Paediatric physiotherapist

Job overview

The Barnet Children’s Integrated therapies - Physiotherapy Service provides a community service for local patients living in or with a Barnet GP.

The post holder will be expected to support their team, department and organisation to achieve the Trust’s Values in their day-to-day work.  These are the ICARE values:

• Innovative
• Compassion
• Accountability
• Respect
• Excellence
• Equity

The post holder will achieve this by providing a high standard of physiotherapy assessment, treatment, monitoring and advice for children, families and carers.

They will act as the physiotherapy representative within the multi-disciplinary teams, providing specialist advice to other health professionals, social care team, education services and others as necessary and work to ensure that physiotherapy treatment is fully integrated into the client’s day.

Main duties of the job

• To provide high quality physiotherapy including assessment, treatment and advice to paedaitric patients with various needs in a variety of settings.
• To assess and treat own caseload of patients and maintain associated records as an autonomous practitioner with support from senior staff.
• To communicate with the relevant members of the multidisciplinary team, other health professionals, patients and carers with regard to the delivery of patient focused care.
• To participate in departmental continuous professional development, departmental education and training, audit and evidence-based projects.
• To undertake all necessary verbal and written documentation required for patient care.
• To have clinical supervision on a regular basis with senior staff. Supervision can take the form of formal training, clinical reasoning, peer review, case reviews and reflective practise.
• To assist in the supervision of students.
• To participate in service development projects, working to improve the overall standard of care offered by the department.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of their work including the management of patients in their care and to seek advice from senior staff as appropriate.
• To carry out assessments of patients as an autonomous practitioner, using clinical reasoning skills, to determine an accurate diagnosis and care plan, utilising a wide range of assessment skills.
• To interpret and analyse clinical and non-clinical facts to form accurate diagnoses. These are drawn from a wide range of information sources including but not exclusive to medical notes, nursing notes, web-based information services and patient computer databases.
• To formulate goals/clinical objectives with patients/carers/relatives and other health professionals and continually re-assess patients to evaluate progress and alter treatment programmes accordingly.
• To formulate and deliver an individual physiotherapy treatment programme based on a sound knowledge of evidence based practice including; therapeutic handling, patient education, exercise classes, and other alternative options.
• To co-ordinate intervention, this may include other disciplines and /or referral to members of the Multidisciplinary Team for further investigation where appropriate.
• To represent the physiotherapy service at the multi-disciplinary team meetings. This will include discussion of patient care and progress, risk assessment, and involvement in discharge planning and referral to intermediate care services, making recommendations for best course of intervention as appropriate.
• To be involved in co-ordinating home visits with other members of the multi-disciplinary team to facilitate a patient's safe return into the community, and subsequently making recommendations for best course of action with regards to discharge planning.
• To be responsible for maintenance of accurate written and electronic records, involving comprehensive progress and discharge reports, in line with CSP and Trust standards and to monitor the record keeping of undergraduate students and assistants where necessary.
• To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload at all times with appropriate support from senior staff.
• To use developed physical skills, including dexterity, co-ordination and sensory skills for therapy assessment and treatment techniques in all clinical settings. These skills require regular supervision and practice sessions in order to maintain the sensitivity and specificity of handling.
• To be competent in the use/application of specialised equipment.
• To be responsible for the safe and competent use of all equipment used in the course of patients' treatment programmes.
• To flexibly plan and organise own time, prioritise patient caseload, administrative duties and meetings (including ward, departmental and service development meetings) and respond to unpredictable workloads, working conditions and frequent interruptions.
• To assist senior staff to delegate, organise and monitor the work of Assistants, undergraduate students and Technical Instructors to meet priorities on a daily basis.
• To assist the senior staff in ensuring an efficient system for the organisation and management of waiting lists for patient classes/group work.
• To carry out assessments and treatments involving moderate physical effort frequently throughout the day. This includes treatment sessions lasting 30 to 60 minutes per patient.
• To work in areas where the environment may have artificial lighting, variable temperatures, poor ventilation and poor ergonomics (workspace area).
• To comply with trust manual handling policy and local therapeutic handling guidelines at all times.
• To work in an environment where the work patterns may be disrupted by demands from patients, clinical staff, students and administrative support staff.
• To sensitively deal with distressing or emotional circumstances regarding patient care such as realistic expectations of rehabilitation outcome, difficult family and social circumstances or terminally ill patients that may lead to exposure to anxiety and aggressive behaviour.
• To be occasionally exposed to unpleasant working conditions on a daily basis e.g. bodily fluids including sputum, vomit, urine, faeces and some infections, hydrotherapy chemicals and occasional exposure to verbal or physical aggression and unpredictable environments including patients homes.
• To gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack the capacity to consent to treatment.
• To liaise to senior staff with regards to more complex patients.
• To be able to motivate and persuade patients, carers and other staff through effective communication skills, with the benefit of verbal and non-verbal skills, for example, patients with communication difficulties, hearing or sight impairments, memory loss, mental illness or those who may be unable to accept diagnosis.
• To demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information to patients, carers and other staff, where there may be barriers to communication i.e. non-English speaking patients, communication impairment, and cognitive impairment, use of interpreters, excess noise or lack of privacy.
• To maintain close links though communication and liaison between the multi-disciplinary team members and other patient services involved in patient care to ensure effective treatment and discharge, participating in case conferences as appropriate.
• To be responsible for and actively record evidence of own professional development and maintain a CPD portfolio which reflects the same.
• To maintain and develop current knowledge of evidence-based practice in each rotation through in-service training, watched assessments and treatments and one-to one teaching sessions.
• To develop knowledge of particular conditions and patient types.
• To be actively involved in professional clinical groups in order to keep abreast of new developments applicable to physiotherapy assessment and treatment.
• Participate in a staff appraisal scheme as an appraisee and be responsible for own personal development plan and meeting competencies.
• To participate in the teaching programme for Assistants, staff and students including formal group sessions and one-to one teaching.
• To assist in the induction of students and support workers and participate in the education of undergraduate students and work experience students.
• To contribute to the education of some multidisciplinary groups; The Physiotherapy department; patients; families and carers as appropriate.
• To undertake an evidence-based project in each rotation and present it to colleagues within the physiotherapy department.
• To support departmental and Trust Strategies regarding Clinical Governance issues.
• To evaluate own work and current practices through the use of projects, audit or outcome measures, as directed by senior physiotherapists.
• To ensure a good working knowledge of national and local standards.
• To actively assist in the implementation of new policies and practice in the current area of practice in the department.