Band 5 Physiotherapist - Rotational (FTC until 23 April 2027)

Job overview

BAND 5 PHYSIOTHERAPIST - ROTATIONAL

Full-time | Fixed-term contract until 23 April 2027

We are pleased to offer an opportunity to join our amazing Integrated Therapy Team at the James Paget University Hospital, consisting of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians and assistants working seamlessly together. Our diverse Band 5 rotations include:

• Orthopaedics
• Stroke
• Acute Medicine
• General Surgery
• Acute Respiratory/ICU
• Early Intervention Team/FAU
• Pelvic Health
• Paediatrics

Rotations are six months long giving you time to develop and embed new skills before transferring to the next rotational area. We have a positive relationship with our community partners enabling us to offer opportunities to experience acute and community working.

We offer excellent supervision, training and skill development opportunities within each specialism provided by supportive clinicians and also opportunities to gain skills such as student supervision, audits and service development projects.

We have a strong reputation for home grown career progression through welcoming every new team member and supporting them to settle, develop and grow. We are large enough to offer a number of rotational experiences but small enough to be able to respond quickly in delivering services in response to patient needs.

Onsite parking is available, and car shares are possible.

Main duties of the job

As a Band 5 Rotational Physiotherapist, you will be responsible for your own caseload, working within a fast paced, pressured and energetic environment. You will need good organisational and time management skills to prioritise and manage your caseload.

You will be responsible for ensuring the use of effective assessment skills to identify, formulate, implement and evaluate individualised treatment plans based on analytical and clinical reasoning skills. Assessments will primarily take place within the hospital with a holistic approach considering cognitive, physical and social aspects of each individual’s life.

You will need to have effective communication skills to ensure a successful multidisciplinary approach to patient care and be in regular discussions with a variety of people such as patients, carers/relatives, your immediate therapy team, the wider multidisciplinary team, community partners, discharge teams etc. You will also need to be able to demonstrate management of barriers to communication such as loss of hearing/expressive and receptive dysphasia/pain/fear and be able to motivate patients to maximise their potential whether it is around rehabilitation or planning safe and effective discharges.

You will also have non-clinical duties such as being a member of team meetings and peer support groups, partake in service development ideas, training and supervision of students and therapy assistant practitioners.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Band 5 Rotations cover the following clinical areas:

• Orthopaedic Trauma: Working as part of a proactive MDT to provide a nationally recognised femoral fracture pathway and other trauma, including spinal cord injury, as part of the East of England trauma network
• Elective Orthopaedics: Working to deliver an established elective enhanced recovery programme and a range of day case including day case hip and knee surgery
• Stroke: Providing hyper acute and acute rehabilitation working to national stroke metrics and using a range of neuro-rehabilitation approaches
• Acute Medicine: Working as part of the MDT with opportunities to work on our frailty ward and across general medical wards providing early functional assessment and rehabilitation to aid discharge or with our neurological patients and palliative care providing specialist input to patients with acute neurological conditions & supporting palliative patients to improve their quality of life
• General Surgery/ICU: Providing specialist respiratory management within ICU and enhancing patients’ surgical pathway to reduce complications and increase independence
• Acute Respiratory/ICU: Working as part of the MDT to provide specialist respiratory management within ICU and the acute medical wards using a range of respiratory skills
• Early Intervention Team: Working within Accident & Emergency, the Emergency Assessment and Discharge Unit and the Acute Frailty Unit to facilitate early supported discharge and prevent unnecessary admissions
• Pelvic Health: Providing early recovery advice and support to postnatal and post-operative patients, and will include working with exciting service changes with the soon-to-be-launched Perinatal Pelvic Health Service, one of 13 early implementer sites across the UK
• Paediatrics: A newly added rotation based within the community team

The main responsibilities for working within each area are:

• To deliver a physiotherapy service including working with patients both in hospital and community settings who have a range of complex needs
• With support, to be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work including a high standard of clinical care for the patients under your management
• To undertake work in a variety of clinical areas as per the rotation which will provide a broad base for both personal and professional development
• To assess capacity, gain informed consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment
• To be an active member of the respiratory on-call rota (weekday evenings, weekends and Bank Holidays). On these occasions being the only respiratory physiotherapist on duty, although it might be possible to access advice by telephone
• To assist senior staff in the provision of advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers and other professionals, to promote understanding of the aims of physiotherapy and to ensure a co-ordinated approach to patient care
• To work a rostered seven-day service within the James Paget University Hospital or in a community health setting as required
• To collect data/statistics as directed by the Team Leader or Integrated Therapies Clinical Lead
• To be responsible for equipment used, and to adhere to departmental policies including competence to use equipment
• To maintain a proactive professional approach being responsible for own Clinical Professional Development (CPD), actively reading around any updates/developments and incorporate them as necessary into your work
• To maintain comprehensive and accurate assessment and treatment records in line with legal and departmental requirements, and communicate assessment and treatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of letters and reports
• To identify objectives for personal development together with senior staff
• To participate in the evaluation of your work and current practices through audit and critical appraisal
• To participate in providing clinical shadowing experiences for physiotherapy students being supervised by senior staff on their introductory placement, and to explain the role of the physiotherapist to department visitors. To assist senior staff in the training of students and support staff
• To be an active participant in team/department service development
• To support joint working with our community colleagues

Please see the attached Job Description for more details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role.

Please watch the following videos for an insight into our Integrated Therapies Department:

Landscape version: https://youtu.be/tklpzav7UrU

Portrait version: https://youtube.com/shorts/U4lwU9T1wKA?feature=share

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.