Senior Triage Clinician

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and highly skilled clinician to join the Community Referral Hub (CRH) team as aBand 7 Senior Triage Clinician. This senior clinical role combines expert assessment, triage, decision-making and clinical leadership within a fast-paced service.

The CRH provides a centralised route into community services, supporting timely access to care and helping prevent avoidable deterioration, hospital attendance and admission. The post holder will undertake predominantly telephone-based clinical assessment and triage to identify risk, determine urgency and direct patients to the most appropriate care pathway.

Working autonomously, the Senior Triage Clinician will manage referrals for patients with a wide range of needs, including increasing acuity, complexity, frailty and multiple health and social care requirements. The role requires the ability to recognise deterioration and red flags, prioritise referrals effectively and escalate concerns where urgent or emergency intervention is required.

The post holder will contribute to the development of clinical pathways, triage processes and service standards, supporting clinical governance, quality improvement and evidence-based practice.

This role is ideally suited to a registered Clinician/ Nurse or paramedic who is confident working remotely and motivated to support the delivery of an integrated, responsive and patient-centred Single Point of Access service.

Main duties of the job

Undertake comprehensive, predominantly telephone-based clinical triage and assessment of patients presenting with a wide range of acute, complex and changing health and care needs.

Work autonomously as a senior clinical decision-maker, using advanced clinical reasoning, professional judgement and evidence-based practice to determine clinical urgency, level of risk and the most appropriate course of action.

Analyse and interpret complex and, at times, incomplete or conflicting clinical information to formulate appropriate clinical decisions and management plans.

Recognise signs of acute deterioration, clinical red flags and safeguarding concerns, taking immediate and appropriate action where urgent or emergency intervention is required.

Support the management of patients with complex presentations, frailty, multimorbidity and escalating health and social care needs, recognising where coordinated multidisciplinary intervention is required.

About us

Wye Valley NHS Trust is a member of an NHS Foundation Group with South Warwickshire University NHS FT, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust and Worcestershire Acute NHS Hospitals Trust.

Located on the border with Wales in the shadow of the Black Mountains, we provide acute and community services across Herefordshire and into parts of Powys and run Hereford County Hospital and the community hospitals in Bromyard, Leominster and Ross-on-Wye.

We are a progressive and forward looking trust with ambitious plans to improve quality and integrate patient pathways through close collaborative working with our partners to deliver the quality of care wed want for our family and friends.

More than 3,000 people work for the Trust they tell us its a great place to work, blending the busyness of a DGH with the benefits of working in a beautiful rural and unspoilt county like Herefordshire.

We can offer a great work-life balance and have a fine tradition of working with staff to help them achieve their full potential.

Russell Hardy, Trust Chairman: "The strength of the Trust is its amazing staff; a great place to work, a great place to develop your career and a great place to reach your potential."

Our values -Care, Accountability, Respect and Excellence - are at the heart of all we do. We believe in providing the right care in the right place at the right time.

Job responsibilities

To view role requirements and role responsibilities in full, please view the Job description and person specification attached to this vacancy in the supporting documents.

Person specification

Education/ Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse or Paramedic with a current professional registration
• Non-medical prescribing
• Significant post graduate training (i.e MSc in Palliative Care / Geriatric care) in a related subject or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Management/leadership qualification/development programme.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Advanced clinical assessment, triage and decision making skills
• Good and comprehensive awareness of community services and good networking ability
• Competence in using electronic patient record systems and good IT skills

Desirable

• Able to undertake audit and write reports

Experience

Essential

• Significant post-registration experience within community nursing, urgent care, integrated care, or care coordination services.
• Demonstrates the ability to problem solve highly complex situations to include effective and sensitive handling of difficult information and situations
• Evidence of risk management skills and experience.

Desirable

• Experience of working within urgent community response, admission avoidance, or discharge pathways.
• Experience of service improvement, audit, or quality improvement initiatives.

Service requirements

Essential

• Able to work flexible shifts including days, nights weekends, and bank holidays as required
• Able to work independently and exercise professional autonomy.
• Demonstrates the ability to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams