Job summary
Employer heading
Bereavement Officer
NHS AfC: Band 4
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.
Our values
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) promise to our patients, as identified by our three values which will contribute to improving our patients’ experiences, is:
Patient at heart – Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts.
Everyday excellence – Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both.
Creative collaboration – Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care.
Job overview
We are looking for a compassionate and professional individual to join our team as a Bereavement Officer. You will play a crucial role in supporting bereaved families during a difficult time.
You will be the first point of call from relatives of the deceased and deal with enquiries in a sensitive, efficient and informative manner. You will provide a comprehensive and compassionate administration service for the bereaved family members or their representatives. To offer support and guidance to health care professions, external agencies and members of the public, to liaise with funeral directors, crematoriums, burial parks and registrars of deaths. To assist and team work with the Medical Examiner Officers (MEO's) in their supportive role to the Medical Examiners, in dealing with both hospital and community deaths.
Main duties of the job
To be a point of contact, liaise and advise relatives of deceased patients in matters of the death registration process. To be a point of contact for health care professionals, coroners, funeral homes and registration services. To meet with recently bereaved families where appropriate, offering support, advice and guidance towards the correct source of information in relation to all funeral needs and bereavement services. Supporting the Bereavement services manager and Senior MEO in providing a high quality bereavement service to the families on behalf of the Trust. To carry out and ensure that all the necessary administration tasks including data logging of all the deceased patient details correctly collated and electronically stored on the hospital systems.
Working for our organisation
Our Organisation
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.
We employ 3,500 staff and serve a local population of around 350,000 people living in west Essex and east Hertfordshire, centred on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford and Epping. Our extended catchment area incorporates a population of up to 500,000 and includes the areas of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.
Our Values
The Princess Alexandra Promise to our patients as identified by our 3 values which will contribute to improving our patient experiences:
Patient at heart – Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts
Everyday excellence – Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both
Creative collaboration – Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care
The Trust believes in investing in all our staff and rewarding high standards of care whilst building for excellence and in return we expect our staff to uphold the Trust values to the highest level.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification, available to download at any time.
Person specification
Personal Spec
Essential criteria
- A good standard of Education, eg GCSE's (A to C or 9 to 7) or equivalent
- Proven experience of interviewing and dealing with bereaved relatives and carers
Desirable criteria
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- The ability to communicate effectivly and sensitivly with bereaved and other external agencies under difficult circumstances
Skills
Essential criteria
- Proven experience of dealing with patients, their relatives and carers in a healthcare setting
Applicant requirements
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
- Ken Connolly
- Job title
- Mortuary and Bereavement Services Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01279827089
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