Job summary
- Main area
- Histopathology
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 3
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Compressed hours
- Job ref
- 234-24-CS3133-A
- Employer
- Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
- Town
- Norwich
- Salary
- £24,625 - £25,674 per annum, pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 11/05/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 22/05/2025
Employer heading
Higher Biomedical Support Worker - Histopathology
NHS AfC: Band 3
At NNUH it is our privilege to provide healthcare to over one million people across Norfolk and surrounding areas. Our vision is to ‘provide the best care for every patient’, and if this inspires you and you share our values, we really want you to join our team.
NNUH is currently the busiest Trauma Unit in the East of England caring for almost 850 trauma patients annually many with complex care needs. We are enhancing our urgent and emergency care specialist services for patients with significant injuries as a result of trauma and have an ambition to become a Major Trauma Centre.
Our values support our vision and guide the behaviour of everything we do, these are:
People-focused
We look after the needs of our patients, carers and colleagues, to provide a safe and caring experience for all.
Respect
We act with care, compassion and kindness and value others’ diverse needs.
Integrity
We take an honest, open and ethical approach to everything we do.
Dedication
We work as one team and support each other to maintain the highest professional standards.
Excellence
We continuously learn and improve to achieve the best outcomes for our patients and our hospital.
Wish you were here? So do we.
We want all our staff to achieve a balance between work and personal life and understand how important flexible working can be. We welcome applications on a full or part time basis, various shift patterns and hybrid working, where roles allow.
At the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUH), we know the benefits diversity can bring to our organisation such as creativity, innovation and compassion. All of which have a direct impact towards our staff and patient experience. We are committed to being a Hospital for All – being equitable and inclusive, and a place where all feel a sense of belonging. We therefore particularly encourage and welcome applications from candidates who are underrepresented in NNUH’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, people with diverse abilities and people within the LGBT+ community.
Job overview
A post is available in the Histopathology Department. This represents an exciting opportunity to be part of an excellent team working in a busy modern teaching hospital laboratory. The department has a workload of around 80,000 surgical requests per year and covers a wide range of routine and specialised services.
This is an excellent opportunity to work within a committed team of office, laboratory and Consultant Pathologist staff. The department encourages active professional development and further educational activities. The service is also currently developing digital pathology reporting, and is progressing towards full digital reporting. We also use CEREBRO specimen tracking system. The service processes a wide variety of patient samples taken from hospital patients and from GP surgeries in the area. Histopathology reports provide diagnostic and prognostic information to support patient care and treatment and plays a key part in the cancer diagnostic pathway.
Full time post - 37.5hrs and part time post - 22.5hrs per week
Main duties of the job
The post holder will work in all areas of the lab and will carry out support tasks and technical duties including section cutting, tissue embedding and use specialist laboratory equipment. You will develop skills to enable you to make decisions about section cutting quality and depth and correct orientation of samples when embedding.
You will be able to develop your technical skills and experience in all three specialist areas of the lab and will be involved with training and mentoring Biomedical Support Worker staff. You will also develop communication and training skills.
Working for our organisation
Join us at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and be part of a workforce of over 10,000 staff!
The NNUH is one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK, providing first-class acute care for around one million people, living in Norfolk and surrounding areas. We are a teaching and research hospital, at the forefront of innovation, home to state-of-the-art facilities, such as the Quadram Institute. We are pleased to work closely with the University of East Anglia, providing teaching opportunities for our staff and placement opportunities for their students. We attract some of the best and leading professionals from across the country and are proud that our workforce represents 94 countries from across the world.
We are a friendly, collaborative hospital, working with local services and home to N&N Hospitals Charity
We can offer you the full range of NHS benefits/discounts and in addition:
- Flexible working hours
- Fast Track Staff Physiotherapy Service
- Multi Faith prayer room
- Discounted gym memberships
- Excellent pension scheme and annual leave entitlement
- Wagestream - access up to 40% of your pay as you earn it
- Free Park & Ride service direct to NNUH site
- Free 24-hours confidential counselling support
- On-site Nursery
- On-site cafes offering staff discounts
- Support in career development
- Flexible staff bank
- Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars, Cycle to Work scheme and home electronics
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- To assist the Senior BMS in supervising the BMSWs in specimen reception and cut-up, main laboratory, immunohistochemistry and digital scanning areas on rotation.
- To train and mentor BMSWs with the assistance of the Training Team.
- To use the laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and other Trust IT platforms.
- To regularly make up and replace hazardous and toxic chemicals, as required. Lifting of chemical containers up to 10l for storage and disposal is also required on a daily basis.
- To assist in solving day-to-day problems, including incorrectly labelled specimens and follow appropriate quality and error logging procedures in the event of an incident.
- To receive and check specimens of human organs and tissue specimens with the request forms and to ensure correct patient ID on both matching request forms and specimen pots. To give specimens and forms a unique laboratory number and transfer patient information to the LIMS.
- To regularly handle fixed and fresh tissue. This includes working with recognisable body parts, fetal tissue, post-mortem tissue and potentially infectious material in accordance with departmental policies, which may cause distress.
- To assist pathologists and BMS staff with dissection. To include the handling and disposal of sharp blades and to clean working areas of tissue, faeces, mucus and blood.
- To carry out routine wax block embedding of surgical specimens, and section cutting of surgical and large biopsy cases.
- To assist in the staining, coverslipping and sorting of slides.
Please refer to the Job Description for the full specification of responsibilities and requirements for this post.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NVQ level 3, IBMS Certificate of Achievement Part 1 or equivalent qualifications.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience of Histopathology laboratory work.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Excellent communication and inter-personal skills.
- Ability to supervise and train small groups of BMSWs.
- Demonstrate good hand/eye coordination.
- Be methodical, precise and accurately work to deadlines.
Attitude, aptitude
Essential criteria
- Be an effective role model, demonstrating NNUH’s PRIDE values of People focussed, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence
- Demonstrates understanding and commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Fiona Hinson
- Job title
- Senior BMS
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01603 286022
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