Clinical Lead Physiotherapist

Job overview

We are pleased to offer this new role of Clinical Lead Physiotherapist to support expansion in the Spasticity service at King's College Hospital NHS Trust.

To be a physiotherapy clinical expert in Neurorehabilitation, particularly the management of patients with spasticity

To ensure a high quality, effective and efficient physiotherapy service providing expert clinical intervention in neurorehabilitation, primarily as part of the multidisciplinary Spasticity Clinic, using extended scope of practice as appropriate

To be responsible for the operational management and clinical leadership of physiotherapy services related to the Multidisciplinary Spasticity clinic in conjunction with the Physiotherapy Senior Leadership team

To provide leadership, clinical expertise and operational management to both the Therapy Spasticity Clinic service and the Acute Neuro-Rehabilitation physiotherapy service in KCH South Sites

To use expert physiotherapy knowledge and advanced clinical reasoning to manage own complex caseload as an autonomous practitioner and to provide expert advice for internal and external members of the multidisciplinary team.

To supervise senior physiotherapy staff within the neuro-rehabilitation service including providing structured appraisals, meetings and peer support.

To be part of the Physiotherapy Clinical Leadership team by contributing to planning and service development of the King’s physiotherapy services

Main duties of the job

Patient Care

• To work at an advanced level in the field of neurorehabilitation, by receiving referrals, undertaking full assessment and independently diagnosing and then planning individual, specialised, evidence-based, treatment programmes for patients appropriately depending on the physiotherapist’s diagnosis, using advanced clinical reasoning and a variety of evidence-based, expert skills such as use of therapy handling skills, tone management (including Botox injection therapy for spasticity management), advanced splinting, posture and seating management.

• To deliver or work towards extending own scope of practice within the field of rehabilitation and Spasticity.  To recognise boundaries of own extended scope of practice as it develops and to manage associated clinical risk at all times

• To have clinical responsibility for a designated caseload of patients, including those with highly complex and diverse conditions

• To prioritise work efficiently using expert knowledge to underpin decisions and request, in conjunction with medical colleagues and with appropriate training to request specialist investigations and act on the interpretation of the results.

• To use advanced theoretical and practical knowledge to advise, guide and teach senior staff, assessment and management of patients with a wide range of neurological conditions and related problems, showing an holistic approach.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication

To demonstrate expert ability to communicate effectively with others and be able to persuade and motivate others, including staff and patients

To respond appropriately to the patient’s level of communication and understanding, facilitating the best possible communication outcomes.

To clearly communicate highly complex knowledge of anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, pathology and treatment techniques to patients and staff while being sensitive to their prior levels of knowledge and understanding

Provide patients, families and other carers with expert advice or instruction to promote the understanding of the aims of physiotherapy and to ensure consistent patient management. To be able to share knowledge with patients in a way which facilitates understanding of their condition and allows informed participation in planning the management of their condition

To be able to present information to others in an informed, logical and reasoned manner, even where the evidence or opinion may be conflicting

To provide and receive information from patients, carers and other professionals regarding a patient’s condition and treatment progress.  This will include the sharing and receiving of highly complex and/or sensitive information or details of prognosis/disability that maybe unwelcome.

To develop and maintain close working relationships with physiotherapy colleagues and other members of the multidisciplinary team, ensuring appropriate attendance at ward rounds, multi-disciplinary meetings and case conferences including organisation of the latter.

To develop and maintain close working relationships with physiotherapy colleagues (particularly other neurological physiotherapists in King’s), referring clinicians and other appropriate professions and agencies in the provision of rehabilitation services.

To take an active part in departmental meetings  and to attend groups such as working parties, meetings and events to represent the department, Trust and the profession, both internally and externally to the organisation

To represent the Trust at local, national and international events or meetings e.g. Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Neurology and develop best practice at King’s through liaison with other regional specialists/colleagues and other relevant forums. To effectively liaise and network with colleagues in other Trusts for the benefit of patients and the service

• MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

Information Management

To maintain comprehensive and accurate and timely patient notes and records in accordance with departmental policy and to ensure the safekeeping and confidentiality of these records.

• monitor and review own and teams’ activity and keep own comprehensive records of activity in accordance with local and national requirements using departmental IT software systems as required to help inform service delivery and evaluation.

• To prioritise referrals received within the service, using advanced level of knowledge to underpin decisions, and to ensure that more junior physiotherapists are trained to prioritise appropriately.

Human Resources Management

To deputise for the Physiotherapy Senior Team / Manager as required

To manage teams of physiotherapy staff, neurorehabilitation/Spasticity service, ensuring they meet service priorities and work effectively and efficiently.

To be responsible for the daily management, supervision and co-ordination of the physiotherapy services related to the Spasticity clinic service.  Includes involvement in  performance management and staff appraisal

To be responsible for the standard of physiotherapy carried out by physiotherapy staff working in neurorehabilitation / spasticity outpatient clinics, including students and assistants

To facilitate effective team working in the physiotherapy department by leading, assisting and supporting other members of the team to make appropriate priorities, particularly at times of annual, study and sick leave

To provide emotional support for team members in potentially stressful work situations, such as patient bereavement, verbal or physical aggression, or other stresses of work including adverse incidents.

Physical Resources

To be responsible for Health and Safety requirements within own clinical area

To take the lead for ensuring the risk assessment, competent use, maintenance and repair of all equipment in the area, and ensure that treatment and working areas are kept safe and tidy, liaising with other department as appropriate

To be aware of the cost/benefit implications in the selection of appropriate equipment to be provided to the patient for long term use, both individually and within the team

Service Development

To take a lead role in Clinical Governance in the neurorehabilitation team, and ensure robust and effective systems of clinical effectiveness and audit programmes are in place in the outpatient service to ensure clinical quality, implementation of evidence-based practice and safe working practises.

To evaluate current practices in own work and that of the team, based on research findings, evidence-based projects, audits and the use of recognised outcome measures, to ensure that quality standards and effectiveness of patient care are continually monitored and improved

To work with other Clinical Leads and the Physiotherapy Manger to ensure that the service responds to local and national initiatives and policy such as CSAG guidelines, National Service Frameworks and NICE guidelines

To lead on the formulation of departmental policies and procedures for neurorehabilitation and participate in agreed developments in the physiotherapy service or it’s organisation.

To lead on the formulation of team objectives in line with Trust and Therapy objectives and ensure completion and report to Physiotherapy Manager.  To work collaboratively with all Physiotherapy Clinical Leads and Managers, on joint projects covering the scope of physiotherapy and work with colleagues, outside of the department on projects or service reviews, networking externally to the Trust as required.

To initiate and implement changes to working practices related to research findings or service initiatives e.g. following demand and capacity work including evaluation of such changes.

To undertake clinical audit, report on findings, implement changes and re-audit.

• TRAINING, EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

To keep abreast of new developments generally within physiotherapy, and within the area of neurological conditions particularly. To incorporate into current practice and that of the team as appropriate

To ensure the provision of an appropriate planned and relevant in service training programme for the team, and support staff to develop their knowledge and skills within their role i.e. related to client group, service needs and efficient use of time

To use expert knowledge to provide specialist teaching on a wide range of topics to the neurorehabilitation team, other physiotherapy staff and students, and other professionals

To monitor and assess competency of team members in clinical techniques related to neurorehabilitation, spasticity management and extended scope physiotherapy. To incorporate into team training programmes as required

To train, assess and deem competent, staff undertaking high risk procedures such as therapy handling and specialist procedures such as splinting.

To ensure that own area of service has a comprehensive audit programme, based on local and corporate objectives, and to report on all audit activity to the Physiotherapy Clinical Governance Steering Group

To lead the neurorehabilitation team in developing local standards and guidelines based on evidence of best practice, and ensure that these standards and guidelines are monitored and acted upon within the team

To support and facilitate evidence-based projects carried out by more junior staff and to ensure well-structured experience-rich rotations for junior and senior staff.

Prepare and participate in lectures, seminars and demonstrations to other physiotherapists, student physiotherapists and other disciplines as appropriate, internal and external to the Trust

Foster, encourage and facilitate the development of evidence-based projects and guide through to publication.

People Management and Performance

Lead, coach and manage the performance of the team in line with good people management practices. Ensuring excellence is recognised and underperformance is addressed