POCT Associate Practitioner

NHS; Bury St Edmunds; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading healthcare organization as an Associate Practitioner in the Point of Care Testing team. This role offers the chance to work in a dynamic environment, ensuring high-quality patient care through effective testing and device management. You will support various projects and collaborate with clinical staff to maintain laboratory standards. Ideal candidates will have experience in the NHS or laboratory settings, strong IT skills, and the ability to work flexibly across multiple locations.

Qualifications

• Experience within the NHS or laboratory environment.
• Use of medical devices and/or laboratory equipment.
• Experience of POCT.

Responsibilities

• Complete day-to-day POCT tasks across all Trust sites.
• Troubleshoot devices and perform routine maintenance.
• Assist with device verification and quality controls.

Skills

Effective verbal and written communication

Good IT skills

Ability to prioritise workload

Attention to detail

Ability to cope under pressure

Education

NVQ 3 or equivalent

Foundation degree or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Office

POCT middleware systems

Microsoft Excel

Job description

The Point of Care Testing (POCT) team are looking to recruit two motivated, proactive and hardworking individuals to Associate Practitioner roles within their small and friendly department. There is an opportunity for one full time position (37.5 hours per week) and one part time position (15 hours per week). Please can applicants highlight their preference for either the full time or part time role within their application

This role will give the post holder the opportunity to work in an exciting and emerging area of Pathology, which has improving patient care at its core. Over the last year the team have been responsible for upgrading and replacing the acute glucose/ketone meters within the Trust. Whilst there are also many exciting upcoming projects, such as replacing the urinalysis meters, expanding IT connectivity across the POCT device portfolio and supporting POCT device deployment within the Virtual Ward.

POCT, as the title suggests, is patient testing at or near the patient bedside. Meaning a faster turnaround time to results to allow for quicker diagnosis and treatment. Although POCT sits within Pathology, many of POCT operators are clinical staff. Therefore, the role of the POCT team is to ensure laboratory standards are met for all operators, devices and results across multiple areas and sites.

This role is highly mobile and involves frequent visits to wards and departments both at the main hospital site and at off-site locations.

Main duties of the job

As a POCT Associate Practitioner your role will to complete the day-to-day POCT tasks to ensure a smooth running of the service across all Trust sites. Your duties will include:

- Troubleshooting devices, in addition to performing routine maintenance and decontamination procedures.

- Distributing and processing internal quality controls (IQCs) and external quality assessment (EQA) samples for POCT devices.

- Assisting with device verification and reagent batch validation.

To fulfil the role you will need to meet the following requirements:

- Have experience within the NHS or within a laboratory environment.

- Have good IT skills.

- Be able to work both in a team and as an individual.

- Be able to prioritise workload.

- Be flexible and able to respond to the needs of the service.

About us

#BeKnown at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. By us. By our patients. By our community

We are a busy, friendly, rural NHS Trust providing high-quality care and compassion to more than a quarter of a million people across west Suffolk. We care for, treat and support people in hospital, at home and in various community settings.

The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds provides acute and secondary care services (emergency department, maternity and neonatal services, day surgery unit, eye treatment centre, Macmillan unit and children's ward). It has 500+ beds and is a partner teaching hospital of the University of Cambridge.

Adult and paediatric community services, provided in collaboration with West Suffolk Alliance partners, include a range of nursing, therapy, specialist, and ongoing temporary care and rehabilitation, some at our Newmarket Community Hospital.

We do our utmost to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes for patients and our values of fairness, inclusivity, respect, safety and team work guide how we work and behave as a team.

With nearly 5,000 staff, from all over the world, we strive to make our organisation a great place to work. Whatever your role or ambition, we want to help you be the best you can be.

We promote a diverse and inclusive community where everyones voice counts and you can #BeKnown for whoever you are.

Join us. What will you #BeKnown for?

Job responsibilities

PLEASE SEE FULL JOB DESCRIPTION & SPECIFICATION ATTACHED

Job summary

The post holder will assist with ensuring all West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) Point of Care Testing (POCT) responsibilities operate and are controlled in a manner consistent with the Trust POCT Policy and relevant UKAS accreditation guidelines. This includes:

- Developing knowledge and skills to provide advice and guidance to POCT users.

- Deploying the necessary interpersonal skills to ensure effective liaison with service users to provide the best care for patients.

- Undertaking the day-to-day tasks of the POCT service, including device maintenance, distribution of external quality assurance (EQA) material and conducting training across WSFT.

- To actively promote best practice for POCT across the Trust and to assist with ensuring that POCT is appropriate, safe and fit for purpose.

Person Specification

Education & Qualification

• Appropriate NVQ 3 or equivalent
• Additional theoretical or applied training to diploma equivalent level
• Hold or working towards Foundation degree or equivalent

Experience & Knowledge

• Good IT skills, including use of the internet
• Experience within the NHS or within a laboratory environment
• Use of Microsoft Office programmes
• Experience of using medical devices and/or laboratory equipment.
• Experience of POCT
• Use of POCT middleware systems
• Intermediate Microsoft Excel

Skills & Abilities

• Effective verbal and written communication
• Able to work both in a team and as an individual.
• Ability to work in an organised manner and to high standards
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to prioritise workload
• Must have ability to travel
• Ability to cope under pressure

Personal Qualities

• Effective team player
• Able to meet deadlines
• Strives for excellence
• Flexible approach to working hours /duties and able to respond to the needs of the service
• Integrity and personal credibility.
• Dependable
• Friendly and approachable
• Puts the patient first in everything that is undertaken
• Effective trainer

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.