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Purpose

The post holder will be a BSE accredited reporting sonographer. They will be required to work along side the Lead Echocardiographer to provide a comprehensive and high quality transthoracic and transoesophageal echo services and will provide professional expertise in this highly specialised discipline.

The post holder will maintain a high standard of clinical practice and will act as a role model for junior members of staff within the Cardiac investigations department.

Main Roles and Responsibilities

Clinical –Highly Specialist

• To perform adult transthoracic echocardiograms, including urgent portable scans, to

a high standard in accordance with BSE guidelines and department standards.

• To identify and advise when transthoracic echocardiography is insufficient to answer

the clinical question and proactively suggest alternative/additional investigations.

• To produce an accurate and comprehensive report for each study, with responsibility

for your own caseload.

• To ensure that personal knowledge base is current to reflect change in clinical

echocardiography. Leading CPD of junior staff

• To over report junior staff workload and ensure minimum data sets are obtained and

standards are regularly audited

• To provide clinical technical assistance with Transoesophageal echo.
• To ensure adherence to cleaning protocols for TOE probes

Clinical – Specialist Technical

• To undertake a range of cardiac clinical procedures to aid diagnosis and treatment of
• referred patients to include -
  • To record and interpret resting adult electrocardiograms.
  • To prepare, fit and remove 24 hour cardiac and blood pressure monitors.
  • To issue long term monitoring equipment, programming the device appropriate to patient symptoms
  • To be clinical lead during cardiac exercise tests, performing and interpreting in accordance with British Cardiac Society guidelines and department standards. To produce a diagnostic report.
  • To provide Cardiac Physiologist support during routine/ elective angiography

Other requirements

• To undertake duties as an autonomous practitioner.
• To analyse and interpret data, using specialist theoretical knowledge and experience, to produce procedure results and reports, which contribute to patient diagnosis and treatment.
• To communicate with medical and nursing staff to provide effective services for patient care, and to inform/alert them of any patients requiring immediate or urgent attention following interpretation and analysis of test results.
• To assess patients’ physical and mental abilities to perform and follow test procedures, and to use persuasive, motivation and reassurance skills to achieve optimum diagnostic results.
• To use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients who may have difficulties in understanding or communicating.
• To manage clinical risk and take responsibility for patient safety during test procedures. This may include initiating and leading Immediate Life Support.
• To provide specialised advice and instruction to patients, relatives, carers and other professionals on the use of loan equipment and to promote understanding of cardiac services.
• To have specialist knowledge and skills in the use and application of relevant equipment and to be responsible for your own and others safe and competent use of that equipment.
• To take appropriate action on unsafe/malfunctioning equipment.
• To follow departmental, Trust and manufacturers protocols and guidelines in the decontamination and sterilisation of equipment to ensure compliance with Health and Safety standards.
• To undertake any new technical developments and associated services and be prepared to participate in an on-call rota or flexible shift patterns to accommodate changing trends in health care.
• To participate in any department research, clinical trials or audit.

Professional:

• To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities, and to maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
• To maintain and develop current knowledge of evidence based practice and incorporate new developments into your area of work.
• To participate in staff Individual Performance Review (IPR) appraisal scheme and be responsible for complying with your agreed personal development program to meet set knowledge and competencies.
• To attend and participate in in-service training programs, individual training sessions and external courses as expected/identified at IPR.
• To demonstrate a sound understanding of Clinical Governance and risk management and to apply to the work situation.

Organisational:

• To work in accordance with Trust and department policies and standards.
• To ensure that own practice meets the required professional standards of specialist expertise.
• To attend mandatory training sessions as determined by the Trust.
• To record activity by updating databases to enable performance monitoring.

Relationships

Internal:

              Department colleagues

              Patients and relatives

              Directorate managers

              Consultants and teams

              Allied Health Professional department managers

              Ward managers and staff

              Finance and purchasing managers

              Stores and housekeeping

              PALS

              Information

              Complaints

External:

               Patients and relatives/carers

               CCG

               GP’s within locality

               Company representatives/ service departments

               Regional department managers

               Voluntary/ charitable organisations