Physiotherapy Assistant/Plaster Technician

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our friendly, enthusiastic and professional children's outpatient therapy team. The post holder will be directly involved in patient care, assisting physiotherapists with treatments such as plaster cast removal and application, and seeing some patients independently under the supervision of a physiotherapist. Prior experience of similar paid or voluntary work, e.g. casting or other "hands-on" technical work or hobbies would be an advantage, although full training will be given. The successful applicant will have good communication and organisation skills as this post is pivotal in the smooth running of the department, taking responsibility for ordering plaster supplies and mobility equipment.

Main duties of the job

Main Duties:

• To support clinical practitioners to deliver direct patient care in a children's' elective plaster cast service. This includes pre-and post-op casting (including minor wound and skin care), and casting for therapeutic goals such as stretching / walking pattern
• To provide efficient and effective indirect clinical support to the department: attending to patients, therapy colleagues, consultant surgeons and referrers to the service, both in person in clinic and on the telephone, promptly and courteously at all times and be a worthy frontline representative of the high quality service.
• To maintain a clean and tidy clinic environment, including cleaning of casting equipment
• To support the physiotherapy service in maintaining supplies of equipment and stock - monitoring stock levels, placing and receiving orders, maintaining a tidy equipment store
• To complete effective and timely patient notes as required
• To be able to assist therapists as necessary with the management of patients requiring more than one person. This may require the use of moderate physical effort.
• To carry out in-direct clinical tasks as required by the department e.g. appointment administration, direct patient/family telephone communication, maintaining department logs.
• To be able to work clinically with patients with indirect supervision from the physiotherapy team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job description

• To work with children of all ages and their families, understanding the nature of their attendance and assisting practitioners in therapeutic goals.
• To assist staff with the management of patients referred to the department. To include: Assisting with the management of orthopaedic surgery patients, to include application and removal of casts, sometimes with indirect supervision, and sometimes requiring basic wound care Assisting with the application and removal of casts for non-surgical treatments Assisting in the management of babies being treated for hip dysplasia
• Assisting with the management of orthopaedic surgery patients, to include application and removal of casts, sometimes with indirect supervision, and sometimes requiring basic wound care Assisting with the application and removal of casts for non-surgical treatments Assisting in the management of babies being treated for hip dysplasia
• Assisting with the management of orthopaedic surgery patients, to include application and removal of casts, sometimes with indirect supervision, and sometimes requiring basic wound care
• Assisting with the application and removal of casts for non-surgical treatments
• Assisting in the management of babies being treated for hip dysplasia
• To work flexibly within the team, providing support to professional colleagues and the multidisciplinary team, and provide cover for other areas within paediatrics during annual leave, busy periods and where there is an imbalance of work.
• To assist in the maintenance of the department plaster supplies and equipment stocks
• To help maintain a clean and safe working environment, in particular the plaster room and store, and casting equipment
• To arrange appropriate appointments by person, telephone or letter and co-ordinate specialist requests, liaising with clinicians and administrative teams.
• To deal proactively and efficiently with telephone enquiries from patients, carers and other service users professionally, ensuring, where possible, that the caller’s needs are met or they are transferred to the most appropriate person.
• To carry out data collection as required by the therapy team, including entering data onto the computer data collection system.

Responsibilities

• To attend all mandatory training as required by the Trust – particularly Fire, Manual Handling, Basic Life Support and complete Information Governance training on-line
• To maintain good working relationships with the multi-disciplinary teams in the outpatient department and other colleagues within the Children’s therapy team
• To ensure effective communication and documentation with the therapy team, other health professional and patients/parents/guardians.
• To participate in the departmental induction and training of new or temporary staff and continued training of existing staff.
• Attend all statutory training for Health & Safety, and attend training sessions and meeting which are appropriate to the post.
• To ensure that Trust Data Quality procedures are adhered to at all times.
• To participate in meeting infection control standards of equipment used by Children’s Therapy team.
• To undertake any other activities as required by the Therapies team.

Communication

• To be able to communicate effectively with the wider multidisciplinary team, attending meetings and providing handover and feedback as necessary.
• To communicate effectively and sensitively to patients and their families/ guardians face to face and via telephone.
• To be able to use written communication in electronic patients records and ordering systems
• To be able to use email and telephone to contact patients/ parents/ guardians

Applicant requirements

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.