Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This is a trainee post subject to AfC Annex 21 pay: (i) courses up to 12 months prior to completion of training: 75 per cent of the pay band maximum of the fully qualified rate

Communication & Relationship Skills

• Making sure that deadlines are met.
• Liaise with all grades of staff both in house and externally to determine requirements.
• Clinical photography of patients requested by Medical, Surgical and Nursing staff.
• The work being used for clinical assessment, teaching, and research.
• Providing sensitive, complex and sometimes contentious clinical photography which includes non-accidental injuries, compensation claims, and gross pathological material in theatres, mortuary and histopathology departments, ward areas or in the department studio for clinical purposes such as notes, teaching and research, legal purposes for the police or solicitors.
• Being able to communicate effectively during difficult situations whether it is in a hostile situation for an NAI or using empathy during frequent distressing or emotional situations. This can sometimes lead to extreme circumstances which can be highly distressing.
• Being able to work with a high degree of precision and speed for photographing sensitive situations e.g. Obs & Gynae and Genito-urinary.
• Participate in an on-call service for the purpose of photographing non-accidental and accidental injuries, stillbirths and any other urgent out of hours requests.
• Ensure correct level of patient consent is gained before undertaking photography.
• The production of high quality digital video recordings such as: Patient conditions
  prior to, during and/or after treatment, surgical or medical techniques, interviews for training and/or assessment, recruitment and public relations videos.

Planning and organisational tasks/duties

• Checks with the diary on a daily basis for any routine bookings that have been allocated
• Define, using own judgement and knowledge, what has been requested and decide on how to action job including any changes that need to be made to normal standard procedures.
• Prioritises own workload
• Attends clinics as allocated along side nursing staff
• Develop and implement photographic standards, guidelines and procedures to enhance standards of service to clinicians and patients.

Responsibilities for resources

• Regularly handles and processes cash, cheques, and debit/credit cards for the Bolton Portraits service.
• Responsible for the safe use of expensive camera/video equipment including the fundus retinal camera optical coherence tomography(OCT) based within Ophthalmology
• Maintains the security of all camera equipment making sure that it is secure after working hours.
• Maintain stock control

Patient/service user related tasks/duties

• Requires advanced photographic and computer skills to provide a highly specialist service in clinical photography producing printed images for patients notes and PACS without supervision (advice from Senior Photographer if needed).
• Requires advanced skills in photography to be able to take the necessary clinical photographs in the shortest amount of time in what can be highly unpleasant working conditions such as: Obs and Gynae, genito-urinary or NAI’s.  These will follow departmental photographic standards and guidelines issued by the Institute of Medical Illustrators (IMI), though own judgement will be needed on how best to achieve these.
• Must be physically able to walk between onsite buildings exerting moderate physical effort for short periods of time, carrying equipment that weighs approx 7.7kg several times a day.
• Must be able to frequently use road transportation to areas outside of the hospital grounds (inc. East Lancashire NHS FT and community centres around the Bolton area) within a specific time limit, to attend clinics and income generation work transferring, equipment weighing approx 7.7kg.
• Requires a high level of concentration whilst working within the department and in clinical situations, which can have frequent interruptions and can be unpredictable.
• Must be aware of different ethnic groups and observe their culture e.g. certain dress.
• Knowledge of different photographic methods including location and studio photography and the use of digital imaging
• To produce photographs required for research, publication, exhibitions, annual and
  legal reports, newsletters and public relations including: Architecture, accident sites, staff portraits, staff retirements and long service awards, cheque presentations, V.I.P. visits, exhibitions and public awareness displays.
• Photographs of a commercial nature to generate income.
• Image capture via flatbed, slide scanner, digital camera memory card and photo CD system.
• Manipulation, alteration, restoration, colour correction of digital images.
• To have knowledge of correct formats to store and output digital images to allow access into alternative software such as PACS, PowerPoint and e-mail.
• Present prints within department specifications suitable for patient case-notes, court hearings, and police and solicitors purposes.
• To adapt when necessary the systems and processes to maintain quality and speed of service.
• Manage the clinical images using appropriate data storage servers and software.
• Identify and present slides suitable for projection purposes.
• Copy work from books, text, x-rays, illustrations, charts, colour and black and white photographs, and microscope images to produce presentations, digital images onto CD and print outs
• Undertake fluorescein angiography to aid in diagnosis, using a high degree of precision and speed to capture required images within the specific time scale, requiring occasional intense concentration.
• Take digital fundus photographs of patients attending retinal clinics.
• Undertake Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images aiding in diagnosis, primarily for the Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) service.
• As a support service, grade and report images taken within the diabetic retinal screening service for the presence of diabetic retinopathy, refer images with more severe disease, enter the results on the appropriate software and participate in quality assurance.
• Technical audio visual support within the education centre/post graduate centre.
• To participate in various research projects taking place within the Trust
• To participate in out of hours photography
• Any other duties appropriate to the grade as delegated by the Head of Department.