Job summary
- Main area
- Radiotherapy Physics
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 361-CAN-6252559
- Employer
- East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
- Town
- Northwood
- Salary
- £50,952 - £57,349 per annum pro rata + High Cost Area Supplement
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 23/05/2024 23:59
- Interview date
- 30/05/2024
Employer heading
Lead Clinical Scientist Treatment Planning - Radiotherapy Physics
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Here at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust,
Our mission is:
Providing high-quality, compassionate care for our communities
Our vision to 2030 is:
To be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service
Job overview
We are recruiting for a Lead Clinical Scientist who will work across Treatment Planning and Brachytherapy who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.
The Radiotherapy Physics department provides a specialist technical radiotherapy physics service to the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, contributing to safe treatment of patients for radiotherapy. It is responsible for ensuring the accurate calibration, according to national recommendations, of all radiotherapy treatment machines and providing a routine quality control service for all equipment used in planning, verifying and treating radiotherapy patients.
We are at an exciting time with the recent purchase of 2 Halcyons and an Ethos that will be delivered and commissioned during 2024. These machines come with Hypersight and Identify, enabling the accurate visulisation of stereotactic targets. We will also be retrofitting one of our TrueBeam linacs with Hyperarc and Identify.
The aim of this post is to act as a lead physicist within the Treatment planning and brachytherapy sections.
This post is split with approximately 50% of the time in treatment planning and 50% of time in brachytherapy, other rotations may be considered for suitable applicants.
Our Values are Include, Respect and Improve. It is important that you understand and refer to our values during your recruitment process and beyond!
Main duties of the job
To perform treatment planning and checking the department.
To provide appropriate training for physics and radiography staff with respect to treatment planning and to assist in the assessment of staff competency for staff both within the physics team and beyond.
Liaise with clinical staff about complex treatment plans and support the development of complex techniques
You will line manage staff this may include some supervision of STP trainees and those on route 2.
Many applicants at Band 8A are looking to complete their MPE portfolio within the next year and we are happy to support you with that. There are plenty of opportunities to gain experience that would contribute to an MPE portfolio and senior staff within the team will be available to provide encouragement and ideas.
At this stage of your career you may be looking to increase your management skills and the trust offers a number of training opportunities in this respect. These include healthy leadership, the Mary Seacole programme and the Edward Jenner programme. You will have plenty of opportunities to manage staff as the department is currently accredited for STP training and also has a number of staff Route 2. The department is supported by the regional medical physics training lead who can provide additional training for training officers to complement that provided by the national school.
Working for our organisation
At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general & specialist services we provide & our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible & innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.
We run the following hospitals:
The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
Hertford County, Hertford
Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood
We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation; our staff & patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.
We understand that finding and starting a new job is an important life decision. If you need reasonable adjustments for a disability, or a life event, such as menopause - so that we can consider your application fairly & to get the best out of you during the selection process, please let us know.
We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. Employees are entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns & we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made & considered formally, & will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
ENHT is seeking to maintain and expand the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre staff as we move to an exciting new future.
We welcome applications from those who would relish the opportunity to be part of new and developing cancer service, building on the excellent reputation, research and patient experience the Cancer Centre already delivers.
In addition, you will receive a High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of your basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £4,314 and a maximum payment of £5,436 per annum pro rata.
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.
Person specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Good (1st or 2nd class) honours degree in a relevant subject
- Relevant MSc or higher degree
- Completion of scientist training program or equivalent experience
- HCPC registered
- Good written and spoken English
- MPE registration or within 1 year of submission of portfolio
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience in Radiotherapy Physics including: analysing and judging treatment options, identifying problems with patient-related equipment, exercising judgement to solve problems and making decisions on how equipment is to be used safely and correctly, all usually under time-pressure
- Specialist training and practical experience in the use and calibration of radiotherapy equipment (including linear accelerators and treatment planning computers), specialist test and measurement equipment and dosimetry equipment calibration.
- Significant experience in planning and checking complex patients treatment plans in one of brachytherapy, external beam or stereotactic radiotherapy (as appropriate to the post)
- Team Leadership
Desirable criteria
- Experience in planning and checking patients treatment plans in an additional area from brachytherapy, external beam or stereotactic radiotherapy
- Experience of imaging modalities other than CT
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Broad knowledge of radiation and associated areas within Medical Physics.
- Highly developed, specialist level of theoretical and practical knowledge across the full range of working procedures and practices within Radiotherapy Physics.
- Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of Radiotherapy equipment, dosimetry and treatment planning, including sufficient knowledge and experience to act as a Medical Physics Expert in Radiotherapy Physics.
- Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines, including IRR, IR(ME)R ISO9001-200, other relevant BSI and ISO standards, professional and regulatory body reports and guidelines.
- Knowledge and ability to understand and use to their full extent a range of computerised treatment planning systems, including knowledge of treatment planning system algorithms and areas where their limitations may affect clinical decisions Understanding of patient and staff risks arising from treatment planning computer system errors, equipment failure, treatment errors and incorrect dosimetry
- Understanding of patient and staff risks arising from treatment planning computer system errors, equipment failure, treatment errors and incorrect dosimetry
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
- Able to use judgement involving facts that require analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options as, for example, in analysing the results of scientific measurements or treatment plans, which may conflict, and deciding upon an appropriate course of action.
- Able to supervise projects and small groups of staff.
- Able to prioritise and manage own work
- Highly developed physical accuracy and dexterity, for making precision measurements and adjustments on equipment, often under time pressure to ensure radiotherapy equipment is returned to clinical use as soon as possible.
- Use of fine tools for equipment adjustment
- Able to lift large, cumbersome medium/heavy weights on occasion (e.g. test instruments, measuring equipment and calibration jigs onto radiotherapy equipment)
- Able to concentrate when subject to constantly unpredictable working patterns (e.g. when interrupted to provide urgent advice affecting patients’ treatments).
- Able to concentrate for prolonged periods in safetycritical areas (e.g. carrying out or analysing radiation measurements or checking patients treatment plans)
- Able to use Excel, Word, Access etc. to set up documents and spreadsheets and extract information.
- Able to design, develop and adapt software solutions to meet the needs of radiotherapy physics and radiotherapy
- Able to exercise own initiative when dealing with issues within own specialist area of competence.
- Able to communicate highly complex information e.g. advice to consultant oncologists on patient treatment options, equipment status or operation to other professional groups.
- Able to present scientific papers at national and international conferences.
- Able to train groups of other professional staff.
- Able to deliver teaching and training on complex Radiotherapy Physics-related subjects.
- Expected to act independently, without supervision, within professional guidelines, but can refer to his manager where necessary. The individual's manager assesses work at intervals
- Evidence of team leadership and an ability to motivate staff
- Evidence of CPD
- Able to deal with occasional distressing circumstances when working with terminally ill patients in Radiotherapy
- Good negotiation skills with staff and suppliers to optimise Radiotherapy Physics services
- Able to deal with complex and unpredictable situations affecting patient treatments
Other Requirements
Essential criteria
- Experience and evidence of engagement around equality, diversity and inclusion issues in relation to policy, service development and service delivery in respect of both services to users and the management of staff
- Role model our Trust values every day
- Flexible regarding working hours
- Willing to work different hours (Radiotherapy on call & shifts between 7am and 9pm, including occasional weekend work)
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Karen Venables
- Job title
- Head of Radiotherapy Physics
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 02038262285
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