Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Communication

·             You will be required to handle incoming and outgoing telephone calls to service users, consultants, doctors, and clinical staff in a polite and efficient manner. Receive and deal with telephone enquiries, responding appropriately to callers including high risk, abusive, threatening, depressed, suicidal and vulnerable clients and carers. Maintain strict confidentiality at all times.

·             Record accurate messages and follow them up appropriately in accordance with the Services guidelines.

·             To deal face-to-face with clients seeking further help/information and to be aware of the needs of the service users and to deal in an appropriate manner with people who can be hostile, abusive or aggressive.

·             To exchange confidential, sensitive information with staff, service users, and carers in person or on the telephone. The unpredictability of clients means that persuasive, reassuring, empathic, skills are required at all times.

·             Deal with queries raised by service users, families/carers, GP’s or other healthcare professionals both internally and externally to the Trust. These are often of a non-routine nature and involving complex issues such as medication and other clinical treatments where there are barriers to understanding due to the nature of the client group.

Knowledge

·             To be responsible for ensuring all correspondence is accurately and appropriately presented using Trust and departmental procedures and medical terminology used by clinical staff.

·             To be skilled and experienced in the full range of secretarial work practices, software programmes and specialised functional terms.

·             To be proficient with the knowledge of Patient Records management supporting new users and instructing them as necessary.  To use the knowledge and experience to meet the needs of the clinical teams by completing non-routine tasks on a daily basis.

·             To operate the Trusts central telephony systems.

·             To update skills as necessary and attend mandatory training and maintain records as per Trust policy.

Analytical and Judgement

·             Receiving, prioritising and organising appropriate action when dealing with clinical staff requirements.

·             Prioritising and organising distribution of incoming and outgoing mail (including email).

·             Use own initiative to organise, prioritise and coordinate workload ensuring that deadlines are met.

Planning and Organisation

·             To maintain diaries, both electronic and paper. To arrange appointments and meetings via electronic systems.

·             Ability to deal with short notice planning and last-minute changes.

·             To manage and organise own time and work efficiently and adhere to deadlines to enable the smooth running of the Services.

·             To report equipment faults and ensure they are managed in line with relevant procedures by the appropriate staff and agencies.

·             Facilitate and organise the smooth running of clinic sessions often as the only member of the administration team.

Physical Skills

·             Advanced keyboard skills and knowledge of current electronic equipment facilitating a remote working environment.

Patient/Client Care

·             Responsible for informing service users, carers, colleagues and outside agencies of appointments, changes to appointments, cancellations in person, telephone or by letter.

·             To be the first point of call for patients/carers, within, clinic sessions, ward environments and first contact emergency services. Using developed communication skills and liaising with others to ensure the best possible care.

Policy and Service Delivery

·             Follow all departmental procedures including the administration standard operating procedures that may require staff to comment on proposals for changes to administration policies and procedures and to be responsible for keeping abreast of updates and changes as they happen...

Finance and Physical

·             Maintaining departmental stationery stock ensuring that the appropriate service is charged.

Human Resources

·             To supervise temporary administrative staff and more junior administrative staff as agreed with the Administration Manager. To train new starters in the procedures of the Services.

Information Resources

·             Administrative duties as requested by the Admin Manager including dictation and transcribing of minutes via various processes if required.

·             Recording and storage of accurate data for required areas of the administration service.

Research and Development

·             Provide and assist in the provision of audit data when required.

Freedom to Act

·             To work unsupervised on a daily basis prioritising own workload using initiative as to what is routine and what is urgent.

·             To use agreed guidelines and procedures and developed knowledge/skills/qualifications when working autonomously and managing own work.

·             To participate in yearly appraisals with supervisor/line manager.

Physical Effort

·             The post holder will need to spend frequent periods within an office environment sitting in a restricted position at a laptop.

·             Travel between sites.

Mental Effort

·             To concentrate on completing tasks during periods of frequent interruption from staff and service users/carers and switching attention.

·             To manage deadlines with unpredictable work patterns.

Emotional Effort

·             Imparting information to service users that they may find upsetting, e.g. cancelling appointments.

·             To personally manage the effect of upsetting information given by service users/carers or people in a distressed or challenging state.

Working Conditions

·             Regular and continuous use of laptop and electronic equipment.