Position overview

The Palliative Care Service at Canberra Health Services is a consultation liaison service operating during business hours and services patients with palliative needs throughout the wider hospital campus. The palliative care psychosocial liaison is a critical reference point for patients and families with psychosocial needs relating to their overall diagnosis, treatment or adjusting to a new palliative care diagnosis.

The role also provides support and education for staff across diverse professional backgrounds and as such is a highly experienced professional.

Working closely with other disciplines in all wards in Canberra Hospital, the role provides support for patients and their families or carers along with direct care of complex patients. Services include facilitation of access to resources, responding to crisis and leadership in palliative care conversations.

Key Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Provide a high level of skilled clinical psychosocial counselling, assessment and interventions including individual and group work for patients and carers of patients with palliative needs.
2. Exercise independent professional judgment in solving problems and managing cases where psychosocial principles, procedures and techniques require expansion, adaptation, or modification.
3. Consult and liaise with external community agencies/groups to develop partnerships for health promotion and other service delivery activities identified in the business plan.
4. Initiate and coordinate quality improvement activities in palliative care.
5. Contribute to the development, evaluation and analysis of policies and procedures applicable to professional practice.
6. Provide professional supervision and/or training to other staff and students as directed. Participate in supervision, continuing professional development and performance management.
7. Complete clinical and administrative data collection and evaluation to standard.
8. Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.

Competencies

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to the following.

• Familiarity with the National Palliative Care Standards
• Commitment to delivering high qualitive palliative care reflective of patient’s values, goals and preferences
• Strong organisational skills with a high degree of drive
• Adaptability and flexibility to accommodate change and provide responsive services to meet clients' needs
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to perform novel, complex, critical or difficult tasks with professional supervision

Qualifications

Essential

• Social Worker
  • Relevant qualifications and a minimum of 3 years’ experience working professionally in social work.
  • Current membership of the Australian Association of Social Workers.
• Psychologist
  • Be registered or be eligible for registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
  • A minimum of 3 years post graduate experience working in psychology.

Desirable

• Holds or is working towards postgraduate qualifications.
• Area of Practice Endorsement e.g. Clinical Psychology, Health Psychology or Counselling Psychology.
• Board approved supervisor for Higher Degree programs and Registrar programs.
• Have an understanding of how the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) indicators align with this role.

Experience

Essential

• Prior experience working with patients and families with life limiting illnesses.

Desirable

• Familiarity with the National Palliative Care Standards.
• Experience or knowledge of the CHS Exceptional Care Framework, and all other related frameworks.

Prior to commencement

Appointment to this position is conditional on being granted and retaining appropriate clearances:

• Pre-employment National Police Check.
• Current registration issued under the Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 is required.
• Comply with Canberra Health Services Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination policy.
• Comply with CHS credentialing and scope of clinical practice requirements for allied health professionals.

Important information

All employees are required to:

• Adhere to the Canberra Health Services Values and the ACT Public Service Code of Conduct.
• Act in accordance and comply with all relevant Safety and Quality policies and procedures.
• Comply with all relevant clinical and/or competency standards.

CHS is leading the drive to digitally transform health service delivery in Australia through the implementation of a territory wide Digital Health Record. Computer literacy skills are required which are relevant to this role as you will be responsible for completing required documentation and becoming a proficient user of the Digital Health Record and/or other Information Technology systems; once proficient, you will need to remain current with changes, updates, and contingencies.

What you Require (Key Selection Criteria)

These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your resumé and experience and must be addressed in your application:

1. Demonstrated knowledge of and ability to provide a high level of skilled psychosocial counselling, assessment and interventions in a multidisciplinary palliative care setting for patients and their careers.
2. Demonstrated ability to work within multidisciplinary team/s and prioritise workload according to clinical indicators, risk management frameworks and organisational requirements.
3. Demonstrated critical self-reflection, advanced clinical supervision skills to provide supervision to professional staff and students.
4. Demonstrated ability to undertake innovative quality improvement activities through policy review, quality improvement processes and research to develop evidence-based practice.
5. Demonstrates understanding of, and adherence to, safety and quality standards, work, health and safety (WH&S) and the positive patient experience. Displays behaviour consistent with CHS’s values of reliable, progressive, respectful and kind.

Work environment description

The following work environment description outlines the inherent requirements of the role and indicates how frequently each of these requirements would need to be performed. Please note that the ACT Public Service is committed to providing reasonable adjustments and ensuring all individuals have equal opportunities in the workplace.