Lead Clinical Scientist RPA & MPE - Radiation Protection

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider is seeking a Lead Clinical Scientist to deliver radiation protection services and provide scientific support across multiple facilities. Candidates must be HCPC registered, preferably with RPA/MPE certification. This role includes line management responsibilities and the opportunity for professional development in a flexible working environment.

Benefits

High Cost Area Supplement

Flexible working patterns

Qualifications

• HCPC registered Clinical Scientist with experience in diagnostic radiology.
• Relevant experience providing radiation protection advice.
• Ability to manage priorities and respond flexibly.

Responsibilities

• Provide RPA and MPE support for multiple Trusts.
• Support and line manage clinical scientists and technologists.
• Deliver scientific support for medical imaging activities.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Ability to analyse and interpret complex data

Manual dexterity

Expertise in radiation protection

Education

Honours degree in relevant subject

Postgraduate qualification in physics or medical physics

State registration as a Clinical Scientist

Tools

X-ray imaging equipment

Quality assurance testing equipment

Job description

Here at East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust,

Our mission is:
Providing high-quality, compassionate care for our communities

Our vision to 2030 is:
To be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service

Job overview

We are recruiting for a Lead Clinical Scientist who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

The radiation protection department is part of the wider radiation services team including nuclear medicine and radiotherapy physics at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre. We are looking for a lead clinical scientist to provide RPA and MPE support for the Trust and to support a number of external Trusts under service level agreements.

The radiation protection department provides specialist scientific advice and technical support to radiology, and other users of x-ray imaging including radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and breast screening services. The department supports optimisation of a wide range of imaging equipment and is playing an active role in new imaging network activity.

In addition, you will receive a High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of your basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £4,552 and a maximum payment of £5,735 per annum pro rata.

At the heart of everything we do are our core values: Include, Respect, and Improve. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will be a HCPC registered Clinical Scientist, qualified to act as an RPA and MPE in diagnostic radiology imaging.

You will have excellent communication skills as you will lead on the provision of radiation protection and scientific support to several hospitals. Working closely with the head of radiation protection you will be part of the leadership team delivering serves to a number of Trusts.

The post holder will be required to work alongside local service leads to ensure organisations deliver statutory obligations with respect to the safe use of ionising radiation.

You will also support and line manage clinical scientists and technologists and contribute to staff development and assist in the supervision of trainees undertaking the STP programme or equivalent.

Ideally, we are looking for someone who already has MPE/RPA certification, but if you have begun to work towards this and expect to be able to submit a portfolio within twelve months of appointment, we would still like to hear from you. We would consider an appointment to a developmental role at a lower band and support you to achieve certification.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Qualifications / Training

Essential criteria

• Honours degree in a relevant subject (physics or engineering)
• Postgraduate qualification in a relevant branch of physics or medical physics to the level of at least a Master's degree (MSc).
• State registration with the Health & Care Professions Council, as a Clinical Scientist.
• Relevant experience as a clinical scientist
• Certificate of competence to practice as a Radiation Protection Adviser
• MPE certificate of competence or on the active RPA 2000 MPE list

Desirable criteria

• Experience providing radiation protection advice in nuclear medicine

Previous Experience

Essential criteria

• Highly specialised training and practical experience in Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Protection, Highly specialised training and practical experience in the use and quality assurance testing of a range of highly technical equipment.
• Experience in the application of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines and be able to communicate their application to other health professionals including senior management.
• Experience of working in teams
• Experience of auditing others
• Experience of clinical service provision

Skills

Essential criteria

• Good communicator of highly complex and sensitive information to patients and members of the public. Able to communicate highly complex scientific data to multi-disciplinary staff.
• Ability to analyse and interpret complex data, compare ranges of options, make judgements from the results and determine the cause of erroneous results.
• Ability to interpret technical and scientific situations, in which facts may conflict, and judging measures required to deal with them
• Highly developed physical accuracy, manual dexterity skills and good eye-sight to achieve precision and speed in the use of sophisticated scientific and technical equipment
• Expertise in using VDUs and have the ability to create and develop electronic documents, spreadsheets and Clinical Applications software.
• Ability to teach, train and supervise students and other members of staff across the whole range of Radiation Protection.
• Ability to apply knowledge and experience of practical diagnostic imaging and radiation protection in order to propose and manage the implementation of new procedures and equipment, and the development of existing ones.
• Ability to manage priorities and respond flexibly to changing requirements.
• Occasional requirement to exert moderate physical effort for several short periods during a shift
• Frequent requirement for prolonged concentration
• Frequent exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances (e.g. when communicating results of radiation dose measurements to staff)
• Occasional exposure to highly unpleasant working conditions

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in Radiation Protection (clinical, technical and scientific).
• In depth knowledge and understanding of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines (IRR 2017, IR(ME)R 2017)
• Extensive knowledge and expertise across clinical, research and development and personnel areas
• Specialist knowledge of the techniques employed to measure the performance and radiological safety of a wide variety of modern X-ray imaging equipment.
• Specialist knowledge on the dose measurement techniques of ionising radiations including the various techniques for measurement of patient dose in radiography, fluoroscopy, cardiology, CT, mammography and dental.

Other requirements

Essential criteria

• Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion
• Must be able to concentrate where the work pattern is unpredictable.
• Be flexible in their approach to coordinating workload
• Be prepared to work in an environment where there is a radiation hazard.
• Be able to work both independently and within a small team.
• Be aware of own limitations and when to ask for advice from senior members of the team

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background. In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing [e-mail]

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.

When you apply...

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date in certain circumstances. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.

All correspondence relating to vacancies will be via the e-mail address you have provided on your application form. Some servers automatically send e-mails to your junk mail so please check as well as your inbox.

As a publicly funded employer, we need to ensure we utilise our funds responsibly, this may mean we are unable to support sponsorship required to gain the right to work for particular positions. We strongly advise you to contact the line manager or a member of the Resourcing Team before applying to confirm if we will be able to support with sponsorship for that post.

King's Trust Support

If you're aged between 16 and 30 years-old, you can get FREE employability support from The King's Trust. The King's Trust will help build your CV and cover letter, offer advice and top tips for future interviews and support you with research about working in the NHS. Please contact Enquiries.H&[e-mail] for support.

Secondments/Fixed term

Where a vacancy is advertised as a temporary position, the duration will be specified in the advert. If the vacancy becomes permanent towards the end of the specified duration, the successful applicant may not be required to re-apply and can be slotted into the role on a permanent basis if appropriate.

If you are an internal applicant applying for a temporary working arrangement, please see the attached notes on secondments.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 896.3KB)
• Must Read Guidance Notes - Application Forms (PDF, 91.9KB)
• Guidance Notes for Applicants - How your data is used and stored (PDF, 416.6KB)
• Policy Statement - Recruitment of Ex-Offenders (PDF, 101.1KB)
• Guidance on secondments for internal applicants (PDF, 101.3KB)
• Showcasing our teaching commitment (PDF, 5.0MB)