• Position Number: LP6929
• Salary – $99,819 - $110,398 (Plus Super) pro rata
• Location – North Canberra Hospital Bruce, ACT
• Section – Social Work and Psychology

What can we offer you

• City living without the traffic – click her to see why you should live in Canberra
• Competitive pay rates and excellent working conditions. 
• Salary Packaging with many options that provide full fringe benefits tax concessions.
• Flexible working conditions. 
• 11.5% Superannuation.

About the Hospital

North Canberra Hospital (formerly Calvary Public Hospital Bruce) and Clare Holland House are now run and operated by Canberra Health Services (CHS)

This is a significant milestone as the ACT Government moves towards delivering a new billion-dollar hospital on Canberra’s Northside.

The current North Canberra Hospital is a level 4 hospital that provides a range of acute and sub-acute services including community based care to the residents of the northside of Canberra and Southern NSW. North Canberra Hospital (NCH) is a 270 public hospital located in Canberra’s expanding northside. North Canberra Hospital operates a 24 hour Emergency Department. Inpatient services include general medicine, surgery, maternity, mental health and critical care.

Other service modalities include day surgery, specialist outpatient clinics, Hospital in the Home and the Geriatric Rapid Acute Care Evaluation service that reaches into aged care facilities across the ACT.

The new Northside Hospital will be built on the existing Calvary Hospital campus in Bruce. It will be a modern, state-of-the-art hospital for patients, visitors and its workforce and will provide more beds and increased services. Until then, it's business as usual at the NCH, and we'll keep providing high-quality care to our patients and community.

About the role

Exciting new position for a Senior Social Worker in the Emergency Department at North Canberra Hospital. Permanent part-time shift work position. Enjoy excellent work/ life balance with part time hours and take home pay equivalent or greater than full-time hours and 5 weeks annual leave a year!

We want to hear from you if trauma informed social work is your passion. As this is a new role you have the opportunity to make it your own and be part of an exceptional team in ED. Due to operational requirements the role is rostered with set hours and a need to work public holidays that fall on rostered days (penalties apply).

Rostered hours are:

• Wednesdays 1pm - 4pm
• Thursdays and Fridays 3pm - 9pm
• Saturdays and Sundays 11am to 7pm.       

Social Work within Allied Health, North Canberra Hospital, provides services to a range of clients in the Emergency Department, acute inpatient and specialised outpatient settings. Our social workers work closely with patients, carers, referrers, other health professionals and multidisciplinary teams to achieve safe, high quality patient care.

Social workers play a key role in the multidisciplinary management of patients across the care continuum. This position works in collaboration with the social work and multidisciplinary team to deliver services, supporting patient flow and maximising patient outcomes. 

This role will support education /professional growth of junior social workers and students.

Professional supervision and professional development is provided through team structures, supervision support, competency based assessments and professional development opportunities.

You will be required to participate in restricted on-call rosters. A merit pool will be developed from this round and may be used to fill vacancies which occur over the next 12 months.

Under limited direction of the Director of Social Work/ Social Work Critical Care Team Leader you will perform clinical social work duties at North Canberra Hospital. You will:

• Provide a high level of appropriate skilled clinical assessment and psychosocial interventions across a range of clinical areas, including individual and group work to consumers and carers.
• Exercise independent professional judgment in solving problems and managing cases where principles, procedures and techniques require expansion, adaptation or modification.
• Liaise with patients, carers and service providers, to enhance and improve clinical outcomes and develop partnerships for health promotion and other service activities identified in the business plan.
• Actively contribute to the supervision and education of staff and students. Actively participate in supervision, continuing professional development and performance management.
• Actively contribute to the implementation of clinical governance activity, quality improvement projects, research programs and health promotion in areas relevant to service.
• Actively participate in team meetings, complete clinical and administrative data collection and case records to a consistent high standard.
• Practice in accordance with the professional body’s code of conduct, practice standards and organisational guidelines and legislative requirements.
• Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.

About you

Requirements / Qualifications:

Mandatory

• Relevant tertiary qualifications and a minimum of 3 years’ experience working professionally in Social Work.
• Degree in Social Work (or equivalent).
• Professional membership or eligibility for professional membership of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)
• The successful applicant will need to be available for weekend and after-hours work on a roster and will be required to work shutdown.
• 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.

Highly Desirable

• Have an understanding of how the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) indicators align with this role.
• Drivers licence
• Fulfil the responsibilities of this role in alignment to the CHS Exceptional Care Framework, Clinical Governance Framework, Partnering With Consumers Framework and all other related frameworks.

Please note prior to commencement successful candidates will be required to:

• Prior to commencing this role, a current registration issued under the Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 is required.
• Undergo a pre-employment National Police Check.
• Comply with Canberra Health Services Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination policy.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted through the e-recruitment system by clicking the "Apply Now" button:

• Applications must include a copy of a current CV and details for at least 2 professional referees. 1 of your referees must be a current or former line manager, AND
• A pitch (750 words) describing your areas of interest within the acute hospital setting and responding to the following 3 questions is required.  You should take into consideration the selection criteria (below) when drafting your response. 
• Describe a difficult clinical decision you have had to make that was in the best interest of your client/ patient. (Maximum 250 words) (SC1, 2, 3, 5). In your answer, please ensure you address the following: What was the situation and what was your role? What was your decision making process? How did you overcome any difficulties or challenges? With the benefit of hindsight, would you have anything differently? 
• Describe the steps you have taken so far to develop your cultural competence to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and your plan for ongoing development (maximum 250 words) (SC 1, 2, 3, 5) In your answer, please ensure you address the following: What formal learning opportunities have you engaged with? How do you apply your knowledge in your practice? How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your practice?
• In an emergency department setting there is increased risk of the impact of vicarious trauma on staff and this can have an impact on us personally and professionally. Please ensure you address the following: (maximum 250 words) (SC 2, 3, 4, 5). Describe the ways in which you mitigate this risk to yourself and to colleagues?  What are your early warning signs that you are needing support? 

To be eligible for permanent employment within the ACT Public Service you must be an Australian citizen or a permanent resident”

What you require

These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your CV and experience.  

• Proven knowledge of and ability to provide a high level of skilled clinical psychosocial assessment, counselling, and complex interventions, which is responsive to multi-faceted patient needs. 
• Superior level of communication skill which is demonstrated through the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external service providers and stakeholders and work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.
• Demonstrated critical self-reflection and active participation in professional supervision and provide clinical supervision to professional staff and students.
• Demonstrated initiation in undertaking innovative quality improvement activities through policy review, quality improvement processes and research to develop evidence-based practice.
• 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. 

If you would like further information regarding this opportunity, please contact Karen Dell, [email protected] using the subject line: Emergency Department After Hours Senior Social Worker enquiry via EthicalJobs.