Job overview
The post holder will:
• Ensure a safe patient experience throughout their stay.
• Engage empathetically with the Patients and Relatives and other hospital colleagues.
• Play an important role in patient recovery in respect to the social interaction with patients.
By:
• Contributing to the patient experience - All roles have an increased focus on adding value through patient interaction and care and well-being. Employees in these roles will be accountable for sharing information (using judgement to deem when appropriate) to communicate with their broader colleague group to enhance the patient experience.
• Promoting efficiency and flexibility of the service - Focus on adding value by developing growing roles to have variety within day-to-day duties across departments. This will provide a greater flexibility and skill mix across teams, departments will be more agile to respond to flexing service requirements.
• Increased empowerment and accountability - To promote accountability, flexibility within departments with a view of improving engagement and to have a positive impact on patient, visitor and wider colleague experience.
• Knowledge, training and experience - Expanded to act as a checklist for employee training promoting a greater balance of customer care training and mandatory safety training for all employees. Promoting consistency of service quality across departments.
Main duties of the job
- Present a domestic cleaning service to patients and staff within the Trust as defined in Service Level Specifications and working in line with Standard Operating Procedures.
- Clean to a hygienic standard following work procedures that incorporate all quality standards as per the NHS Cleaning Standards.
- Responsible for supporting the control of infection through cleaning thoroughly and in line with SOPs.
- Clean floors, work surfaces, furnishings, and related equipment manually and by use of machines, understanding, and adhering to work schedules and Standard Operating Procedures.
- Empty, dispose and replace clinical and domestic waste as directed and ensure that waste is disposed of correctly.
- Ensure that all equipment and materials required to perform all cleaning tasks are maintained in a hygienic and safe condition and any deviation in store levels or suitability of equipment is reported to the supervisor for action.
- Ensure that high personal hygiene and infection control standards are maintained in relation to personal tasks.
- Ensure that all work is carried out in line with Health and Safety, Quality and Serco and Trust policies and procedures.
- Participate as a full member of the team, e.g. supporting and training other staff, participating in team meetings, working flexibly as required to cover other members of the team.
- Complete records to allow authorisation and completion of daily check sheets.
Working for our organisation
Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.
The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.
Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.
We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Respond to reactive cleaning requests for spillages, additional support or any other requests made via the helpdesk.
- Responsible for prioritising workload and ensuring requirements of the area are met.
- Takes part in deep cleaning / enhanced cleaning programmes where either wards are closed through infection or where refurbishment activity has taken place, to prepare the area for new patients.
- Monitor stock levels within your area and complete stores requests.
- Participating in relevant audits and proactively taking corrective action to rectify any issues prior to audit / upon audit results.
- Follow infection control guidelines and procedures to minimise risk of infection to patients, visitors and staff.
- Demonstrate high standards of courteous interaction with patients and Trust staff.
- Ensure that all work is carried out in line Trust Health and Safety, Quality and policies and procedures and all documentation and work records are completed accurately.
- To carry out “flushing”, cleaning and descaling of water outlets to prevent outbreaks of Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
- Appropriately manage the waste for the service you are provide by removing all types of waste in line with the agreed policy and proactively working to ensure correct waste disposal eg recycling, clinical waste.
- Responsible for mentoring, supporting and buddying new employees to share learning and experience.
- Assisting the training of new employees to undertake Domestic assistant duties using the skills training record.
- To undertake visual inspection of equipment, prior to use, in line with H&S and training and take out of service and report to supervisor if any equipment is faulty, completing appropriate paperwork
- Empowered to use judgement when selecting activities to ensure a balance of the needs of the patient, colleagues and service provision.
- Increased focus on using judgement and empathy to ensure appropriate caring and supportive e communication to enhance patient experience.
- Perform tasks wearing the correct uniform and protective clothing
Physical Skills / Effort:
There is a requirement to:
- Safely use Facilities Management equipment
- Use industrial cleaning equipment
- Safely use cleaning substances in accordance with COSHH guidelines
- Correctly use protective equipment
- Ensure the Health and Safety of self and other hospital users
- Demonstrate a flexible approach e.g. when asked to change routines.
- Be multi skilled and flexible when undertaking all activities.
- Use degrees of physical effort for all activities.
- Be trained in the correct way of carrying out activities safely and efficiently and in the safe use of different types of machinery and equipment
- This is a physical role and there will be a requirement to be mobile for the majority of the work period.
Mental:
- There is a requirement to:
- Have a good general level of awareness required during the majority of shift as, in such an environment there can be many emotional/mental demands when interacting with people within the work area, which varies from day to day.
- Work under pressure in a busy department to tight deadlines while maintaining professional image.
- Concentrate and be aware of surroundings and other hospital users whilst using machinery to ensure the safety of themselves and others.
- Ensuring COSHH guidelines are adhered to including the correct use of dilution rates
There is a requirement to:
- Be empathetic in communications with patients and relatives during frequent interactions, where there will be occasions of distress, deterioration and bereavement.
- Display resilience and emotional intelligence to read and appropriately respond to the situation at hand.
- Balance conflicting priorities and respond within given timescales.
- Occasionally be exposure to verbal aggression with rare exposure to physical aggression.
Working conditions on a variable basis:
- Exposure to bodily fluids.
- Occasional exposure to physical aggression with patients or visitors, escalating to security and reporting as necessary.
- Cleaning of sanitary areas.
- Exposure to dust/dirt, unpleasant odors.
- Occasional lone working.
- Undertaking duties in variable environments.
The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. Good General Education and ability to read, write and understand English language.
Desirable criteria
2. British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSs) Training Certificate in Healthcare Cleaning or willingness to attain these qualifications
3. Basic Level Health and Safety Training
4. Food Hygiene Level 2 certification
Experience
Essential criteria
5. Previous operational experience in a technically demanding cleaning role
6. Basic use of IT systems on handheld tablet technology
Desirable criteria
7. Understanding of how healthcare cleaning supports patient recovery and healthcare Infection Prevention and Control
8. Use of Tablet to record cleaning tasks completed
Knowledge
Essential criteria
9. Knowledge Healthcare and hospital environments
10. Some Knowledge of the NHS working systems and objectives
11. Good Communicator, communicating with colleagues and supervisors, Trust staff and patients where necessary
Desirable criteria
12. Ability to work in a team as a team player
13. Being able to balance conflicting priorities within the given time.
14. Awareness of NHS 2021 Cleaning Standards
Skills
Essential criteria
15. Ability to work in multi discipline teams
16. Good customer care skills, e.g., for communicating with Trust staff and patients
17. Ability to be calm under pressure
18. Self-starter, constantly looking at ways to improve self and work goals
19. Able to meet physical demands of job. Ability to carry out tasks assigned effectively in a demanding and busy environment
Desirable criteria
20. Ability to learns new skills and operate state of the art cleaning equipment
21. Must be flexible and adaptable
22. Flexible approach to work and tasks required
23. Being able to balance conflicting priorities within the given time.
Communication
Essential criteria
24. Good verbal communication skills
Desirable criteria
25. Ability to get on with others
Specific Requirements
Essential criteria
26. Be open and responsive to own training and development need
Desirable criteria
27. Happy to learn new ways of working
Training
Essential criteria
28. Mandatory Training: Health and Safety, Manual Handling, Risk Assessment, Fire Safety Training, Ongoing Training to meet changes in Health and Safety and Infection Control Protocols
29. Trust Induction Training Departmental Vocational Training
Desirable criteria
30. IOSH Health and Safety Training Infection Prevention Training