Skin Cancer Support Worker

East Lancashire Hospitals Nhs Trust; Burnley; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 26,000; Full time

Job summary

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking a Cancer Support Worker to join the Dermatology Directorate. You will support patients with skin cancer, undertake holistic needs assessments, and develop individual care plans. The role involves triaging calls and coordinating investigations and appointments.

You will liaise with patients by phone or in person, signpost to sources of support, and act as an advocate to resolve barriers to care. Travel between sites is expected.

Qualifications

• GCSE grade C (or equivalent) in maths and English.
• NVQ 3 in healthcare or customer care or equivalent.
• ECDL or recognised IT experience.

Responsibilities

• Triage incoming calls to skin cancer specialists from patients and carers.
• Contribute to holistic needs assessments and develop individual care plans.
• Coordinate assessments, appointments and investigations when required.
• Provide telephone support and signpost to sources of information as needed.
• Document and monitor care coordination and support data collection for audit.
• Advise patients on self-care management and empower with aftercare guidance.
• Communicate with empathy, honesty and integrity in challenging situations.
• Act as advocate to resolve barriers to care and ensure safe transitions.

Skills

Empathy

Communication skills

Holistic needs assessment

Education

GCSE maths and English (Grade C or above)

NVQ 3 in healthcare / customer care or equivalent

ECDL or recognised IT experience

Job description

Job overview

The purpose of this role is primarily to ensure that the East Lancashire NHS Trust meets the NHS Long Term Plan (2018) recommendation to ensure that people living with and beyond cancer are fully supported and their needs are met.

A key element of the role is to work alongside the clinical team to support patients who have been diagnosed with skin cancer; act as a key contact for these patients and undertake holistic needs assessments for each patient where appropriate. Based on these assessments, the post-holder will develop an individualised care plan as appropriate. The Cancer support worker will also need the appropriate skills to recognise when patients require immediate or rapid referrals to appropriate members of the multi-disciplinary team, and feel confident to deal

with challenging situations and hold difficult and sensitive conversations with patients and families.

In addition, the post-holder will liaise with patients via telephone (or face to face), to support them and signpost to other sources of support. This may include co-ordinating future investigations and appointments for patients.

The role sits within the Dermatology Directorate which is part of the Surgical and Anaesthetic Division. The post-holder will be required to travel between hospital sites in order to meet the needs of the role.

This role requires a good understanding of cancer patient pathways.

Main duties of the job

• Work alongside Clinical Teams to develop agreed patient initiated pathways and supporting documentation.
• Contribute to the holistic needs assessment and the development of an individual care plan as appropriate.
• Triage incoming calls to the skin cancer clinical nurse specialists, from patients, relatives, carers, and other health and social care professionals.
• Communicate information with a high degree of empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty and integrity.
• Provide basic telephone advice and refer on or sign-post to other sources of support and information as required.
• Coordinate the necessary assessments, appointments or investigations if required.
• Demonstrate the ability to recognise and respond appropriately when faced with a sudden deterioration or an emergency situation, alerting the clinical team or enabling rapid response as appropriate.
• Document and monitor all aspects of care coordination and service delivery, supporting data collection for audit.
• Organise and prioritise the designated workload.
• Coordinate the handover with other teams where appropriate to facilitate safe and effective transition of care between services in order to provide seamless support for people.
• Act as advocate and facilitator to resolve issues that may be perceived as barriers to care.

Working for our organisation

At East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, our vision is to be widely recognised for providing safe, personal and effective care. We currently provide high
quality services and treat over 700,000 people across East Lancashire and the surrounding area. We employ over 8,000 staff, many of whom are
internationally renowned and have won awards for their work.
We have an exciting opportunity for a skin clerical support worker to join our dedicated dermatology and maxio facial team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Work alongside Clinical Teams to develop agreed patient initiated pathways and supporting documentation.
• Contribute to the holistic needs assessment and the development of an individual care plan as appropriate.
• Triage incoming calls to the skin cancer clinical nurse specialists, from patients, relatives, carers, and other health and social care professionals.
• Communicate information with a high degree of empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty and integrity.
• Provide basic telephone advice and refer on or sign-post to other sources of support and information as required.
• Coordinate the necessary assessments, appointments or investigations if required.
• Demonstrate the ability to recognise and respond appropriately when faced with a sudden deterioration or an emergency situation, alerting the clinical team or enabling rapid response as appropriate.
• Document and monitor all aspects of care coordination and service delivery, supporting data collection for audit.
• Organise and prioritise the designated workload.
• Coordinate the handover with other teams where appropriate to facilitate safe and effective transition of care between services in order to provide seamless support for people.
• Act as advocate and facilitator to resolve issues that may be perceived as barriers to care.
• Advise patients on individual self-care management principles to include signs and symptoms and situations to be aware of and provide consistent planned aftercare to reinforce and further promote this information. In addition to coaching patients and carers on how to make contact when they feel that their condition or needs have changed, including what to do out of hours.
• Deliver patient-centred, self-management support and education as necessary to non-complex patients, including how to self-assess.
• Encourage and support active and healthy lifestyle choices.
• Carry out some administration duties required by the role.
• Understand that there may be frequent exposure to distressing/highly distressing situations and when to seek appropriate support/advice.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the limits of own practice and knowledge and when to seek appropriate support/advice.

• Help to plan and organise the annual health skin education event

Person specification

Essential

Essential criteria

• Gcse grade c or above, or equivalent in maths and english
• Nvq 3 in healthcare/ customer care or equivalent experience
• ECDL or recognised IT experience

desirable

Desirable criteria

• working autonomously to deliver project / initiatives
• working in a clinical environment