Senior Occupational Health Advisor | East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

The EKHUFT Occupational Health (OH) team is responsible for the OH service delivery for all EKHUFT employees and contracted services, including a number of external organisations of other NHS, small and medium-sized business enterprises.

This is an exciting opportunity to support the growing multidisciplinary team, service delivery and quality standards with the Senior OH Nurse Advisor playing a key role in the day to day operational delivery of OH services. You will provide competent, comprehensive and specialist expert advice to service users, providing a high standard of Occupational Health advice on health screening, fitness for work, including advice on any adjustments, support for blood borne virus exposures, immunisation and infection control.

As Senior OH Nurse you will provide competent, comprehensive and specialist expert advice to service users, both internal and external clients, providing a high standard of Occupational Health verbal and written advice to HR, managers, staff and external clients including assessment, advice/education and a management plan.

Contribute to the health and wellbeing of staff and lead on particular service development initiatives and health promotion activities.

You will be a member of the senior management team and provide leadership, guidance and management of the clinical team. You will have clinical and professional input into the planning, provision and future direction of the service. Deputising for the Deputy/Head of Occupational Health in their absence.

You will support and provide professional leadership to facilitate the development and training of the OH nursing staff to agreed service objectives.

You will promote high standards of health and safety amongst staff in line with current legislation.

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Clinical

· Work at an advanced level undertaking a comprehensive assessment of employees including those with diverse or complex presentations; use clinical reasoning skills.

· Be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work.

· Formulate and recommend best course of evidence-based intervention, developing comprehensive client centred objectives and plans for employees referred to the occupational health service, demonstrating autonomous decision making related to history taking and in the use of other assessments.

· Draw upon an appropriate range of multi-agency and inter-professional resources in own practice. Utilise information through a variety of communication media.

· Promote a high standard of specialist occupational health advice through evidence-based practice following agreed policies, protocols and guidelines.

· Undertake assessments and provide health at work advice to management for potential staff following an offer of employment.

· Assessing employee's fitness for work following long term sickness absence, frequent short-term sickness absence, or where the employee is experiencing health or disability issues impacting upon them at work.

· Provide clear impartial advice to both managers and employees to optimise health at work, reduce sickness absence and prevent work related ill health and injury. Offer advice on fitness for work, return to work plans, workplace adjustments and ill-health retirement.

· Provide clear, impartial health at work advice during case review meetings with managers and human resources.

· Plan and deliver training and coaching to managers in protecting and promoting employee wellbeing, preventing and managing sickness absence.

· Maintain confidential, clear and accurate records that are stored in accordance with the General Data Protection Act Regulations. Maintain documentation to NMC requirements for all seen.

· Support the planning and implementation of an occupational immunisation service. To include the accurate assessment of immunisation requirements in accordance with national guidelines and local policies. Administration of vaccines in accordance with local protocols, phlebotomy, accurate interpretation of tests results and clear and accurate documentation.

· Planning and implementation of health surveillance such as skin assessments, hearing tests, eyesight tests and lung function testing.

· Able to identify specific and general ergonomic issues and present solutions to the problems.

· Able to advise on safe systems of work, personal protective equipment, environment safety and employee health surveillance.

· Offer appropriate support to managers and employees and determine when further referral to external support networks would be appropriate.

· Co-ordinate appropriate clinical interventions and follow-up monitoring reviews relating to blood borne virus exposure and suspected occupational dermatitis.

· Use clinical skills and knowledge to give specialist advice and support to peer group staff, clients and managers.

· With the senior team develop and review policies, procedures and standards with reference to clinical practice.

· In conjunction with the senior OH team set, develop, monitor and audit clinical and non-clinical performance standards, and activity reporting.

· Liaise with clinical, non-clinical and facilities staff in order to maintain a safe, friendly and welcoming environment for the clients, visitors and staff.

Management responsibility

· To deputise for the Deputy/Head of OH in their absence with the day to day management of the service.

· Contribute to maintaining SEQOHS standards and ongoing accreditation and any other appropriate accreditation or benchmarking process e.g. MoHaWK.

· To provide leadership that listens, empowers, nurtures and develops the OH team to create and sustain a culture that promotes of high-quality compassionate services.

· To provide leadership that promotes and protects the health and wellbeing of others in the OH service team.

· To participate with the recruitment and selection process.

· Management of the clinical nursing team including appraisal and PDPs, absence management and performance management.

· Ensure staff competence for clinical practice procedures, including appropriate underpinning knowledge and practical skill.

· To assist in achieving clinical excellence by developing and setting clinical and organisational standards.

· Provide professional leadership and guidance to nursing staff in the department.

· To maximise the use of all resources within the agreed budget working closely with the Senior OH Management Team.

· Assist with managing current/expansion of service level agreements with external clients and advising on individual requirements.

· To participate in meetings pertaining to health at work with the Trust, managers and external clients.

· Support the development of the team with informal training and clinical supervision.

· Challenge, interpret and evaluate the OH Service's practices and processes. Undertake local and national audit to support the monitoring of standards.

· Act as a role model and resource in expert clinical evidence-based practice.

· Network locally, regionally and nationally and seek opportunities to develop role.

· Use effective change management skills to initiate and implement service and practice development, making best use of resources to improve practice and health outcomes.

· Participate in the effective investigation and management of complaints and clinical incidents within the department, ensuring that lessons are learned are shared as appropriate.

· Assist with the benchmarking process for the clinical area.

· Participate in events or publications that promote the Trust and the Health and Wellbeing strategy.

· Be responsible for ensuring the implementation of risk management processes in the remit of the department.

· Lead and facilitate as delegated the development and implementation of OH service objectives.

· Managing own case load, department workflow, staff and priorities, ensuring KPI targets are met and maintained.

· Planning in advance to ensure the smooth and effective delivery of the service, in particular taking into account specific events such as large intakes of new staff and flu vaccination season.

Educational

· To foster an environment conductive to learning, enquiry and research.

· To identify the training and development needs of nursing staff in the department and participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of education programmes.

· Ensure the provision of validated supportive and challenging environment for junior staff in training, ensuring all learners have an allocated supervisor.

· Ensure that all new staff receive an appropriate orientation to the department.

· To be a resource for students and junior colleagues, facilitating the development of staff.

· Participate in relevant audit and research studies presenting findings through presentations and writing for publication.

· Maintain own professional development and mandatory training.

· Provide a proactive vibrant learning environment for pre- and post-registered nurses and Occupational Health specialist students.

Professional

· Contribute to the development of the Occupational Health department.

· Adopt a flexible and participative approach to innovation and change.

· Responsible for maintaining and developing own competency to practice through CPD activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.

· Contribute or lead on evidence-based projects within the service and improvements on service delivery and clinical practice.

· Ensure that all advice given is of consistently high standard and to keep other members of the team and yourself motivated.

· Participate in any appropriate training programmes that may enhance your role/development within occupational health. Development of specialist knowledge.