Referral practice seeks Orthopaedic ‘Intern’ for 12 month placement in South Devon

The job is a supportive and learning role with a fixed term of 12 months (with a handover period of 2 - 4 weeks prior to the internship starting). The role is intended to provide you with training suitable to go into an official rotating internship and then on to a residency (or the role could suit someone wanting to go back into general practice after to start a surgery certificate).

The learning aspects of the job are provided through direct involvement of patient care including imaging (radiography and CT and involvement with ultrasound), history taking and clinical examination of patients in a closely supervised environment and surgical involvement as a scrubbed surgical assistant.  Performing surgery alone is not part of the role.

Continuous case discussion is expected and home study would also be expected in order to be able to discuss cases in detail. Official recorded tutorials are run weekly when possible but DO NOT form part of the standard working hours. These could involve discussion of cases seen that week, discussion of complications and how to avoid them in the future, journal discussion, condition specific tutorials.

Detailed training will be provided to achieve the following basic requirements of the job:

• Radiographic positioning for hips, stifles, forelimbs etc.

• Basic protocols on draping surgical patients and table instrument lay out

• Basic protocols on post operative patient care including analgesic regimes

• Use of CT including contrast studies

• Use of practice IT and practice management equipment

There will be an expectation to work closely with nursing staff and as we are a small practice there will be times the job will require that nursing roles are performed including: in-patient care, monitoring anaesthesia, cleaning of equipment etc. There is no hierarchy within the practice and everyone is expected to help each other out when times are busy.

There will clearly be an expectation of professionalism and a clean and tidy appearance is mandatory. A structured, organised and tidy attitude is needed in order that the practice runs smoothly. We employ a cleaner in the evenings but a “clean as you go” working attitude is required.

There will be an expectation to be on call for 8 weekends per year. Whilst on call you will be in charge of the practice phone (mobile) and expected to be able to answer the phone and respond to calls appropriately. You would be expected to be within a 30 minute drive of the practice and if required attend the practice in order to see urgent patients as a point of first contact. In this situation you would be expected to contact Patrick Ridge in order to speak about the case. If there were in-patients to be seen whilst on call you would be expected to remain at the practice whilst they were there.  If this were the case suitable ‘time off in-lieu’ would be provided when convenient for the practice.  When Patrick is on holiday or away on CPD you may also be asked to be ‘on call’ in the evening during the routine working week (Monday – Friday).

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is expected and paid for.  Attendance on an AO principles course is strongly encouraged unless already done in which case an AO advanced course should be attended.

Research projects are encouraged - time spent on research projects may need to be extra to the normal working week. Ideas for research projects can be discussed. We work closely with other referral institutes across the UK, Europe and in USA.

At the end of the 12 month internship a 2 week paid externship is expected.  This is designed for you to see a different institute and provide some networking experience. This can be done anywhere in the world (you may need to organise a visa). Travel and accommodation expenses are not provided (only your normal salary for the two week period).

Hours:   Monday – Friday, 48 working hour working week.

 30 minutes lunch break each day (unpaid)

Salary: £30,000 per annum.

Holiday – 4 weeks standard holiday plus 8 Public Bank Holidays per year (equivalent to 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year).

CPD budget: - £2000 during the 12 month internship, plus 2 weeks salary to attend an externship at the end of the 12 month period.

Start of Internship – Mid March 2020, exact dates to be confirmed.

Please email your interest or any questions to Patrick Ridge - surgery@ridgereferrals.co.uk

Ridge Referrals Ltd, Jubilee Barn, Dawlish Water, Dawlish, Devon, EX7 0QW.

www.ridgereferrals.co.uk