to meet the needs of the caseload within the available resources.
• Work closely with the advanced practice lead, Senior Nursing and AHP Teams and the CICE to ensure staff have access to clinical updates and achieve required level of competency.
• Support the clinical areas within the area of responsibility to be excellent learning environments for all students to include robust supervision.
• Work closely with the leadership teams and Educator in Practice leads to encourage students to work in the Trust on qualification.

Analytical and Judgement Skills

• The post holder will assess complex facts and situations, using analytical skill, interpretation, and comparison of a range of options using a wide variety of assessment methods. In the clinical management of patients, competing, contradictory or unclear inputs are expected. Owing to the nature of the post following the whole patient pathway, they may have competing expected outcomes from the patient, the Trust, and other healthcare partners.
• The post holder will continually review and evaluate their own role and clinical practice informing the annual appraisal review process. They will practice evidence-based health care and by assessing clinical evidence, best practice guidelines and national policy statements will be responsible for defining developing, monitoring, and updating Trust clinical policies in relation to their own area of practice.
• Use quality improvement methodology to assist in changes in practice and service delivery in accordance with evidence-based standards and policy, challenging traditional boundaries and current thinking; and overcoming resistance and conflict at the Trust, system, and national level.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• Act as an autonomous practitioner in their specialist field using highly specialist clinical knowledge ensuring patient centred care and family involvement, including health promotion and disease prevention.
• Be directly responsible for the management of patients within own caseload.
• Apply advanced theoretical and practical knowledge to the clinical care of people, their families and partner agencies involved when delivering and shaping services in line with national guidelines, best practice, and the national personalised care agenda.
• Support the development and implementation of advanced practice within services.

Physical Skills and Effort

• Will be required to examine patients, pre, during and after treatment often in highly complex situations, where patients may be in distress or pain and examination needs to be performed using highly developed physical skills.
• Perform clinical, technical, or invasive procedures safely according to defined protocols, adhering to manual handling policy.
• There is a frequent requirement for light physical effort for several short periods during a shift.

Responsibility for Patient Care

• Practice in compliance with relevant code of professional conduct, delivering and participating in the clinical care of patients within scope of practice; being accountable for decisions, actions, and omissions at this level of practice.
• Develop advanced clinical decision making based on highly complex facts and situations and encourage critical thinking regarding both ethical and legal issues related to high quality care delivery.
• Develop and maintain expertise, skills and appropriate competencies in their clinical area ensuring the highest level of precision to ensure patient safety.
• Develop the ability to initiate, evaluate and modify a range of interventions which may include equipment, prescribing medicine, care plans, exercise, lifestyle advice, social prescribing, therapies, and self-management in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and local policy and protocols. Provides highly specialist clinical or technical services that contribute to the diagnosis, care or treatment of patients.
• Understands and applies the legal safeguarding framework that supports the identification of vulnerable and abused adults/children and is aware of statutory vulnerable patients’ health procedures and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust guidance.
• Consent patients for treatment procedures in line with Trust policy and role.
• Provides highly specialist advice which contributes to the diagnosis, care, or education of patients.
• Prescribe licensed and non-licensed drugs within the capacity of non-medical prescribing, adhering to Trust policy and existing frameworks.
• Prescribe appropriate blood products as per Trust policy.

Please refer to job description for further details.

Qualifications

• Registered professional, (e.g., NMC/HCPC)
• Educated to MSc Degree Level 7 in Advanced Practice or equivalent, with NHSE Digital Staff badge demonstrating AP accreditation with The Centre for Advancing Practice
• IRM(E)R trained (where relevant to professional background and role)
• Blood product prescriber (where relevant to professional background and role)
• Non-medical prescriber (where relevant to professional background and role)
• Teaching and assessing qualification
• Relevant research qualification – e.g., Good Clinical Practice
• Recognized leadership and management course
• Completion of relevant extended role scope competencies

Experience

• Experience of a senior professional role in relevant clinical specialty
• Enhanced clinical skills relevant to area of clinical practice
• Experienced in managing own caseload of patients as an independent practitioner
• Experience of implementing evidence-based practice
• Experience of working in partnership with multi-disciplinary teams
• Experience in undertaking audit, quality improvement and service evaluation
• Experience of teaching and supervising undergraduate students and registered staff
• Experience of teaching and presenting at conference or other external meeting
• Experience of analysis and reporting of data
• Clinical experience of leading health care services within specialty
• Experience of research and implementation of evidence-based practice in relevant clinical specialty
• Experience in undertaking research projects and publishing articles
• Experience of inter‑agency working and system delivery

Skills

• Excellent communication skills, written and verbal, to enable communication with a wide range of stakeholders and for clinical purposes, negotiation, leadership, and influence. This includes managing highly complex communications where there may be barriers to understanding
• Highly developed interpersonal skills, with meticulous attention to detail
• Complex planning and organisational skills
• Evidence of autonomous decision making
• Evidence of problem-solving skills
• Evidence of practice innovation and quality improvement
• IT skills for data management, reporting, presentation, and communication
• Evidence of enhanced clinical skills
• Self‑motivated and able to prioritise within a large and varied workload
• Ability to identify and optimise learning opportunities
• Ability to work as part of a team and ability to command respect of the multi-disciplinary team
• Self‑motivated, self‑starter, and organised
• Flexible and adaptable at work to meet competing priorities
• Able to respond and prioritise unpredictable health presentations and ensure effective interventions are actioned
• Able to work in unpleasant working conditions on occasions, i.e., bodily fluids
• Enhanced knowledge of the multi‑professional framework for advanced clinical practice (2025)

Knowledge

• Enhanced knowledge relevant to the specialty area
• Knowledge of Quality Improvement methodologies and experience of successful delivery in practice
• Knowledge of leadership strategies, personal leadership and how to lead successful change in an organisation
• Knowledge of teaching and learning styles
• Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults
• Advanced knowledge of government strategies and policies relating to service and clinical leadership role
• Working knowledge of safety and governance frameworks and standards (including confidentiality/freedom of information/Caldicott regulations/CQC essential standards)
• Working knowledge of nursing, AHP and medical professional issues and developments

Values

• Ability to demonstrate the organisational values and behaviours of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date for this post may be extended if there are insufficient applicants or brought forward if there is a high volume of applicants.

Sponsorship Information -We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications.Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship.You can review the list of eligible role and requirements on the government website.

Pre-Employment Checks -To confirm your suitability for the role, we will carry out pre-employment checks in line with NHS Employment Check Standards . These include:

• Identity verification
• Right to work check
• Disclosure and barring service (DBS)/Criminal record check (dependent on role, payment of this will be the applicants responsibility)
• Professional registration and/or qualification check
• Occupational health assessment
• Employment history and reference validation

All applicants external to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust will be required to provide their HMRC employment history to cover the most recent three years employment. This information will used to validate employment history andreferences.

If you require sponsorship, we will assess your eligibility based on current government guidance. If the role is not eligible and you cannot demonstrate your right to work, your conditional offer may be withdrawn.

If You're Offered the Role - you will be agreeing to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

The Inter-Authority Transfer (IAT) process is a critical and beneficial component of ESR and will form part of the recruitment process. In the event that you are successful following interview your previous NHS employment data, if applicable will be transferred from your current / most recent employer.

Sponsorship Information -We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications.Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship.You can review the list of eligible role and requirements on the government website.

No Smoking Policy - You should be aware the Trust operates a No Smoking Policy and therefore employees are not permitted to smoke at work.

Additional Information -We want to ensure that everyone who works at the Christie or uses our services is welcomed, valued and treated with dignity and respect.The Christie values diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all and fair representation across the organisation at all levels. In support of these commitments, we particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and people with disabilities for this post. Appointment will be only on merit.

We are committed to creating a balanced and diverse workforce. As such we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Together we will foster inclusion and tackle inequity and health inequalities in cancer care.

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all our activities. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery in any of its forms, including slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, and human trafficking. We are fully committed to acting ethically and with transparency in all our business dealings and relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our organisation or supply chains.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.