Biomedical Support Worker

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Overall Objective:

1. To work as part of a team to assist in the provision of an efficient and smooth running laboratory service to the Trust, General Practice, other UK or overseas laboratories and Clinical Trials by following the departmental standard operating procedures throughout all sections of the department.
2. Participation in reception, storage and data entry of samples arriving in the laboratory (both laboratory and office based) laboratory machine maintenance, waste disposal and other general laboratory duties; working in analytical areas of the laboratory as required.

Scientific and Clinical Responsibilities

• Accept full range of clinical specimens into the department working with staff within the hospital and operating the air tube system and specimen hoist. Occasional use of stairs may be required for this purpose.
• Assess specimens for urgency and sort by laboratory section
• Match specimens and request forms, and assign unique laboratory number, task requires complete accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ensure that specimens meet acceptance criteria for testing and dealing with any non-compliance in accordance with departmental operating procedures. 
• Be fully conversant with relevant departmental polices and standard operating procedures (SOPs) ensuring that personal performance and demonstrated competence complies with United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) standards.
• In conjunction with biomedical scientists (BMS) staff ensure the validity of results by the use of appropriate control materials
• Work in cooperation with BMS staff to ensure workload is processed in a timely and efficient manner.
• Participate in the preparation of disinfectants and reagents in accordance with SOPs and Health and Safety requirements
• Be capable of occasional heavy lifting (up to 20kg) e.g. disposal of waste or boxes of new supplies.
• Perform daily maintenance tasks e.g. changing of chemicals and wax on staining machines and tissue processors in Cellular Pathology.

Role Responsibilities

• Work to achieve competencies across the repertoire of the department as appropriate to grade
• Perform effective communication of information about specimens with other staff groups both internal and external to the laboratory
• Display and maintain an appropriate level of IT skills in order to input patient and request data, maintain and amend patient records and interrogate the laboratory and hospital databases.
• Perform a range of administrative tasks in all sections of the laboratory as required. This includes archiving and retrieval of specimens and data, maintenance of archived material and collection of data for audits.
• Ensure efficient use of resources and be aware of stock levels and rotation, storage conditions, batch numbers and expiry dates
• Ensure appropriate stock levels are maintained in own area of operation, this may include issuing stock to external departments and ordering stock from external suppliers under supervision, receipt and distribution of new supplies within the department
• Maintain a clean and safe working environment
• Be aware of Clinical Governance, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) and local Health and Safety polices, reporting problems, errors or breaches to the senior staff
• Despatch biological specimens to referral centres, ensuring the packaging is compliant with SOP guidelines
• Solve day-to-day problems e.g. mislabelled and lost specimens
• Provide assistance to newly appointed staff, which may include demonstration of procedures.

For further information see job description.