Optometrist - NWAFT

Job overview

To be responsible for supporting the hospital optometry service and, in conjunction with the medical staff, to deliver both independent and shared care for ophthalmic conditions.

To be responsible for and personally deliver a range of core optometric services and specialised optometric care extended roles.

Clinics will be offered across both main sites, Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital, and training is available to increase skills, such as in IVT injection training and Laser training.

Main duties of the job

This job description is intended to be a fair and representative summary of the main duties and responsibilities of the role. As such it is not exhaustive. It will be subject to regular review between the postholder and manager and may be amended to reflect the needs of the service, in line with the reasonable requirements of the job profile/grade and KSF outline for the post, in consultation with the postholder.

Proposed Job Plan

The following provides scheduling details of the clinical activity and clinically related activity components of the job plan which occur at regular times in the week.

This job plan is for illustration only and subject to change and negotiation. .

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

Professional 1.1 To undertake a range of optometry services at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust sites.  These include but are not limited to supporting the intravitreal service with the medical retina team, conducting pre and post operative cataract assessments and aiding with Paediatric Service.  It is anticipated that some of these responsibilities could be carried out remotely to allow for working from home.

• The job will require the ability to carry out clinical examination and understand clinical signs, as well as interpretation of OCT scans and other ophthalmic measurements to arrive at appropriate management decisions, and where suitable assessing a refraction to achieve best corrected visual acuity.
• To take responsibility for clinical decision-making with support from consultants and to provide specialised diagnosis, management, care, and education of patients.
• To provide clinical opinion (or obtain clinical opinion from ophthalmologists) to optometric and non-optometric colleagues on the management of cases within the ophthalmology department. 1.5 To support the optometry service with the triaging of emergency and routine referrals.

Managerial

• To offer support to nursing staff and healthcare assistants in the ophthalmology department, actively contributing to their training, education, and continuing feedback.

Organisational

• To work to protocols set for each role. May be required to comment on / implement policies or propose policy changes to own areas of work. 3.2 To ensure contemporaneous records are kept for all patients seen in clinic and letters of communication are sent to other healthcare professionals where appropriate. 3.3 To be able to use appropriate IT, including Open Eyes or equivalent electronic patient records for benchmarking, audit and clinical uses. 3.4 Responsibility, in conjunction with ophthalmology colleagues, for the systematic and critical analysis of the quality of work carried by optometrists in the shared care services, including initiation and participation in clinical audit.

Educational

• To personally participate in continuing professional education and development (as required by the General Optical Council). 4.2 To contribute to the delivery of optometric teaching and supervision to other ophthalmic professionals. 4.3 To support and contribute to clinical research or assessment programs if required. 4.4 To present audit/research findings at relevant scientific meetings if required. 4.5 Contribute to publishing research/audit findings in peer-reviewed journals if required

Other

• To comply with the roles and responsibilities as defined in the Trust’s Health & SafetyPolicy and the KSF outline for this post.
• To be responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults byundertaking the appropriate level of training in accordance with the safeguarding policytraining strategy and being aware of and working within the Trust’s safeguarding policies.
• Ensure all data collection and processing undertaken is consistently accurate and timelyand complies with the Trust Data Quality Policy and local procedures.

• Undertake any other similar duties in line with the key purpose of the job