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Form of work
SalaryOur trust has around 10,000 staff serving 1.6 million patients. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.
Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.
Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The role of Cancer Support Worker is to provide essential administration support to the CNS team and to support the patients and carers in the following ways:
Co-ordinate care by providing a single point of access, including rapid re-entry into the system for those people identified as having urgent or specialist needs
To provide general information and support about cancer and cancer services, to enable people to navigate the health and social care system and make choices that are best for their cancer and their life. A key aspect of the role involves daily and direct (e.g. face to face and telephone) communication with patients, relatives, carers, and other health and social care professionals. The information and nature of the communication required is sensitive due to the nature of cancer. Communication in this context requires a high degree of empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty and integrity.
Co-ordinate care for people with non-complex care needs (Level One – Supported self-management – National risk stratification model)
To proactively identify patient and carer needs using knowledge, approved tools and procedures to ensure that people get the right support to meet their needs. The role requires use of judgment in responding to the needs of individuals. The level of judgement required relates to identifying the complexity of the situation, providing appropriate advice and escalating to the CNS where appropriate.
Co-ordinate education and support for people with non-complex care needs (Level One – Supported self-management – National risk stratification model)
To co-ordinate access to the right information and education resources to support people in making decisions about aspects of their own care, enable independence and support self-management as appropriate. Develop a partnership approach to working in order to empower the patient and carers.
Provide administrative and clinical support to the specialty cancer clinicalNurse Specialists
Provide administrative and clinical support to the team CNSs to enable CNSs to have specialist time to be focussed on patients at greatest need. Support will include referrals to other agencies, assistance with holistic need assessments (HNA), audits such as patient experience surveys, important administration such as 24hour GP notifications and providing support with the specialist cancer clinics.
Example of role within outpatient clinics
- Attend specialist cancer clinics
- Show new patients and carers around the unit, where to go for procedures and treatments
- Introduce new patients to staff in clinical areas
- Introduce new and existing patients to the facilities available at the Royal Free London Macmillan Cancer Centre e.g. welfare rights, drop in support, information provision, complementary therapy and refer as appropriate
- Provide written information about services and/or procedures including New Patient Welcome Pack
- Assist in provision of MDT contact details for patients and guidance about who to contact for what.
- Assist patients and CNS staff with Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) paperwork in clinics
- Help to support patients in the waiting room in clinics and with the general smooth running of the clinics. Bring to immediate attention of clinicians those patients who maybe acutely unwell or distressed
- Compete routine HNA on pre-identified patients in the clinical setting and escalate concerns to the CNS where appropriate
- Under direction of the CNS, book investigations and procedures and liaise with the patient
- Under CNS or MDT guidance make and assist with referrals e.g. wig fitting; welfare and benefit advice; counselling; palliative care; social work; community services
- Information prescription delivery. Prepare with CNS in advance of clinics to ensure packages of information is available and complete electronic form of what information was issued to the patient on record
Example of role within the in-patient setting
- If appropriate meet patients prior to discharge and undertake basic assessment of any post discharge needs /concerns and information needs (e.g. follow-up appointment arrangements, contact details encase of being unwell, access to services
- Undertake routine HNA on pre-identified patients and escalate concerns to CNS where appropriate
- Escalate to relevant CNS any requests for CNS support for patients whilst an inpatient
- Telephone follow-up call the day following discharge to ensure patients feel adequately supported (e.g. to ensure they have follow up appointments, enough medication and do they need a CNS to call)
Example of role within telephone triage/ telephone advice line
- Manage patient administration enquires
Person specification
Royal Free World Class Values
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values
Education & professional Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy skills to GCSE C or equivalent
- Foundation degree in Health and Social Care or equivalent
- Completion of Assessor training
- Committed to own personal development and evidence of regular attendance at training days
Experience
Essential criteria
- Previous experience of working with cancer patients in a hospital environment
- Previous experience of team work
Desirable criteria
- Previous experience of customer care
Skills and aptitudes
Essential criteria
- Ability to perform area specific core clinical competencies
- Good written and verbal communication skills
- Competent in clinical decision making and prioritising care for a defined group of patients
- Competent in taking baseline observations
- Confident and articulate when communicating with MDT
- Evidence of working effectively in a team
- Ability to problem solving and use initiative
- Evidence of professional development
- Ability to deal with potentially distressing situations
- Skilled in use of computer
Covid-19 Vaccination
Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defence against COVID-19.
We encourage and support staff to get COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.- AT* - Apprenticeship Training. Where AT* is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.
- By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers. Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.
- If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.
- Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
- If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
- The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.
- The Trust will request a DBS (CRB) if post involves regulated activities. The Trust is compliant with the Disclosure and Barring Service Codes of practice and the Rehabilitation of offenders act.
- By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London 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 be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.
Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
Please note:
- Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification
- Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
- Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.
