Senior Clinical Engineering Technician

General Description of the Post

This post is in the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering (MPCE) Department.  The Department’s mission is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical services for the benefit of patients, through the optimisation of medical technology throughout the life-cycle, including acquisition, application, performance and utilisation. 

The Senior Clinical Engineering Technician shall provide clinical engineering services to support the delivery of a safe and high quality medical equipment management service to the hospital

The Senior Clinical Engineering Technician’s skills and competencies shall include:

• Good problem solving skills and the ability to develop solutions to complex situations with medical equipment and associated systems.
• Ability to engage and communicate effectively with multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience of gathering interpreting and analysing information to make informed decisions.
• Ability to fault find on complex medical equipment.
• Ability to meet deadlines and work on own initiative.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to present information in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to deal effectively with a number of tasks simultaneously.
• Knowledge of Information and Communications Technology (preferably in systems administration).
• An awareness of the primacy of the patient in relation to all hospital activities.
• Ability to maintain and enhance their professional knowledge and skills in order to keep pace with changes in the delivery of health care.

Principal duties and responsibilities include:

1. Provision of a high quality technical support service for medical equipment and systems with regard to performance, traceability and safety.

2. Provide and manage comprehensive front-line maintenance services, for medical, imaging, optical and other equipment in respect of its functional, electronic, optical, electrical and mechanical aspects; to a standard of safety, accuracy and reliability consistent with its function and with professional standards.

3. Provision of a comprehensive equipment management programme for medical equipment. This shall include clinical user support and training, preventative maintenance, safety programmes. 

4. Manage and advise on medical equipment service contracts, liaising with equipment suppliers and manufacturers.

5. Contribute to clinical justification and system specification prior to purchase of medical equipment.

6. Contribute to and participate in justification, specification, evaluation and selection, acceptance testing, commissioning and safety testing of new equipment and/or services.

7. Contribute to the development and use of the department's equipment management database, maintaining an up to date record of issues related to medical equipment assets.

8. Actively support clinical personnel (medical, technical, nursing, administrative) in the implementation of patient care involving technology.

9. Advising on the purchase of appropriate test and service equipment.

10. Develop and maintain good communications and close cooperation with clinical personnel and external equipment suppliers and manufacturers.

11. Develop and maintain good cooperation and close working links with clinical engineers, physicists and other members of the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department.

12. Maintain good communications throughout the hospital where equipment issues impact on the provision of a service.

13. Provide the department’s administration with such records of his/her work as are deemed to be necessary.

14. Contribute as required to the development of the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department’s policies and services.

15. Liaise as required with IT personnel to ensure availability of appropriate IT infrastructure for medical equipment.

16. Contribute to the development and implementation of a quality assurance/risk management programme for medical equipment.

17. Contribute to the development and implementation of a quality assurance programme on the hospital’s electronic infrastructure to ensure integrity of clinical data and processes. In particular, liaise with IT personnel (IT Department) to plan and implement a management programme for clinical network domains. 

18. Performing as required routine checking and measurements on medical equipment.

19. Contributing to the construction, testing, service and repair and calibration of auxiliary equipment.

20. Participate in continuing education and professional development activities and cultivate specialist areas of interest / expertise, as required.
21. Manage the maintenance and inventory of proper stock levels of spare parts, and accessories for medical equipment, ensuring minimum equipment downtime.

22. Participation, as required, in the education, training and research activities / programmes of the department.

23. Making informed decisions and recommendations, where deemed necessary.

24. Providing project management services.

25. Performing other duties as may be assigned to him/her. Duties may be assigned within any of the institutions to which the department provides a service.   

26. Work agreed rosters and/or on-call arrangements advised to you by your line manager. Contracted hours of work are liable to change between the hours of 08.00 and 20.00 hrs over seven days to meet requirements for extended day services in accordance with the terms of the Framework Agreement.   

This job description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and will be subject to review in light of experience and/or changing circumstances.  Consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to him/her from time to time by the Chief Physicist or designate and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.

Mandatory

Professional Qualifications, Experience

Each candidate must, on the latest date for receiving completed application forms:

Hold as a minimum a recognised qualification at National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), Level 7 or higher, in one of the following engineering disciplines;

• Electronic,
• Electrical,
• Instrument Physics,
• Industrial Instrumentation,
• Applied Physics,
• Mechanical,
• Mechatronic,
• Biomedical Engineering;

Or

Hold a recognised qualification at least equivalent to one of the above;

And

• Have a minimum of three years postgraduate satisfactory and relevant experience in an appropriate medical industrial field including at least two years in a clinical engineering environment;

And

Candidates must possess the requisite knowledge and ability (including a high standard of suitability and administrative capacity) for the proper discharge of the duties of the office.

Applicant’s CV must clearly indicate how the candidate meets the requirements listed at a) and b) above. 

Desirable Experience

Candidates will also ideally have some or all of the following: 

• Experience working as hospital based engineering technician
• Experience in healthcare service provision
• Experience in any of the fields of dialysis, theatre, endoscopy, critical care, cardiology
• Experience working with medical devices
• Experience working with medical equipment network integration

Reporting Relationship

The post holder will report to the Chief Physicist & Head of Department via the Chief Clinical Engineering Technician or their deputy / designated representative. 

She/he will also liaise and work, as required with other staff and grades within and outside of the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department, on relevant issues.