Physiotherapist Specialist Community Practitioner

Job Summary

This is a challenging and rewarding opportunity to work as a Physiotherapist Specialist in our Community Care team. You will be responsible for assessing, managing, and providing treatment to a caseload of service users with complex and/or multiple needs.

You will work closely with the multidisciplinary team and provide supervision to therapy assistants, junior staff, and students. There may be an expectation to work between multiple sites in the organisation.

Main Duties of the Job

We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated, and flexible Physiotherapist to join our friendly, supportive, and dynamic team in Crewe Care Community/ CCICP.

We provide a rapid, unplanned, and planned response, facilitating early discharge from hospital and aiming to reduce hospital admissions. We also cover discharge to assess beds.

There is a varied caseload, and you will need to demonstrate knowledge, experience, and relevant clinical skills with patients with complex/long-term conditions, falls, orthopaedics, general mobility problems, and neurological conditions.

You will work as a member of our integrated multidisciplinary team alongside District Nurses, Advance Nurse Practitioners, Complex Case Practitioners, MacMillan Nurses, and will be responsible for supervising junior members of staff and students.

There will be associated administrative duties, and you will need to be computer literate with a good knowledge of Microsoft packages and have accurate keyboard skills.

Our team utilises digital technology to support remote working and accommodate a flexible working approach where possible and is supported to do this with access to a laptop and mobile phone.

You are required to be a car driver and have access to your own vehicle.

About Us

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHFT) provides good quality, safe, and effective healthcare to the people of Cheshire and beyond.

The Trust, which manages Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Victoria Infirmary in Northwich, and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre in Winsford, was established as an NHS Trust in April 1991 and became a Foundation Trust in April 2008.

We employ almost 5,000 members of staff, provide around 540 hospital beds, with a range of services including accident and emergency, maternity, outpatients, therapies, and children's health.

The Trust is also part of Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership (CCICP), a unique local health partnership that provides a range of community services for people across South Cheshire and Vale Royal.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Trust was recognised nationally for its 'Be Safe Be EquiPPEd' campaign, which aimed to make the Trust as safe as possible for staff and patients, through supporting the correct use of PPE.

The results in the 2020 national NHS Staff Survey showed improvements in all elements of the safety culture theme, with 92% of respondents feeling their role made a difference to our patients. We were also recognised nationally for our workforce health and wellbeing initiatives.

At Mid Cheshire, we value our staff and appreciate that in order to give our patients the best quality, compassionate care, we also need to look after our colleagues.

Job Responsibilities

As a Physiotherapist Specialist, you will be responsible for:

• Managing a clinical caseload with autonomy, working without direct supervision
• Undertaking comprehensive physiotherapy assessment, providing a therapeutic diagnosis, and implementing agreed treatment plans
• Providing individual or group therapy as appropriate to the setting
• Implementing monitoring and evaluation of treatment to measure progress and outcomes
• Developing programmes of care to support discharge from service
• Being responsible for equipment used in carrying out clinical duties and adhering to policy
• Recording, maintaining, and storing accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date documentation
• Communicating outcomes of assessments/intervention to appropriate disciplines
• Arranging appointments, working closely with the MDT, and attending case reviews/case conferences/variety of MDT internal and external meetings/forums
• Contributing to the safeguarding of our Service users/families as appropriate
• Assessing capacity, gaining valid informed consent, and working within a legal framework with service users
• Being professional and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of your own work
• Maintaining professional registration with HCPC
• Working within organisation, HCPC, and CSP guidelines
• Having a working knowledge of national and local standards and monitoring own and others' quality of practice against these
• Working as part of a team to ensure effective communication and delivery of care
• Providing and receiving sensitive information about service users from the service user, carer, and other professionals
• Working in an empathic manner in partnership with service users, carers, and families, where there are barriers to understanding and differences in the way the service user communicates
• Communicating effectively with service users and carers/relatives to progress specific rehabilitation and treatment programme
• Using appropriate communication skills to overcome significant barriers to acceptance of sensitive information

Leadership and Management

As a Physiotherapist Specialist, you will be responsible for:

• Communicating effectively with a range of professionals both within the organisation and with external agencies
• Providing information to assist planning and development of the service
• Assisting the Managers in achieving the departmental objectives and supporting an open style of leadership
• Actively participating in the professional development programme of the therapy service
• Providing spontaneous and planned advice, teaching, and instruction to relatives, carers, and other professionals
• Being involved in the daily management of workload allocation within the specialist area
• Participating in the operational planning and implementation of policy and service development within your team, leading on delegated projects
• Undertaking any other duties that might be considered appropriate by senior staff and deputising in their absence as required
• Being aware of the financial impact of clinical decisions
• Supporting therapy team in ensuring adequate levels of stock are available as required in line with your organisation's stock management policy

Education

As a Physiotherapist Specialist, you will be responsible for:

• Organising and leading in-service training programmes for Band 5 Therapists and Assistants under the guidance of Band 7 staff when required
• Critically evaluating current research and applying to practice
• Demonstrating an understanding and application of national guidelines and legislation relating to health and social care and their impact on service provision
• Training, supervising, and supporting less experienced therapy staff, therapy assistants, and students
• Maintaining own competency to practice, through participation in internal and external development opportunities evidenced by a professional portfolio for Continuing Professional Development
• Demonstrating acquired specialist skills and knowledge of professional practice in order to maintain fitness to practice as a Physiotherapist
• Working within organisation and department policies and complying with HCPC Code of Conduct
• Keeping up to date with all mandatory training requirements within the organisation
• Participating in the evaluation of clinical practice and disseminating across relevant areas

Research, Audit, and Governance

As a Physiotherapist Specialist, you will be responsible for:

• Undertaking the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidence-based practice projects, audit, and outcome measures
• Providing representation at local meetings/specific interest groups and attendance at national meetings, under guidance of more experienced staff
• Undertaking audit and contributing to regional/national level as appropriate
• Supporting research activity with the service
• Disseminating findings from audit and evaluation results to relevant areas

Person Specification

We are looking for a Physiotherapist Specialist with:

• Degree in physiotherapy
• HCPC registered
• CSP registered (desirable)
• Previous experience of working in the NHS
• Experience of working in a community setting
• Completion of band 5 rotation (desirable)
• Student educator or experience of having students (desirable)
• Experience of audits (desirable)
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Good IT skills (desirable)

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