Heart Therapy Team Assistant Practitioner

An exciting position has arisen to join the Heart Therapy Team at The Royal Brompton Hospital as an assistant practitioner for the Speech Therapy and Dietetics teams.
The post holder will carry out clinical tasks to support the dietetics and speech therapists including speech therapy and dietary reviews, being responsible for the procurement and distribution of dietetic stock.
The post holder will need excellent communication and organisational skills.
The post holder will work as an integral and active part of the Adult Heart Therapy Team. They will be responsible for supporting the Therapy team in the provision of a patient-centred service, in an efficient and cost-effective way.
The post holder will assist in the provision of care to patients, supported and supervised by senior therapists.
The post holder will carry out clinical tasks to support the dietetics, speech therapists and occupational therapists therapy team such as supervision of daily individual rehabilitation and developmental sessions and also speech therapy and dietary reviews, delegated by qualified staff, requiring a wide range of technical ability, as well as an excellent level of interpersonal skills.
The post holder will carry out clinical assessments independently, within their Assistant Practitioner competency framework. They will assist in the initial therapy assessment of referrals to the adult heart therapy team.
They will provide a key role in the management of stable adult in-patients on oral nutritional support and inpatients with food allergy. This will include initial assessment and screening, with regular reassessment and monitoring during the hospital stay. This will also include organising discharge follow-up with local GP and community services.
They will also act as lead for the distribution of dietary products.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals - Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield - as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation. We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark. We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and - as part of King’s Health Partners - we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities. We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.
Patient care objectives
To work as a core member of the Heart Therapy Team.
To work effectively within the Multidisciplinary Team and commit to providing quality care and service development by participating in, and contributing to, quality improvement initiatives.
To perform complex aspects of patient care in the hospital, with direct and indirect supervision such as carrying out daily supervised patient rehabilitation/developmental sessions.
To perform complex aspects of assessment and patient care this may be in the hospital or out-patient clinics.
To use appropriate and safe manual handling techniques with patients requiring neuro rehabilitation and therapeutic facilitation to achieve set goals.
To be responsible for performing given tasks and reporting any concerns to the Specialist Therapists or appropriate member of the clinical team through daily feedback.
To be aware of and adhere to the Trust policies and procedures, including infection control.
The post holder will support the Therapy Team team in managing electronic referrals and liaising with the appropriate senior therapist.
The post holder will accept in-patients referred for oral nutritional support (according to MUST score) and food allergy, and manage these via set protocols as their own caseload.
To treat patients according to relevant allied health professional standards e.g. treat patients according to set dietetic standards and protocols for oral nutritional support and food allergy, monitoring and modifying care plans as required
To be aware of and adhere to local policies and procedures.
To use assessments made during a treatment session, along side patient feedback and liaison with a Specialist/Senior Therapist, to change and progress treatment sessions in the future.
Maintain accurate, comprehensi