Apply to join our hub of musicians
Posted on: 11/07/2024
Our musicians work on different wards for specific patient groups. As a musician, you may be moving from bay-to-bay, or you may be performing in front of small groups of patients in day- or dining rooms. You will come into contact with patients who have a range of health conditions, including those who are frail and elderly, sometimes live with dementia or patients with brain trauma. It is often these patients who respond particularly strongly to music. We also perform on our palliative care ward where you may encounter people who are at end-of-life.
We expect our musicians to encourage participation where it is safe to do so, and to be sensitive to the reactions they may encounter from patients, visitors or members of staff.
Training and shadowing opportunities will be provided to ensure musicians understand the workings of our hospitals, as well as the needs and abilities of the different patient groups on our wards.
We pay a session rate of £80 per musician per hour. (inclusive of travel, parking fees and VAT). The number of musicians in ensembles should be no more than 2.
This role would suit individuals who are;
- Confident, competent and enthusiastic musicians with a strong repertoire. You may be able to respond to occasional requests from patients, but we do not expect that you will be able to do so each time.
- Able to communicate well and enjoy working with and listening to people from wide ranging backgrounds including patients, visitors and staff
- Helpful, non-judgmental, sympathetic, and patient at all times.
- Confident in escalating any issues that you may encounter to senior staff in the ward teams.
- An existing understanding of dementia would be helpful but not essential as we can provide training in this area.
Time Commitment
We provide 21 concerts per month and we distribute the number of monthly concerts as fairly as possible amongst all our musicians. We respect that freelance musicians often have other work and need to take time off for holidays or touring. We always try to fit around the availability of musicians, however we would like our musicians to have availability on a Tuesday and Thursday each month. We try to rotate our musicians as much as possible to give patients and ward staff a varied programme of music.
Each music session lasts one hour and takes place either in the morning, starting no earlier than 10:30 and finishing before 12 noon, or in the afternoon from 13:30. All concerts finish no later than 15:00. We like to support musicians who live locally as we cannot pay for travel costs. We expect our musicians to complete a short evaluation form for each performance, to be submitted with their monthly invoice.
How to apply
We don't have an application form but would like you to answer our 3 questions and email this to Mir Jansen, arts coordinator mir.jansen@nhs.net
1. What makes you particularly suitable for this role? Give us a resume of your track record, relevant experience/qualifications and reasons for applying. (max. 500 words)
2. How will you actively engage our patients, visitors and staff on our wards in your music sessions? (max. 200 words)
3. Give us an example of when , where and how you have used your musical skills to make a difference to someone’s mood or hospital stay. (max. 300 words)
Don't forget to send us an online link where we can hear (and see) you perform.
Deadline 12 noon on 8th August 2024
Auditions will start in week commencing 19th August. We will take into account that some shortlisted candidates may have holiday commitments and we can be flexible with audition times. We do need to complete the audition and selection process by 3rd September. We expect to offer a a start date in October or as soon as all checks and mandatory training have been completed.
If you have any questions about the role, please contact arts coordinator Mir Jansen by email mir.jansen@nhs.net.
If you like to have an informal chat about the role, please send us your availability and phone number so we can get in touch with you. Please note that Mir works on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday only.
Funding to support our Music Programme is provided by Sheffield Hospitals Charity.
The Arts in Health team relies on the goodwill of our dedicated team of volunteers. We also regularly work with professional artists and musicians on a variety of creative projects across the Trust.