Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist - Acute Medicine

Job overview

The Buckinghamshire Adult Speech and Language Therapy Team have an exciting opportunity for a motivated and dynamic therapist to join our acute SLT team. You will be joining a friendly SLT team working across Buckinghamshire, delivering high quality care.

This post offers the opportunity to work with acute SLT and MDT colleagues, providing swallowing and communication assessments and advice for patients admitted to Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The post holder is integral to the SLT provision in our admission areas and will work collaboratively with the REACT team to assess patients and enhance patient flow. The post holder will additionally support the ongoing care or patients throughout their inpatient admission. The post holder will be involved in the provision of instrumental assessment via FEES and VF.

We can offer training and development from within our team and this post could be considered as a band 6/band 7 development opportunity for the right person. In this situation the post holder would be supported to complete competencies related to acute care, to progress from a band 6 to a band 7.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will independently manage and take responsibility for their own caseload and will:

• Assess patients presenting in the A&E department or front-door service with acute communication and swallowing difficulties and interpret results from diagnostic tests, medical history, and multidisciplinary team (MDT) input to inform treatment plans.
• Work effectively in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, prioritizing cases based on acuity and severity of needs.
• Identify, assess, and diagnose swallowing and communication impairments and implement management programmes, or therapy, where appropriate.
• Collaborate with other healthcare professionals to ensure holistic care and effective management of speech and swallowing needs
• Use highly specialist clinical skills to manage an acute caseload of eating, drinking, swallowing and communication difficulties.
• Provide expert guidance and information to colleagues, patients and carers.
• To provide instrumental assessment, including Videofluoroscopy and FEES, as indicated in patient care.
• Support patients with communication impairments to engage with care planning and advanced care planning
• Demonstrate leadership and support the development of SLT and HCP colleagues.
• Independently take students on placement.
• Take responsibility for implementing service wide developments as appropriate and contribute to the operational delivery of acute services at Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For a comprehensive list of responsibilities and duties, please kindly refer to the Job Description and Person Specification by downloading the JD and PS attachment in the advert.

If you are an internal applicant there is the option for secondment, all applicants must have the endorsement/support of their line manager prior to application.

If you have a disability that makes submitting this online application difficult and would like assistance, please contact us on bht.recruitment@nhs.net quoting the vacancy reference number.

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.