Community Access Team Therapist

Job overview

East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust are looking for a Registered Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist to join the Community Access Team based at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. The Community Access Team support the Admission Avoidance pathways in the Emergency Department, Frailty Unit, fracture clinic and short stay wards. Community Access Team also leads  the Discharge to Assess pathway 2 supporting the transfer of patients from acute wards to the Intermediate Care Units.

The service runs seven days a week, 8am to 8pm, and consists of Physiotherapists,  Occupational Therapists, Senior Nurses and Assistant Practitioners. The Admission Avoidance team operates against Emergency Department waiting targets and the successful candidate must have excellent written and verbal communication, as well as strong clinical reasoning skills. The ability to complete quick and decisive assessments is essential.

We see and assess patients with a wide variety of conditions, including long term disabilities, orthopaedic and neurological conditions.

We have opportunities for Continuing Professional Development, in the form of study days.

Please note that parking is not available at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

Main duties of the job

Duties include: assessing patients within the Emergency Department and Frailty Unit, assessing for reablement and admission avoidance care packages, issuing appropriate equipment, delegating tasks to support staff as appropriate and completing referrals for community services, assessing patients on wards for safe and timely transfers to our Intermediate Care Units.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical:

• Undertake comprehensive therapy assessments of patients including those with a complex presentation, using investigative, analytical, and clinical reasoning skills, and formulate a graded treatment plan.
• Formulate and execute individualised therapy treatment plans of patients including those with complex presentation, in collaboration with the integrated team, other agencies and the patient, utilising a wide range of treatment skills.
• Provide assessment of functional ability and safety of patients to identify care, equipment, adaptation, and therapy needs.
• Assess & plan treatment including teaching patients to utilise techniques & equipment to maximise their functional ability.
• Be aware of Assistive Technology and make referrals for this as required.
• Assess patients’ holistic needs, communicating complex and sensitive information to patients and carers as to their assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan.
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers to maximise rehabilitation and treatment potential, and to aid motivation and understanding throughout the treatment process.
• Where there are barriers to understanding, such as hearing impairment, mental capacity impairment and other difficulties in comprehension, explanations require adjustments in order to gain understanding, consent and concordance.
• Be required to use tact and persuasive skills in order to gain the patient’s co-operation in their treatment plan.
• Liaise with GPs, Social Services, inpatient teams, other allied health care professionals and the voluntary sector to ensure identified needs are met and care co-ordinated appropriately
• Participate in multi-disciplinary/multi-agency meetings as appropriate, e.g. Gold Standard Framework and red to green meetings.
• Be responsible for ensuring workload for self and others is planned and prioritised according to service targets and needs.
• Ensure patient held records are completed and that electronic record inputting is completed on a daily basis.
• Plan and organise specialist services within the integrated team.
• Demonstrate dexterity and co-ordination when using specialist equipment and fine tools, manual and mobilising skills.
• Order equipment and supplies via electronic ordering systems for use within the team.
• Be aware of budget and ensure all effort is made to work within this.
• Ensure informed consent is obtained prior to initiating interventions.
• Will be exposed to bodily fluids, infected material, blood products on a daily basis, therefore must utilise universal precautions and adhere to infection control policies.

Professional

• Be required to undertake risk assessments and act upon them appropriately.
• Share responsibility for the supervision of workload within the integrated team.
• Actively contribute to multidisciplinary team meetings and other meetings where appropriate.
• Support all team members within the integrated team, respecting them, their roles and contributions.
• Attend in-house training as required to develop current job role.
• Maintain own continuous professional development
• Be responsible for safe use and maintenance of equipment and supplies.
• Remain accountable for own professional actions as determined by the professional bodies.
• May be required to demonstrate own duties to students, new starters and/or less experienced staff.
• Provide mentorship for students undertaking pre/post registration courses.
• Mentor existing staff and provide training in specialist area as appropriate.
• Provide advice/training to less experienced staff and supervise and support band 4 staff, and students where appropriate, and contribute to the induction process for new staff/students.
• Demonstrate leadership skills within own competence.
• Contribute to the induction process for new staff/students.
• Be accountable for work delegated to others within the team, ensuring staff are competent to undertake delegated work.