Senior Practitioner Psychologist

Detailed job description

and main responsibilities

Clinical Care

Provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and culturally appropriate interventions for RHRU patients and if required, their significant others, including neuropsychological assessment and intervention, and specialist assessment of patients in prolonged disorders of consciousness. Exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the assessment, intervention and discharge of patients. Use autonomous judgement in relation to all professional practice, taking responsibility for one’s own practice. Provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families as required. Assess and monitor risk, and develop appropriate risk management plans. As required, act as a keyworker taking responsibility for initiating, planning and reviewing psychosocial care plans and as required, co-ordinating multidisciplinary meetings with professionals from within and outside of LNWH. Utilise formulation skills to provide psychological hypotheses at different levels of practice (individual, family, group and system). As appropriate, share these formulations with the wider MDT in an accessible and helpful format.

Team or Service Functioning

Contribute to the effective working of the RHRUand to provide a psychologically informed framework for the wider RHRU team. As required, act as a keyworker, collaborating with MDT colleagues to ensure that care plans are developed, implemented and updated. Where direct clinical work is not indicated, guide and support colleagues from other disciplines (e.g., AHPs, nursing, medicine) to conduct assessments, co-construct formulations and deliver/monitor/refine psychologically informed interventions. Contribute to the Service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities. Be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development and delivery of inclusive and culturally competent services. Liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with patient care in order to develop and review care plans. Advise other members of the MDT on specialist psychological care of patients and their significant others. Utilise theory and evidence-based literature to support service level formulation and intervention. Be familiar with and adhere to the RHRU’s operational policy, highlighting issues that may detract from achieving Key Performance Indictors (KPIs), and contributing to regular reviews. Promptly implement management requests to deviate from normal working practices when variations in capacity (e.g., extended staff absence) and/or demand (e.g., increased volume of referrals) occur. Model reliability and punctuality. With the exception of unpredictable clinical emergencies, scheduling activities in a realistic fashion based on experience of the acute setting, and its culture. Sensitively promoting an understanding that consistency and predictability are important components of psychological safety. Develop and maintain a good working knowledge of clinical and operational structures/processes/developments within the wider healthcare team/service. Highlight concerns relating to staff wellbeing. Work within Trust and PSN guidelines, to contribute to staff support activities whilst maintaining appropriate boundaries (e.g., not providing formal 1-2-1 support to colleagues) and liaising with Occupational Health Psychology as appropriate.

Policy and Service Development

Implement policies, procedures and standards in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes. Contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities. Contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in project work as directed by the service lead.

Care or Management of Resources

Take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources. Ensure that oneself has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

Management and Supervision

Be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of less senior psychologists (pre and post accreditation) with support from a more senior psychologist. Supervise trainee psychologists within own area of specialism. Contribute to the appraisal of less senior psychologists as appropriate. Contribute to the recruitment of less senior psychologists as appropriate. Provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate. As required, contribute to out-of-speciality PSN supervision.

Teaching and Training

Disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles. Undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post-qualification psychologists and specialist training to other professions as appropriate. As required, provide specialist clinical placements for trainee practitioner psychologists and where appropriate, trainees/students from other psychological professions (e.g., counselling). Contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the RHRUby maintaining an active awareness of current developments in applied psychology and neurorehabilitation as a medical/surgical specialty and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

Record-keeping and Information Governance

Ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded in a timely fashion as required by Trust policies, local and PSN procedures/standards. Maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional, PSN and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

Research and Development

Initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits. Initiate and carry out appropriate research. Provide expertise in a specialist research area contributing to the advancement of neuropsychological assessment and intervention approaches within acquired brain injury rehabilitation. Initiate and collaborate in the development and implementation of assessment and outcome measures, and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

Maintaining Professional Standards and Continuing Professional Development

Receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and PSN guidelines. Self-reflect in response to distressing or concerning circumstances and when needed, seek ‘ad hoc’ support and advice from clinical supervisor as part of good self-care. Ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘Standards for Continuing Professional Development’. Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies. Comply with the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these. Adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines, Trust policies/procedures and adhere to PSN practice standards. Model self-reflection and the ability to incorporate this understanding when formulating and intervening at the individual, interpersonal and system level. Represent Psychology in a positive and professional manner at all times during interagency, multi-professional and external forums, networks and conferences. Actively engage with ongoing developments in information technology that can or could enhance clinical, service and professional activities. Identify relevant personal development needs in relation to information technology and agree appropriate educational plans with line management.

General

Participate in Trust/sector wide activities, reporting to the Head of Psychological Services, up to an annualised 5% of contracted working hours. With the exception of clinical emergencies, giving this work equal priority to all other aspects of the role. Travel to all LNWH hospital sites when required. Be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow Trust policies relating to its management. Respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situationsand to support others involved in such situations. In exceptional circumstances (e.g., emergencies, significant incidents or public health crises) prioritise requests from the Head of PSN to contribute to Trust-wide clinical activities, supporting staff, patients or families. Actively network and liaise with other psychological specialists, locally and nationally, to maintain a good understanding of pathways, best practice and relevant clinical/service guidance.

Person specification

Education/ qualifications

Essential criteria

Education/ qualifications

Desirable criteria

Education/ qualifications

Knowledge & experience

Essential criteria

Knowledge & experience

Desirable criteria

Knowledge & experience

Skills, abilities and attributes

Essential criteria

Skills, abilities and attributes

Desirable criteria

Skills, abilities and attributes

HEART values

Essential criteria

HEART values

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