Job summary
We have an exciting opportunity, for an 18 hour per week,
band 5 medical examiner officer (MEO), county wide. This role is a pivotal part
of the medical examining and bereavement service and is a vital link between
the medical teams and bereaved relatives.
We offer cross county, flexible working, Monday to Friday.
A clinical background is desirable, but not necessary. The
right applicant will be well supported, given full training and a clinical
mentor program.
The MEO will obtain and carry out preliminary reviews of all
relevant medical records of patients who die in Worcestershire, setting out the
circumstances of each death for the medical examiner. This will require them to
work with the coroners office, registrars, bereavement services, mortuary and
all other teams within the hospital.
They will work with the medical teams to assist with the
completion of all relevant paperwork and will become familiar with rules and
regulations surrounding medical death certification. They will communicate with
bereaved relatives regularly and will solve problems relating to the coroner
and registration services.
The right applicant will ideally need to be confident, open
minded, caring, and sensitive, have bereavement experience and be a team player.
Main duties of the job
To support medical examiners in their role of scrutinising
the circumstances and causes of death.
To identify any potential issues with care and highlight any
coroner referrals.
To be a link between the hospital and bereaved relatives and
to communicate the documented cause of death, answer any questions and deal
with any issues that may arise.
To be a point of
contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare
professionals, coroner and registration services.
To coordinate the community referrals and assist the medical
examiner with review of these cases.
About us
Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester
Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Our objectives are simple:
- Best services for local people
- Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
- Best use of resources
- Best people
Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.
We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Working Relationships:
Internal
Doctors
Medical Examiners
Medical Examiners officers.
Service managers, nurses, porters, ward clerks, clinical
governance leads, infection control and mortuary staff.
PALS.
External
HM Coroner and officers.
Spiritual/Faith community leads.
Registrars of births and deaths.
GPs and practice staff.
Bereaved relatives, carers, executors and solicitors.
Funeral Directors.
National Medical Examiner.
Hospice teams.
Nursing and care homes.
Regional leads for ME and MEO system.
Bordering medical examining services and GP
practices.
Risk Assessment:
There is significant emotional effort associated with
dealing with bereaved families.
To use a computer for prolonged periods of time daily.
Most challenging part of the role:
Regular interaction with the bereaved relatives, in person
or over the telephone.
The post holder must have the ability to demonstrate empathy
and remain professional at all times.
Job Purpose:
To support medical examiners in their role of scrutinising
the circumstances and causes of death.
To identify any potential issues with care and highlight any
coroner referrals.
To be a link between the hospital and bereaved relatives and
to communicate the documented cause of death, answer any questions and deal
with any issues that may arise.
To be a point of
contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare
professionals, coroner and registration services.
To coordinate the community referrals and assist the medical
examiner with review of these cases.
Key Duties:
To link between bereaved relatives and clinicians to
establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patients death.
To Work with the Medical Examiners to aid them in their
responsibility for overseeing the death certification process, for all deceased
patients in the organisation.
To establish the circumstances of individual patients deaths,
by performing a preliminary review of the medical records. To identify clinical
and circumstantial information, sourcing additional details where required for
scrutiny by the Medical examiner.
To understand the process of death registration and be able
to assist the medical teams with the completion of the required documents.
To identify coroner referrals and assist with this process.
To assist in highlighting cases for assessment by the
Structured Judgement Review team (SJR), Child Death Overview Panel, Clinical
Governance teams and the Learning Disability Review Teams (LeDeR).
To identifying and report any concerns/ issues via the DATIX
incident reporting system and any positive feedback to the wards/ care
settings.
To maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of users of
the medical examiner system, to ensure equality to any group defined by sex,
race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or
disability.
Leadership:
Demonstrates leadership through clinical
expertise, delivering high standards of person-centred care.
Promotes a culture that supports and enables
self-management.
Contributes to the delivery of specialist
education and training to other professionals involved in patient care.
Supports and contributes to the development and
promotion of the nursing service ensuring the delivery of high quality,
cost-effective care.
Supports patient and public involvement within
the sphere of practice.
Supports and contributes to quantitative and
qualitative data collection of the nursing service in order to provide evidence
of productivity, outcomes and quality. .
Supports and contributes to the implementation
and monitoring of adherence to relevant clinical guidelines.
Takes professional responsibility for ensuring
effective communication between all service providers across the care pathway.
Actively participates in multi-professional
meetings, acting as patient advocate and representing nursing views.
Acts as a role model for excellent communication
skills and expertise.
Develops skills in conflict resolution and
negotiation skills when dealing with difficult or challenging situations.
Supports the development of patient focussed
education, including training to self-manage ongoing consequences of treatment.
Innovation:
Develops new skills in response to emerging
knowledge and techniques.
Supports with data collection and external
reporting.
Works across professional boundaries using
creative reasoning and problem-solving.
Supports and manages change within a complex
environment.
Influences the development of others through
education and training.
Develops and uses clinical expertise and experience
to advance care.
Takes personal responsibility for life-long
learning and personal development through clinical supervision, appraisal and
Knowledge and Skills Framework and actively engages with the learning and
development opportunities.
Excellence:
Puts quality at the heart of practice by
delivering highly compassionate care to the bereaved, demonstrating excellent
communication skills and sensitivity.
Actively integrates theory and practice.
Follows an agreed care pathway, refers to other
professionals and signposts to other agencies as appropriate.
Promotes the service and clinical excellence by
contributing to publishing and presenting innovations, audit and research
locally, regionally and nationally.
Supports and contributes to the development of
policy and clinical guidelines.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- GCSE or equivalent at grade A-C in Maths and English.
- Educated to degree level or equivalent.
Desirable
- Clinical experience,
- Bereavement experience,
- Advanced communication skills/ training.
Personal qualities
Essential
- Proactive and self-motivated.
- Ability to deal with complex and difficult emotional situations.
- Approachable and supportive to all levels of staff and bereaved families in a non-judgemental and discreet manner.
- Professional appearance, manner and awareness of impact of own behaviour on others.
- Ability to maintain a calm manner in a range of challenging and emotive circumstances.
- Ability to demonstrate Trust standard behaviours.
- Recognition of own limitations.
- Able to travel between sites.
Experience
Essential
- Full understanding of the medical examiner system operational remit when incorporated within Bereavement Services or as a stand-alone office .
- Experience of multi-professional working.
- Experience of teaching.
- Evidence of excellent communications skills.
- Ability to support and influence change.
- A commitment to learning and undertaking personal development opportunities.
- Evidence of continued professional development.
- The ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including the recently bereaved.
- Completed all e-learning MEO core training modules.
- Experience of working with people in sensitive and complex situations.
Desirable
- Experience of working in a healthcare setting with multi-disciplinary teams.
- Knowledge of the special requirements of various faith groups and respect for equality and diversity of issues around formalities following a death.
- Leadership and Management experience.
- Knowledge of the Coroner & Justice Act 2009 reference to the medical examiner system.
- Experience of working in a Medical Examiner Officer role.
knowledge and skills
Essential
- Strong interpersonal skills demonstrating the ability to communicate in difficult and emotional situations with empathy and professionalism with all stakeholders.
- Competent in the use of IT software systems and handling sensitive personal identifiable data.
- Teaching/assessment and presentation skills.
- Organisation and negotiation skills.
- Effective communication.
- Ability to motivate self and others.
- Ability to work autonomously and as part of a team.
- Flexible attitude to working.
- Exemplar written communication skills.
Desirable
- Leadership experience and motivational skills
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Address
Charles Hastings Way
Worcester
Worcestershire
WR5 1DD