Therapy Assistant - Orthopaedics

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic band 3 therapy assistant to join the Trauma & Orthopaedics Physiotherapy Team at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust.  The Trauma & Orthopaedic service at UCLH is a busy department, working over different sites; Trauma Orthopaedics in the UCLH main building and Elective Orthopaedics in the elective centre at Grafton Way Building.

The team is led by over 20 consultants who specialise in a range of elective and trauma work.  Currently UCLH provides first-class acute and specialist services across 8 sites.

You will be part of the Orthopaedic therapy team, which provides services across a number of specialist areas. These include: inpatient Trauma & Elective Orthopaedics, Day Surgery and Joint School. You role will be rotational, rotating between physiotherapy and occupational therapy services across inpatient elective and trauma orthopaedics. This role involves weekend working.

Main duties of the job

As part of the treatment and rehabilitation programme, the post holder works under the supervision of the qualified therapist, to perform specific tasks for an individual or group/class.  Duties may include:

• Assisting the patients with functional activities of daily living (e.g. personal care)
• Working directly with the therapists to deliver rehabilitation, including use of patient handling equipment.
• Assist in providing group/individual sessions as required.
• Providing non-complex interventions for complex patients.
• Working alone on the ward as instructed by the therapists
• Pre assessing elective total knee replacement patients
• Assist qualified staff in the provision of adaptive equipment
• Cleaning of re-usable equipment as required per trust policies.
• Reinforces the qualified therapist's advice and patient education.
• Administrative tasks including sending referrals, contacting community providers, ordering of equipment.
• Visits patients’ homes on home assessments and measures for and fits aids under the direction of the Occupational Therapist

Respects the individuality, values, cultural and religious diversity of each patient and contributes to the provision of a therapy service sensitive to the patient's needs.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.

Come and be a part of the best NHS trust in England to work for, according to our staff*

UCLH top trust to work at in England – for the second year running! : University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

*In the most recent NHS staff survey UCLH had the highest percentage of staff who said they would recommend us as a place to work, out of all general acute or acute/community NHS trusts in England – for the second year in a row.

UCLH top trust to work at in England – for the second year running! University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Once again, UCLH has received the highest score of all general acute and acute/community NHS trusts in England for staff that would recommend us as a place to work.