Advanced Practice Spinal Physiotherapist

Job overview

Oxford University Hospitals NHS FT are looking for an Advanced Practice Spinal Physiotherapist to join their team. The Advanced Practice Physiotherapist (APP) will work as an autonomous practitioner within neurosurgery outpatient clinics, providing expert assessment, diagnosis, and management of patients presenting with complex spinal and neurosurgical conditions.

The post holder will act as a key member of the multidisciplinary team (MDT), triaging referrals, identifying patients requiring surgical opinion, and independently managing those appropriate for conservative care. The role includes advanced clinical decision-making, requesting and interpreting diagnostic investigations, and contributing to service development to enhance patient pathways and outcomes.

The successful candidate will work flexibly across the Spinal Services at the West Wing and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

Main duties of the job

• Provide expert musculoskeletal assessment, triage, diagnosis, and management of complex spinal patients, including identifying serious pathology, referring for diagnostics, injections, or surgery, and delivering evidence‑based treatment through face‑to‑face or remote consultations.
• Maintain accurate clinical records, ensure compliance with Trust policies, support service organisation, and contribute to audits and reporting.
• Supervise and train staff, lead service development, present cases at MDTs, and handle complaints.
• Communicate complex clinical information clearly, support shared decision‑making, and maintain confidentiality.
• Engage in ongoing professional development, research, audit, teaching, and dissemination of findings.
• Deliver safe manual handling, manage challenging behaviours, and explain sensitive results compassionately.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To put quality and service user experience at the heart of clinical care
• To employ and apply expert musculoskeletal knowledge related to screening, triage, assessment, investigation, and treatment aligned with service pathways, locally commissioned  pathways and national and international guidelines.
• To undertake comprehensive assessments of highly complex patients who may present with  multiple pathologies, using expert biopsychosocial clinical reasoning skills, expert knowledge of evidence based practice, and advanced rehabilitation expertise, to interpret and analyse  clinical and non-clinical facts, which may include very personal, emotive or contentious information to unravel the complexity of the impact of pain.
• To undertake video-conference/ telephone consultations for new and follow-up patients if clinically appropriate. Employ the principle of shared decision making aligned with local/national/international guidelines to inform patients of the benefits and risks of appropriate treatment options.
• To work independently performing expert musculoskeletal assessment of patients.
• To use expert clinical assessment and reasoning skills to identify patients who may have serious spinal pathologies, including neoplasm, intradural tumours, myelopathies, cauda equina syndrome. To independently refer patients to the on-call service. To communicate the suspected diagnosis, in a timely way to relevant clinicians (GP, Spinal Consultants, Spinal Unit Physiotherapists).