We are excited to announce an opportunity for a Senior Occupational Therapist (OT) to join our Frailty Service at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Our OT service is recognised for its high quality patient care and we pride ourselves in our passion for OT and always strive to Think OT, Do OT, Be OT.

The Geriatric Emergency Medicine(GEMs) team are based at WRH and the OT service plays a key role in its function. This post is instrumental in driving discharges, evidencing critical thinking around risk management and maintaining links with our community partners.

You will be part of a new and expanding team and will be supported by 2 Clinical Specialist OTs as well as be working and developed by a Strategic Clinical Lead for GEMS. Your clinical portfolio will be focused on the urgent care footprint, frailty wards and also community outreach to support patients in their homes.

We are looking for OTs who can demonstrate a Patient Centred approach to care, sound clinical knowledge and management of a variety of conditions underpinned by evidence based assessment. You should be self-motivated with excellent communication skills and the ability to work autonomously.

This opportunity will develop your clinical portfolio in the following ways:

1. Mental Capacity Assessment & Management

2. Dementia and Delirium assessment & management

3. Complex Discharge planning

4. Highly specialist safe manual handling

5. Palliative and End of Life

6. Risk management in the community

Main duties of the job

This role supports our vision of a highly experienced, dynamic & flexible workforce. It would be suited to an experienced B5 or existing B6 with a varied portfolio including complex discharge planning, cognition, mental capacity and admission avoidance.

The post comes at a time when we are focusing on modernising our OT practice and approach in the Acute setting to support early intervention and provide acute rehabilitation to avoid deconditioning & Hospital Acquired Functional Decline by empowering and supporting people to manage their conditions and by utilising Discharge to Assess pathways to support the Home First approach.

You will be part of an experienced and skilled workforce consisting of Band 8A Strategic Clinical Lead OT for GEMS, Band 7 Clinical Specialist OT, B6 Senior OTs, Band 5 rotational OTs and B4 Senior OT Assistants / Assistant Practitioners. The OT Frailty team is committed to providing evidence-based, innovative practice, bringing an Occupational Focus into the centre of our clinical intervention whilst remaining patient focussed and being mindful of asking our patients to think What Matters to the Me.

You will be supporting the OT service to provide assessment, intervention and discharge planning to our often complex frailty patients within our inpatient wards and also to our Front door services to support admission avoidance.

This post includes Bank Holiday Working and may include 7 day working in the future.

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is nearly 6,800 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

• Best services for local people
• Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
• Best use of resources
• Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Occupational Therapy Manager, Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialists, All members of the Occupational Therapy Team, Physiotherapy.

External: Community colleagues both within Occupational Therapy and in other professions, Consultants from the employing Trust, GPs, Nursing staff, Social Workers, Relatives/carers, Voluntary and statutory agencies, Onward Care team.
Risk Assessment:
This post involves the frequent manual handling activities within the workplace including patient handling such as hoisting, pushing/moving wheelchairs, positioning patients for treatment and to encourage function, static stooping and limb holding.

It includes assisting patients with standing, walking and transferring between bed, chair, wheelchair, toilet, and bath/shower. The above manual handling activities may be carried out within the patients home environment, frequently in less than ideal circumstances.

On occasions the post holder will be required to lone work within the patients home environment which will include manual handling including the delivery and fitting of equipment.

Physical effort is required to ensure patient and staff safety mobilising or transfers, this frequently includes the handling and transportation of patient related equipment in and out of a vehicle, commodes, toilet frames, wheelchairs etc. and the moving and raising of furniture and equipment within the patients home environment.

The ability to safely use a variety of tools may be required.

A high level of clinical analysis is required to ensure the safety of self, patients and other staff.

Frequent close contact with patients therefore exposes the post holder to infection, bodily fluid e.g. sputum, urine, faeces, blood or vomit and a high awareness of infection control safety is required.

The post holder will be involved in and may need to instigate difficult discussions with patients and carers under difficult circumstances following a life changing event or illness. This will be around a patients functional ability and be around their prospects of returning to home, work or some life skills e.g. driving.

All qualified staff will be required to take therapeutic risks during the assessment and treatment of patients, both in the hospital and the patients home environment as required, to ensure accurate assessment of a patients functional ability and safety levels.

There is a need for prolonged concentration and involvement in emotionally stressful situations, e.g. terminally ill patients or those with poor recovery or functional prognosis. This will include occasional contact with patients and/or carers who are aggressive or abusive.

Job Purpose:

To provide Occupational Therapy assessment, treatment and discharge planning to frailty patients within the acute hospital service requiring ongoing assessment and rehabilitation within the hospital setting with a view to discharging to the patients home environment wherever possible.

The work will be carried out either in the ward inpatient setting or within the emergency Departments.

The ward ethos is to provide ongoing rehabilitation for patients and you will tailor the Occupational therapy to enable patients to improve functional skills and therefore require less community services upon discharge. The ward is a mixture of diagnoses and complex discharging and rehabilitation skills are required.

The Frailty teams ethos is to assess and discharge patients back to the home environment whenever possible, referring to community services or signposting to services as appropriate.

To provide guidance and supervision to less experienced staff and students.

To take a proactive role within the Occupational Therapy team within your base hospital, with the ability to provide advice or cover on other Trust sites as required.

To liaise with senior Occupational Therapists to ensure the smooth and effective running of the Occupational Therapy service at an operational level on a daily basis.

You will gain mentorship and support from the Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist for frailty.

Key Duties:

To hold an active caseload within the GEMs service in the Worcester Royal Hospital Worcester.

This will include the ongoing assessment and treatment of inpatients and providing advice and guidance for less experience staff.

To provide advice/mentorship for bands 5 Occupational Therapists, assistants and students carrying an acute caseload, with emphasis on but not exclusive to, frailty.

To allocate the caseload according to priority whether clinical or expected date of discharge and to effect timely assessment and rehabilitation.

To be actively involved in both direct and indirect supervision and teaching of junior staff.

To ensure that the Occupational Therapy service to patients trust wide maintains high professional standards, using evidence based assessment whenever possible.

To liaise regularly with other agencies/professions as shown under key working relationships.

To attend and contribute to relevant meetings both clinical and managerial, providing accurate verbal or written reporting as appropriate.

To ensure all equipment or written documentation is provided in a timely manner to facilitate patient safety.

To carry out assessment and treatment programmes for patients this may include the administration and interpretation of standardised assessments.

To ensure that all documentation and data regarding patient care is completed in accordance with local and Royal College of Occupational Therapy standards.

To be able to safely and effectively undertake the manual handling aspects of the role. This may include loading/unloading and transportation and fitting of equipment. This will include lifting items up/down, pushing, pulling, stooping and bending. The use, handling and safety of hand tools and thermoplastics may also be required.

To undertake any other duties commensurate with the level/expertise of the post to ensure the smooth running of the Occupational Therapy service, this will include the treatment of patients on the wards, within the department or within the patients home environment.

To be involved, as required, in the education of colleagues and students. To be a Practice Educator and train Occupational Therapy students regularly.

To ensure your professional/clinical knowledge is kept updated and attend appropriate training, demonstrating continued professional development and competency and encourage evidence based practice where appropriate.

To participate in projects or audit, via the Occupational Therapy Clinical Governance group as required.

To apply national guidelines to the clinical setting.

To take an active role in the maintenance of professional standards and the provision of a quality service using resources responsibly.

To work in liaison with the Occupational Therapy manager, Strategic Clinical Lead OT and the Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist to implement any agreed changes to service provision.

To be actively involved in the recruitment of staffing within Occupational Therapy across the Trust as required.

To ensure safe working practice by adherence to Trust wide policies and procedures.

To comply with the Health and Care Professions Council registration requirements and maintain active HCPC registration, and work to the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Standards of Professional Practice.

To be able to travel and work countywide in support of the Occupational Therapy Service including service provision on Bank Holidays(across all inpatient areas) and working flexibly around core service hours.

*To have the potential to work extended hours 08:00am-20:00pm on a shift basis across 7 days.

Vision and Values:

The Trust aims to provide local services for local people. It has developed its vision to reflect this commitment.

To continue to be the major provider of acute/specialist services for the people of Worcestershire (and wider) with a strong reputation for providing outstanding, high quality, reliable, accessible and integrated healthcare for local people

Driving this commitment are the Trust-wide signature behaviours:

Do what we say we will do

No Delays, every day

We listen, we learn, we lead

Work together, celebrate together

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Diploma/Degree in Occupational Therapy
• HCPC Registered
• Practice educator

Desirable

• Experience of post graduate training in medicine, surgery or elderly care
  Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.
  
  C9365-23-1156