Band 7 Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist - Carlton Court

Job overview

BAND 7 CLINICAL SPECIALIST OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST - CARLTON COURT THERAPY TEAM

9-Month Fixed Term or Secondment

The Integrated Therapies Department at the James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) are excited to offer this maternity cover post based at our satellite base at Carlton Court, Carlton Colville, to be part of our rehabilitation/reablement team working in collaboration with our community partners.

The 33-bedded unit at Carlton Court Hospital is open as part of ongoing service developments within the JPUH with the aim of supporting patients no longer requiring acute hospital treatment but who need that short term rehabilitation input in order to support their discharge to their place of residence.

You will be integral to the team consisting of therapists, nursing and patient flow colleagues, providing an inpatient therapy-led reablement/rehabilitation approach to maximise independence, prevent deconditioning and ensuring safe and effective discharge.

As a Band 7 Occupational Therapist, you are integral to the leadership of the team, working alongside the Therapy Team Leader to provide direction, development and support to the Therapy Team.  You will be specialist in your area and will be responsible for your own complex caseload consisting of patients with a variety of different conditions whilst supporting junior members of the team.  Good prioritisation, organisational and time management skills will be needed to balance clinical and non-clinical duties.

Main duties of the job

You will be responsible for ensuring the use of advanced effective assessment skills to identify appropriate patients and to formulate, implement and evaluate individualised treatment and rehabilitation plans, some of which will be specialist in nature, based on expert analytical and clinical reasoning skills.  You will need advanced communication skills to ensure a successful multidisciplinary approach to patient care and will be in regular discussions with patients, carers, the Carlton Court team, JPUH colleagues and community partners etc. on care plans, triaging, as well as providing training for colleagues within your specialism.

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 deputising for the Team Leader, leading on service development projects, carrying out probation reviews, being involved/leading on recruitment, training, development and supervision of junior therapists, therapy assistant practitioners and students.

The core hours for this post are 8.00am-4.00pm, however, flexibility can be discussed.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description for more details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role which include:

• To support the Therapy Team Leader in delivering an integrated physiotherapy and occupational therapy service to Carlton Court, deputising at times for the Therapy Team Leader and partaking in leadership and management of the Therapy Team
• To assess and treat own caseload of patients, who may have complex presentations and support the therapy team members with any complexities they may have with their own caseloads
• To maintain own records as an autonomous practitioner, prioritising own workload alongside the demands of the team
• To provide a reablement approach to patients within the satellite base
• 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 and assist junior staff, support staff and students
• 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 and support junior staff to do the same
• To provide spontaneous and planned advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers, schools, workplaces and other professionals, to promote understanding of the aims of Occupational Therapy to ensure a consistent approach to patient care
• To be responsible for priority cases as delegated outside the scope of current post, when departmental pressures dictate (i.e. staff shortages) and to coordinate junior staff to do the same
• To assist in the production of reports on own area of work and to make recommendations for change as requested
• To be responsible for and maintain 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
• Demonstrate a sound understanding of Clinical Governance and Risk Management and apply to work situation, and encourage others to do likewise
• Be actively involved in the collection of appropriate data and statistics for the use of the department
• To implement policy and suggest policy changes for your clinical area of work, which may affect the whole Integrated Therapies Service
• To be responsible for equipment used in carrying out clinical duties, and to adhere to departmental policy, including competence to use equipment and to ensure the safe use of equipment by others through teaching, training and supervision of practice, including manual handling according to Trust and professional guidelines
• To participate in providing clinical shadowing experiences for Occupational Therapy students and to explain the role of the Occupational Therapist to department visitors.  To assist Occupational Therapy staff in the training of students and support staff
• To work a rostered seven-day service/shift pattern within the James Paget University Hospital or Carlton Court Hospital as required
• If required, you may be asked to work at the James Paget University Hospital main site

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