Band 7 Speech and Language Therapist - Acute and Critical Care

Job overview

We are delighted to share a rare and exciting opportunity to join our friendly, well-established team as a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist working on the acute wards and critical care at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The postholder will share responsibility for leading a team of band 5 and 6 SLTs and a band 4 assistant, and will have access to CPD, supervision, peer support and internal and external training opportunities to develop and enhance their leadership skills.

The successful candidate will carry a caseload of patients across acute wards, including critical care patients with and without tracheostomies, and those receiving invasive and non-invasive ventilation. Leadership of  videofluoroscopy clinics for in- and outpatients, and delivery of the inpatient FEES service, provide ample opportunity to consolidate specialist skills in instrumental assessment of dysphagia.

We welcome contact from interested candidates who would like to discuss this post.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a highly specialist SLT service to patients on the acute wards including critical care at Queen Elizabeth Hospital
• To provide cross-cover and support to critical care as required.
• To work with other members of the multidisciplinary team to develop services and standards of patient care.
• To provide training and support to SLT colleagues or to colleagues from other professions.
• To assist the Head of Speech and Language Therapy with service evaluation.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Result Areas & Performance: •    To use highly specialist skills to assess, differentially diagnose and manage complex patients with acquired swallowing and communication disorders on the acute wards and critical care at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. •    To support in the assessment, differential diagnosis and management of patients with tracheostomy who have swallowing and communication impairments, and to provide specialist input to these patients where weaning from the tracheostomy is problematic. •    To work independently to fulfil the core responsibilities identified below. •    To ensure effective joint working with the Multi-Disciplinary Teams in the management and discharge planning of these patients. •    To provide training and/or support to other professionals concerning swallowing or communication problems. •    To contribute to the development of clinical guidelines which are based upon sound evidence. •    To undertake audit and outcome projects with the supervision of the Head of SLT. •    To comment on and adhere to service and team plans and policies.

Please see attached job description for further details.