Specialist Physiotherapist in Paediatrics Neurodisability

Job overview

The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital is a leading teaching hospital with world-class facilities.  Physiotherapy is playing an instrumental role in the exciting developments in the Trust and our team is growing.  Our patients rate us highly on quality of care and having friendly approachable staff. We are looking for like-minded individuals to join us and take advantage of the opportunities we have on offer.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Physiotherapist to join the Paediatric Neuro-Disability team as a 0.8WTE post; there is an option to make this post full-time, with 0.2WTE for an inpatient Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) developmental care physiotherapy role.

The Paediatric neuro-disability team treat children and young people aged 0-19 years old across Norwich and Norfolk.  The role would include clinical work in a variety of acute, outpatient and community settings, including specialist MDT clinics, outpatient clinics, home visits, and in mainstream and specialist educational settings.   The children under our care have a variety of pathologies, including cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, neuro-muscular disease, oncological disease, genetic conditions and developmental delay.

The 0.2WTE NICU role would include completing standardized assessments and formulating treatment plan for babies on the unit, as well as planning their discharge to community.  Clinical skills and experience will be considered on an individual basis.

Main duties of the job

As post holder you would be responsible for the management of a caseload of patients with a variety of long-term conditions. You would be responsible the physical management of patients, including their postural management, orthotics and exercise programmes.  The role encourages active contribution in specialist MDT clinics to discuss medical and surgical needs related to the child/young person’s movement difficulties.

Successful applicants will manage their own individual caseloads, as well as participate in outpatient neuro-disability clinics, including hydrotherapy, review clinics, developmental clinics and rehabilitation clinics.

As post holder you would be involved in the supervision and training of physiotherapists, physiotherapy assistant practitioners, assistants and students.  Upskilling and supervision of more junior staff will be an integral part of this band 7 role.

As part of an acute trust, participation in the paediatric on-call and weekend service is included in this post.  There is a rota for this service, and options for either additional pay or rota’d time off in lieu are available.

We are a forward thinking, evidence informed team.  We are looking to expand our rehabilitation provision for children with neuro-disability.  We would like to recruit a similar minded, creative band 7 physiotherapist to work collaboratively and lead this service development.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For more information please read the attached job description and appendix document

To collect relevant patient information from a variety of sources e.g. radiology imaging systems, other investigations to assist with clinical prioritisation and patient management. This may also include ward handovers, observation charts, medical and nursing records etc.

To provide peer support and case review for other members of the team, in particular, in relation to patients with complex clinical/psychological presentations

To accept clinical responsibility for the physiotherapy management of a defined caseload of patients and to organise this efficiently and effectively with regard to clinical priorities and use of time.