Would you like to enhance your specialist skills with acute adult in-patients, in a service with a wide range of development opportunities as part of a supportive SLT team based at Salisbury District Hospital? This fixed term post is to cover a maternity leave until August 2025, although opportunities to extend the contract may arise. This post can be tailored to either a current Band 6 Specialist SLTs looking to extend skills and experience, or can be adapted to an experienced Band 5 SLT who has experience working in an NHS adult setting.

Qualifications required include a degree in Speech & Language Therapy, and ideally postgraduate training (or qualification) in adult dysphagia. Registration with the Health & Care Professions Council. Membership of the Royal College of SLT is desirable.

Postgraduate experience includes autonomous assessment, diagnosis and treatment of adults with swallowing and communication impairments from a wide range of acquired neurological conditions, ideally in an in-patient setting. It would be desirable but not essential for the candidate to have had experience of instrumental dysphagia assessments and treatments, particularly FEES, planning and delivering training courses to other professionals, and undertaking clinical audit. The applicants must flexible, be able to use initiative well, have effective caseload management and good clinical decision-making skills.

Main duties of the job

Work would be across a range of 18 acute wards and units (general medical, surgical, & elderly), with responsibility to manage patient assessment & treatment decisions, and ensure excellent liaison with SLT and MDT colleagues.

You would contribute to the development of the SLT team, including student supervision, NQP supervision, and in house CPD. You would be involved in wider hospital initiatives such as improving MDT working in specific areas (e.g. on the new elderly ward, in-patient PD or Stroke, mouthcare, and SLT Link Nurse recruitment and training) as well as being involved in training a wide range of hospital staff in communication and swallowing.

The SLT team embraces new ways of working and has worked hard to be at the forefront of helpful and emerging technology. Therefore our patients have good access to a range of instrumental dysphagia investigations for swallow assessments and instrumental devices for treatment. For patients with communication disorders, we have a broad range of computer based therapy available, and quick access to unlimited AAC.

We feel strongly that it is important to provide our SLT team members with as much training and development as we can and as needed, and as a small team we meet often. We thrive on an ethos of sharing our learning, being supportive to each other, and being helpful and flexible at work when needed.

About us

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust (SFT) is an innovative hospital with a proud heritage and over 250 years of experience behind us. Here we're driven to deliver an outstanding experience for everyone and have been well regarded for the quality of care and treatment we continue to provide for our patients and also our staff.

We are an acute Trust, rated Good by the CQC, with a track record of high performance providing regional and super regional specialist services such as: Burns, Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery, Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory, Wessex Rehabilitation, Spires Cleft Centre and the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre. We have about 470 beds and employ over 4000 staff.

We support flexible working and will consider requests taking into account the needs of the service. We think working here is pretty rewarding. You can access a range of NHS discounts, receive a minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rata), and we offer a generous pension scheme. On-site benefits include car parking (fee applies), leisure centre, day nursery and holiday play scheme.

Salisbury is an attractive place to live and work and really gives you the best of everything. With easy access to London and local airports, the city of Southampton is only a short train or car journey away or if you prefer the sea, Bournemouth is also accessible. Don't just take our word for it, why not explore what Salisbury has to offer by visiting www.experiencesalisbury.co.uk

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please find the attached job description and main responsibilities for your kind perusal. Also, please go through the person specification for this job.

The hours available are 37.5 hours per week. Applicants wanting less part time hours per week are welcome to apply, but priority will be given to ensure service provision. Recently qualified applicants seeking a Band 5 role are also welcome to apply, but priority will be given to those with the relevant experience to undertake the role independently.

Person Specification

Clinical Experience

Essential

• Several years working as qualified SLT working independently with adult patients
• Competency in and experience of independently assessing and treating adult dysphagia
• Experience of assessing and treating adults with acquired communication disorders
• Experience of a wide range of adult acquired neurological disorders
• Experience of working well with other professionals on acute wards
• Experience of instrumental assessment in dysphagia
• Experience of working in an NHS adult setting

Desirable

• Understanding demands of working in a busy acute setting
• Demonstrating EBP and effective treatment
• Experience of providing training to other SLTs and Health Care colleagues

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree in Speech & Language Therapy
• Postgraduate qualification in adult dysphagia
• Registration with HCPC
• High standard of spoken and written English language
• Postgraduate training in instrumental dysphagia assessments

Desirable

• Postgraduate training in adult acquired & acute disorders
• Postgraduate training in instrumental and computer-based treatments
• Member of RCSLT

Clinical Decision Making

Essential

• Able to manage own caseload effectively
• Able to make decisions in complex cases

Employer details

Employer name

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Salisbury District Hospital

Odstock Road

Salisbury

SP2 8BJ

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

269-SFT8375-A