Biomedical Scientist - Point of Care Testing

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Job Overview We are seeking an experienced HCPC-registered Biomedical Scientist to join our Point of Care Testing (POCT) team within Blood Sciences. The successful candidate will support the delivery of a safe, effective, and high-quality POCT service across the Trust.

This role requires excellent organisational, analytical, and communication skills, with a commitment to service improvement and patient safety. This position is a 12 month secondment to cover maternity leave.

Main duties of the job

Key Responsibilities Include

• Maintaining and troubleshooting POCT equipment and ensuring consumable availability.
• Monitoring internal and external quality assurance programmes and investigating performance issues.
• Providing technical and operational support to clinical users.
• Delivering training to nursing and clinical staff on POCT devices.
• Supervising and training POCT staff and deputising for the Lead Biomedical Scientist when required.
• Ensuring compliance with quality standards, accreditation requirements, and Trust policies.

Working for our organisation North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award-winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.

North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti-discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all underrepresented groups.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Service Delivery

• To be a key contact for POCT users; providing support and specialist advice to ensure a safe and effective service.
• Provide users of POCT equipment with technical, operational/maintenance support and advice.
• Organise and prioritise the day-to-day work within the section dependent on the daily status of the POCT equipment and needs of the clinical users.
• Troubleshoot, repair, and organise replacement of POCT equipment.
• Be aware of possible causes of erroneous results which may arise from instrument/method failure or pre-analytical variables.
• To monitor POCT consumables and reagent usage in relation to activity and storage where appropriate.
• To advise and ensure POCT equipment, reagents and consumables are stored and used in line with manufacturer’s recommendations and POCT policies and SOPs.
• To organise, distribute and monitor internal quality control (IQC) and external quality assurance (EQA) programmes.
• To oversee local IQC & EQA for all POCT systems, supporting users in identifying, investigating and reporting errors and sharing findings with the wider POCT Team.
• To monitor user performance and retraining intervals, supporting local trainers and working in partnership with users, suppliers and the wider POCT Team.
• Assist in the development and training of staff within the POCT team.
• Deliver training on POCT equipment to clinical and nursing staff across the Trust.
• To provide appropriate cover for the Lead BMS as required.

Service Improvement

• To contribute to the validation of new POCT systems to improve services for end-users and patients.
• To liaise directly with POCT users to seek feedback, requests and suggestions to improve the service.
• To monitor, investigate and share complaints from POCT users.

Communication

• To act as a focal point for enquiries regarding the POCT service. The post holder will be required to provide scientific and technical support and specialist advice to clinical end-users.
• To extract and analyse information from POCT equipment and communicate to the equipment provider’s engineering personnel to support fault diagnosis and troubleshooting.
• To utilise professionalism when investigating service complaints and incidents, or when dealing with non-compliant end-users.
• To participate in POCT management meetings and contribute to effective communication within the department.

Information Management

• To manage device and POCT Solutions middleware systems.
• Use POCT Information systems and electronic databases to support the needs of the service users.
• To be competent in using the department's computer system.
• To be proficient in the use of IT systems, in particular Outlook and Excel.
• Complies with local and national policies for the safe, secure and confidential processing and storage of patient and other laboratory information.

Quality

• To input to achieving and maintaining Accreditation status (as required) for the Pathology and the POCT service.
• To ensure that the POCT service complies with, local and national quality management, policies, objectives, and directives.
• To assist in the administration of POCT EQA schemes including:
  • Sending EQA samples to end users, including the preparation of any associated paperwork and analysis of EQA samples on some POCT equipment.
  • Entry of results into the EQA scheme organiser’s websites and ensuring that results are returned within the timescales set.
  • Ensuring that EQA samples are prepared correctly according to the scheme organiser’s instructions.
  • Identification and investigation of EQA poor performance.
  • Review and interpret EQA reports for POCT.
  • To investigate POCT result and service complaints and incidents and ensure that effective remedial and preventative action is taken, and outcomes shared.

Research and Development/Audit

• To gather & present complex statistical data and investigative results for audit purposes.
• To participate in specialist POCT equipment/device evaluation and devise and record comparison studies’ statistics and provide and input to recommendations for the implementation of new equipment.
• To be proactive in researching new equipment/new assays available by POCT analysis and provide recommendations.

Professional

• To be personally responsible for maintaining HCPC Registration which is a requirement of employment at this grade.
• To participate in staff appraisal in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.
• To participate in continued professional development.

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria

• BSc in Biomedical Science or equivalent

Desirable criteria

• IBMS Certificate of Expert Practice in Point of Care Testing

Work experience

Essential criteria

• Knowledge of POCT equipment

Desirable criteria

• Experience of delivering training to other healthcare professionals
• Previous POCT experience

Knowledge/Skills

Essential criteria

• Good interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal

Desirable criteria

• Ability to use, maintain and troubleshoot a variety of POCT equipment including glucose and ketone meters and blood gas analysers

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Able to prioritise effectively
• Able to assist in monitoring the training and wellbeing of junior members of the team

If you apply for this vacancy and have not received a communication from North Bristol NHS Trust within three weeks of the closing date, please assume that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

Please note that North Bristol NHS Trust does not reimburse travel expenses relating to interview attendance.

North Bristol NHS Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

The successful applicant(s) will normally commence at the minimum of the scale unless they have previous NHS service at the same band. Progression through the scale is by annual increments.

At North Bristol Trust (NBT), we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT’s workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.

Please note that stringent pre-employment checks are undertaken on all successful applicants prior to commencement in post.