Urgent Care Practitioner (UCP)

NHS; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 57,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

NEMS Community Benefit Services in Nottingham is seeking an Urgent Care Practitioner to provide autonomous clinical care across urgent care services. The role covers telephone and face-to-face consultations, with independent non-medical prescribing where applicable, and scope to work across multiple sites.

Applicants will be registered clinicians with NMC/HCPC, experienced in urgent care, and able to work remotely for telephone assessments when needed.

Qualifications

• Registered clinician with NMC/HCPC and independent prescribing where applicable.
• Experience in urgent care settings and triage.
• Ability to work across multiple sites and remote when required.

Responsibilities

• Provide autonomous urgent care across NEMS services via telephone and face-to-face consultations.
• Assess, diagnose, treat, refer and discharge patients with undifferentiated presentations.
• Make safe decisions on escalation, admission and safety-netting.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and contribute to service improvement.
• Support learning, teaching and governance activities within the team.
• Work flexibly across sites and deliver remote telephone consultations when needed.

Skills

Autonomous decision-making

Telephone assessment

Face-to-face assessment

Clinical governance

Multi-site working

Remote telephone work

Education

NMC/HCPC registration

Tools

Adastra

SystmOne

EMIS

Nervecentre

Job description

The Urgent Care Practitioner willprovide autonomous clinical care across NEMS urgent care services. The role isopen to suitably qualified UCPs, ECPs and Nurse Practitioners who areindependent non-medical prescribers, and is designed to provide a mix oftelephone and face-to-face consultations across Integrated Urgent CareServices, urgent treatment centres and other agreed service models.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be anexperienced registered clinician, able to assess, diagnose, treat, refer anddischarge patients with undifferentiated urgent care presentations. They willwork within their professional registration, agreed scope of practice, NEMSpolicies and local clinical pathways.

Telephone consultations willusually be undertaken within Integrated Urgent Care Services. Followinginduction, and where agreed by the service, some telephone consultation workmay be undertaken remotely from home, provided that the post holder is meetingagreed KPIs, quality standards, governance requirements and informationgovernance expectations.

Face-to-face work will includeassessment and management of patients presenting to NEMS urgent treatmentservices. The post holder will be expected to recognise serious illness,clinical deterioration, safeguarding concerns, mental health risk and presentationsrequiring escalation or transfer to another service.

The role will ideally include amix of telephone and face-to-face work. Multisite working may be agreed,although some NEMS locations provide both from the same base. The post holderwill also contribute to learning, audit, incident review and service improvement,ensuring that care remains safe, effective, patient centred and financiallysustainable.

About us

NEMS Community Benefit Services (NEMS) is a not-for-profit social enterprise and a Company Limited by Guarantee. It has been operating in Nottinghamshire for over 25 years, now providing a population of more than 1.2 million with urgent primary health care services. It operates out of 2 registered locations and four bases and deploys a team of more than 370 healthcare professionals, including 150+ sessional GPs, 90+ substantive staff, 30+ agency workers, and 140+ non-healthcare staff.

NEMS provides services to a population of circa 1.2 million under the following service portfolio headings;

• Care Co-ordination and non-clinical call handling
• Clinical Assessment and Care Navigation
• Support to Primary Care including General Practice Out-of-Hours and Urgent Treatment Centres
• Outbreak Management

The Board of Directors comprises non-executive Member directors and executive directors and is responsible for overall strategy and governance of the organisation. The Board of Directors is supported by two sub-committees Quality and People Committee and Finance and Performance Committee. An Operational Executive Team, comprising Executive Board Directors, together with other senior leaders, is being established to oversee the smooth running of the day-to-day activities of NEMS.

Job responsibilities

Clinical Practice andService Delivery

Work as an autonomous Urgent CarePractitioner across NEMS urgent care services, providing both telephone andface-to-face consultations.

Assess, examine, diagnose, treat and safelydischarge or refer patients with undifferentiated urgent care presentations.

Make safe decisions around admission,transfer, referral, follow-up and safety-netting, working within professionalcompetence and agreed local pathways.

Recognise and act on serious illness,clinical deterioration, safeguarding concerns, mental health risk andpresentations that require escalation to another service.

Request and interpret appropriateinvestigations, including blood tests, urine tests, ECGs and imaging, in linewith local policy, competence and relevant regulations.

Prescribe, review and advise on medicineswithin the post holders independent non-medical prescribing qualification,professional competence and agreed scope of practice.

Maintain clear, accurate and timelyclinical records, including assessment findings, clinical reasoning, advicegiven, decisions made and onward plans.

Telephone Consultations

Undertake telephone consultations withinIntegrated Urgent Care Services, using safe clinical assessment,decision-making and documentation.

Recognise the limitations of remoteassessment and arrange face-to-face review, ED attendance, ambulance responseor other escalation where clinically required.

Provide clear advice and safety-netting topatients and carers, ensuring that the plan is understood and documented.

Undertake remote work from home whereagreed after induction, provided that performance, KPIs, quality standardsand information governance requirements are being met.

Face-to-Face Urgent Care

Undertake face-to-face consultations acrossNEMS urgent care services, including assessment of minor illness, minorinjury and other appropriate urgent care presentations.

Carry out clinical procedures wheretrained, competent and required for patient care.

Provide safe clinical handover to ED,specialties, GPs, community services or other colleagues where ongoing careis required.

Support patient flow, streaming andredirection decisions where this forms part of the service model.

Team Working and ClinicalSupport

Work as an experienced member of theclinical team, supporting colleagues and the safe running of the service.

Provide advice and support to trainees,nurses, AHPs, UCAs and non-registered staff within own competence.

Support induction, learning and competencydevelopment where appropriate.

Escalate clinical or operational concernsearly, particularly where patient safety, staffing, flow or professionalpractice may be affected.

Address unsafe practice or poor behaviourin a professional and proportionate way, escalating concerns where required.

Governance, Quality andService Improvement

Contribute to a culture where incidents,complaints, audit, feedback and day-to-day operational learning are used to improve care.

Take part in incident reviews, significantevent analysis, complaint responses and shared learning activity whererequired.

Support audit, quality improvement andservice evaluation work across NEMS urgent care services.

Contribute to the development and review ofclinical guidelines, SOPs, pathways and local standards, ensuring they arepractical, evidence-based and relevant to the way services are delivered.

Use available data, feedback and clinicalexperience to support improvements in patient flow, clinical quality,productivity and patient experience.

Education and ProfessionalDevelopment

Maintain professional registration,mandatory training, clinical supervision, CPD and revalidation requirements.

Maintain an up-to-date portfolio showingcompetence, scope of practice, reflective learning and prescribing practicewhere applicable.

Share learning with colleagues throughteaching, case discussion, supervision, peer review and practical shift-basedsupport.

Support students, trainees and developingpractitioners in a safe and constructive way, recognising their competenceand learning needs.

ProfessionalResponsibilities

Work within relevant NMC, HCPC orequivalent code of conduct NEMS policies and agreed scope of practice.

Communicate clearly with patients, carersand colleagues, particularly where information is complex, sensitive ordistressing.

Involve patients in decisions about theircare and ensure that consent, capacity and best-interest issues areconsidered and documented appropriately.

Maintain confidentiality and informationgovernance standards at all times.

Work flexibly across NEMS sites andservices where reasonably required, in line with service need, competence andcontractual arrangements.

Undertake any other reasonable dutiesrequested by a manager, where these are appropriate to the role, grade andcompetence of the post holder.

Act in a manner that reflects and promotesthe values of NEMS.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• NMC, HCPC or equivalent professional standards
• Medico-legal aspects of autonomous urgent care practice and independent non-medical prescribing
• Assessment and management of urgent care presentations, including recognition of red flags and clinical deterioration
• Safeguarding adults and children
• Mental capacity, consent and mental health risk
• Confidentiality and information governance
• Clinical governance, audit, incident learning and quality improvement
• Knowledge of NEMS services, local urgent care pathways and system partners
• National standards relevant to urgent care, out-of-hours and clinical assessment services

Skills and Abilities

• Able to make safe, autonomous clinical decisions and recognise when to seek advice or escalat
• Able to undertake safe telephone and face-to-face clinical assessment
• Explains complex situations in ways that are accessible to patients, carers and colleagues
• Maintains clear, accurate and timely clinical records
• Able to work under pressure and manage competing clinical priorities
• Able to work collaboratively with teams across professional and organisational boundaries
• Flexible and adaptable to changing service needs
• Commitment to patient centred care and safe service delivery
• Competent in the use of Adastra, SystmOne, EMIS, Nervecentre or other relevant clinical systems
• Able to contribute to audit, service improvement and pathway development

Experience

• Experience of working clinically in a primary, community, urgent care, emergency care or out-of-hospital setting
• Experience of autonomous assessment and management of patients with undifferentiated urgent care presentations
• Experience of telephone or remote clinical assessment
• Experience of face-to-face urgent care consultations
• Experience of independent non-medical prescribing within professional competence and scope of practiceExperience working in Urgent Treatment Centres, GP Out-of-Hours, Clinical Assessment Services or Emergency Departments
• Experience of supervising, supporting or teaching other clinical staff or students

Knowledge

• NMC, HCPC or equivalent professional standards
• Medico-legal aspects of autonomous urgent care practice and independent non-medical prescribing
• Assessment and management of urgent care presentations, including recognition of red flags and clinical deterioration
• Safeguarding adults and children
• Mental capacity, consent and mental health risk
• Confidentiality and information governance
• Clinical governance, audit, incident learning and quality improvement
• Knowledge of NEMS services, local urgent care pathways and system partners
• National standards relevant to urgent care, out-of-hours and clinical assessment services

Other

• The ability to work flexibly when required in line with the demands of the role
• Ability to undertake both telephone and face-to-face clinical work across NEMS services
• Willingness and ability to work across more than one NEMS site where this forms part of the agreed working pattern
• Ability to work remotely for telephone consultations where agreed following induction, and where KPIs and quality standards are being met
• Full driving licence and the ability to travel between locations where multisite working is agreed

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.

£56,878 to £61,649 a yearUnsocial Hours Enhancements