Occupational Therapist

Job overview

At East Lancashire NHS Foundation Trust we believe in delivering an excellent rehabilitation service in our rehab wards in the community hospital wards. We are looking to recruit an Occupational Therapist within the Community Therapy Services to work on the rehab wards at Burnley General Hospital.

Are you a dynamic Occupational Therapist who would like to contribute to an integrated Physio and Occupational Therapy service, working alongside a well led multi disciplinary team. You will be responsible for a caseload on the community rehab wards, and will be pivotal in assessment and treatment of patients and discharge home.

We will support you to develop your quality improvement skills and student supervision skills along with supporting your career development.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of this dynamic team. You will be well supported and encouraged to continuously develop your clinical and leadership skills through supervision and internal/ external training opportunities, to meet the needs of yourself and the service.

We work across 6 days currently, with Saturday on a rota basis.

If you are interested in this role please contact us for more information.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will have continuing responsibility for the management of a defined caseload of patients that require specialist therapy skills, with patients presenting with a variety of needs, such as chronic, complex, disabling, life limiting or challenging conditions. The primary function of the role is to provide proactive, responsive services to maximise independence and recovery of the patients within the defined caseload.

The post holder will practice autonomously and demonstrate evidence based clinical decision making.

The post holder will be responsible for providing specialist therapy advice to other multi agency professionals, junior staff and therapy students.

The post holder will have responsibility for monitoring, organising and supervising junior members of the therapy service plus support staff and students.

The work will take place on the community hospital wards

You will manage your own caseload as well as having the opportunity to lead and support junior members of the team including student training.

Working for our organisation

As an enthusiastic and dynamic senior Occupational Therapist you will be supported to develop your enterprise initiatives and lead on quality improvements for the integrated service while utilising your leadership skills to support the team and collaborate with community colleagues across divisions.

You will be joining one of our Community Ward Integrated Therapy Teams which consist of occupational therapists, physiotherapists and support staff who work in collaboration as a MDT, to provide assessment, treatment and discharge planning for our patients across our community wards.

The Integrated Therapy teams are part of a wide range of AHP services in ELHT. Staff are supported by the use of clinical skills matrix and training needs analysis which build individualised development plans. We offer comprehensive informal and formal supervision as well as access to ‘best practice’ designed care pathways.

The successful candidate will be expected to work flexibly across the East Lancashire footprint to meet service needs but the current vacancy is in the Burnley General Team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. Undertake a comprehensive therapy assessment at a specialist level with
patients, allocated to your caseload. This may involve the selection and
application of standardised and non-standardised assessments.

2. Interpret and analyse clinical and non-clinical factors (including physical,
environmental, psychosocial, mental, spiritual, political and cultural aspects of the patients life) in order to identify and provide specialist advice and intervention for the facilitation of optimum levels of functioning. This will require the post holder to consider a range of options, some of which may conflict and require negotiation, having to consider the needs of individuals, families and carers.

3. Formulate goals in partnership with the patient, carers and family, clearly
communicating clinical reasoning, in order to justify recommendations and
utilising most appropriate treatment/intervention for the patients’ needs and to maximise independence

4. Implement a variety of evidence based therapy interventions to a specialist level according to the needs of the individual patient.

5. Evaluate and modify the treatment programme as appropriate.

6. Independently manage a varied and complex caseload on a day to day basis, organising your time effectively and efficiently with regards to clinical priorities ensuring good use of skills within the team by delegating and allocating work to junior and support staff as appropriate.

7. Advise, support and educate patients, carers and other professionals in the selfmanagement of a patient’s condition.

8. Initiate and organise case reviews involving multi-disciplinary and multi agency staff. The post holder may be required to take the key worker role.

9. Develop, maintain and demonstrate specialist clinical skills related to clinical area, which are underpinned by theory, research and practical experience.

10.Be responsible for assessing and recommending both minor and major
adaptations/environmental modifications, seeking advice from senior staff when necessary. This will require a good working knowledge of the process of eligibility for specialist equipment and disabled facilities grants and being able to explain the process to others.

11.Assess for and provide standard and specialist assistive technology for patients in accordance with local criteria and pathways for provision.

12.Advise, instruct and educate patients, carers and other professionals in the use of standard and specialist assistive technology and environmental adaptation where appropriate.

13.Undertake and document risk assessments and manage the risk.

14.Work as an autonomous practitioner in a variety of settings (wards, clinics, patients own home, care home, hospital etc) where there is a requirement to make decisions spontaneously.

15.Work across agencies and have a working knowledge and understanding of the systems within Health, Housing, and Social Services in order to facilitate the recommendation of treatment approach, equipment, access and adaptation issues.

16.Record patient contact statistics.

17.Delegate, monitor, organise and supervise the work of junior and support staff as appropriate.

18.Deputise for senior staff in the day to day running of the department as required.

19.Maintain treatment areas and equipment used to an appropriate standard in accordance with health and safety, infection control and other relevant guidance.

20.Attend local Neighbourhood Team meetings as required to support development and delivery of joint care plans.

21.Work collaboratively with colleagues in Acute Therapies to facilitate hospital discharge and inform development of discharge planning from admission with patients who are known to the Community Integrated Therapy Service.

Person specification Qualifications Essential criteria

• Profession specific Diploma/degree in Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy
• Health Professions Council Registration
• Evidence of CPD maintained in a portfolio including attendance at recent postgraduate courses relevant to the clinical fields in rotations.
• Membership of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy/ Royal College of Occupational Therapy

Desirable criteria

• Involvement in Special Clinical Interest Group

Experience Essential criteria

• Extensive post graduate therapy experience to include community and rehab.
• Post graduate training in relevant clinical areas
• Experience of delivering training to colleagues in health and/or other agencies.
• Experience of working in an integrated therapy or multi professional MDT
• Experience of therapy student and/or support staff supervision
• Contribution to clinical education of less experienced staff/students/assistants
• Experience of working with patients with dementing illness, confused patients and patients with severe physical limitations to mobility/neurological deficit

Knowledge and Skills Essential criteria

• Knowledge of relevant current legislation
• Ability to manage risk in relationship to patient care
• Able to use a variety of Assessments/interventions
• Able to demonstrate skills in advanced clinical reasoning
• Appraisal skills
• Supervision skills
• Advanced communication skills
• Individual and group treatment skills
• Basic knowledge of the principles of clinical governance
• Workload management skills
• Ability to reflect and critically appraise own performance.
• Knowledge of the workings of community services and intermediate care services
• Research skills
• Knowledge of the application of Occupational Therapy/Physiotherapy treatment techniques
• Numerate
• Knowledge of a wide variety of assistive technology and environmental modification
• Effective teaching and presentation skills.
• Able to carry out moderate to intense physical effort throughout the working day and carry out concurrent activities.

Desirable criteria

• Involvement in audit, research and understanding quality issues.

Personal Attributes Essential criteria

• oAbility to work alone as well as part of a team
• oExcellent problem solving skills
• oAble to work in a pressurised, unpredictable environment, with a proven ability to multitask
• oFlexible to a variety of work demands/environments

Other Essential criteria

• oCommitment to lifelong learning
• oCar driver and has access to a car to provide a service as required in a variety of community settings across East Lancashire NHS Trust

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