Advanced Care PractitionerNHS

Job summary

Fishponds Family Practice is looking for an experienced Advanced Care Practitioner and independent prescriber to join our friendly and established multidisciplinary team.

This is an opportunity for an ACP who enjoys the breadth of primary care and has experience managing both adults and children.

We are looking for someone who:

Is a registered nurse or ACP with current professional registration.

Has completed an advanced care practice qualification at Master's level or has equivalent experience.

Holds a recognised independent prescribing qualification, with prescribing authority appropriately recorded against their professional registration.

Has substantial recent experience of safe, autonomous prescribing in primary care, urgent care or a comparable clinical setting.

Demonstrates sound prescribing judgement, including appropriate antimicrobial stewardship, medicines safety, monitoring requirements and the ability to make independent treatment decisions within their scope of practice.

Has substantial experience assessing and managing minor illness and acute or undifferentiated presentations in primary care or a comparable setting.

Is confident in advanced history taking, examination, clinical reasoning and diagnostic decision-making.

Can recognise red flags, manage clinical uncertainty and escalate appropriately.

Works well as part of a multidisciplinary team while being comfortable making autonomous clinical decisions.

Main duties of the job

Working as an autonomous practitioner within an agreed scope of practice, you will assess and manage adults and children presenting with minor illness and appropriate undifferentiated symptoms.

You will take histories, undertake clinical examinations, develop differential diagnoses, request and interpret investigations, prescribe independently, agree treatment and follow-up plans, and refer or escalate patients where appropriate.

You will prescribe independently and confidently within your scope of practice, applying sound clinical judgement and current evidence-based guidance. This will include selecting appropriate treatments, considering contraindications, interactions and relevant patient factors, and ensuring safe prescribing, monitoring and follow-up.

You will be expected to take responsibility for prescribing decisions arising from your own consultations, including recognising when treatment is not indicated and when specialist advice or escalation is required.

The precise balance of acute and planned care will be agreed with the successful candidate, taking account of their experience, competencies and development interests.

Job description

Provide advanced, person-centred clinical care for registered adult and paediatric patients with minor illness and acute assessment needs. Work as an autonomous non-medical prescriber within a documented scope of practice, using the wider clinical team for discussion, referral and escalation.

Clinical assessment and minor illness

Assess patients presenting with minor illness and appropriate undifferentiated symptoms through face-to-face or telephone consultations as agreed. Take histories, examine, form differential diagnoses and identify red flags, deterioration and emergencies.

Request and interpret appropriate tests, agree evidence based treatment and safety netting, arrange follow-up, and refer or escalate to GPs, urgent care, community services or secondary care as needed.

Prescribe independently within competence, current legislation and practice policy. Review treatment effectiveness, adverse effects and medicine safety.

Take responsibility for results, prescriptions, correspondence, referrals and other clinical administration generated by own consultations, ensuring clear handover when absent.

Teamwork and quality

Work constructively with GPs, nurses, pharmacy staff, care coordinators and community colleagues.

Contribute to clinical meetings, case discussion, supervision or teaching appropriate to experience, and development of evidence based pathways.

Participate in audit, incident learning and quality improvement, including review of prescribing.

Professional and organisational responsibilities

Maintain professional registration with NMC/HCPC, prescribing annotation, revalidation, mandatory training and continuing professional development. Participate in appraisal and clinical supervision.

Maintain accurate, timely clinical records and coding in EMIS. Use practice systems safely and protect confidential information.

Apply safeguarding, consent, capacity, infection prevention and control, information governance, equality and health and safety requirements.

Recognise the limits of personal competence, maintain an agreed scope of practice and escalate concerns promptly.

This description will be reviewed with the postholder as the role and service develop. Changes to clinical scope will require suitable competence, support and agreement.

About us

Fishponds Family Practice is a long-established teaching practice based on Beechwood Road in Fishponds, Bristol, caring for more than 12,500 patients.

Our multidisciplinary clinical team includes GP partners and salaried GPs, nurses, healthcare assistants and pharmacy colleagues, supported by an experienced Care Coordinator team.

We aim to provide kind, safe and effective care while making good use of the different skills within our team. We value colleagues who are comfortable contributing ideas, improving how we work and helping develop services rather than simply working within established processes.

As a teaching practice, we also value learning, clinical discussion and professional development. The successful candidate will have access to clinical support and supervision and will be encouraged to develop their role in areas that complement both their professional interests and the needs of our patient population.

What we offer

• 30 hours per week
• Salary from £28 per hour, depending on experience
• NHS Pension Scheme, subject to eligibility
• supportive multidisciplinary working
• clinical supervision and peer support
• opportunities for continuing professional development

Please note -Interviews provisionally planned for Tuesday 8th December from 2pm onwards.

For an informal discussion about the position, please contact Mike Richards, Practice Manager via 0117 235 4220 or [email protected].