Team Lead Occupational Therapist - Wheelchair Services

Job overview

This is an opportunity to work at Band 7 level leading the Wheelchair Service clinical team.

The Wheelchair service team is responsible for all patients of all ages from birth to 100+ with a wide variety of conditions and diagnoses. The  Service provides wheelchairs, special seating systems, pressure relieving cushions, postural support systems, technical services and supports with assistive technology systems.

The team is responsible for assessing, prescribing, fitting and handing over this equipment.

The role of the team lead is to support the team with these roles, you will need a significant amount of broad-based knowledge and understanding of many of these conditions and the impact they have on individuals. You will need an excellent understanding of the equipment that the service provides and possess advanced clinical skills to provide this specialist service.

You will need strong communication and negotiating skills to deal with both the patients and the staff.

You will be responsible for overseeing the stock of equipment used, with support from the senior Rehabilitation Engineers. You will be liaising with our approved repairers to ensure timely and high-quality service delivery.

Main duties of the job

Please refer to job description and person specification for full details of the job.  Core responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Leading the Wheelchair service in a complex speciality, providing a responsive and timely service.

Providing a supportive environment for team members under your direct management, including undertaking annual appraisals and managing health and wellbeing.

Contributing to the education and teaching of all team members including students, preceptees, B6s and Rehabilitation Technicians.

Ensuring that high quality, evidenced based practice, service development and education underpin the service delivery.

Ensuring that NUH values and behaviours are embedded in everyday practice.

You will have excellent communication and team working skills, with the ability to apply problem-solving skills to patient care and leadership tasks.  As this role will include working with patients and their families during potentially stressful life events, including end of life situations, a compassionate and resilient character is required.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful applicant will demonstrate advanced level occupational therapy skills in assessment and prescription of equipment to facilitate excellent care in the Wheelchair Service

A willingness to learn and develop further, both clinically and professionally and to lead on this within the team is essential.  The successful applicant must be open minded to new ways of working and lead on this.  The ideal individual for this role needs to be flexible, dynamic and forward thinking. You will demonstrate an ability to work autonomously to an advanced level and provide support to other members of the team, including peers, Band 5 OT’s, including preceptees, support workers and students

Please see the detailed job description and person specification for more information.