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Occupational Therapist

Employer
Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Location
London
Salary
£42,471 to £50,364 per annum inclusive of HCAS
Closing date
13 Aug 2024
View more categoriesView less categories
Profession
Occupational therapist
Grade
Band 6
Contract Type
Permanent
Hours
Full Time
We are a multi-disciplinary team providing community rehabilitation to people with neurological conditions in Islington. We are a dynamic team that enjoy working together to establish a highly responsive and effective service.

You will have a strong clinical grounding in a variety of occupational therapy settings as a post graduate, including experience working with clients that have neurological impairment. You will be a team player with proven clinical and interpersonal skills as well as strong organisational ability and a commitment to service and staff development. You will also demonstrate a strong commitment to a person centred approach.

In return we will offer you:

Excellent management support and clinical supervision

Strong multi-disciplinary team support

Professional development

Development of service improvement skills

To have an informal discussion about the role and the team, please contact Clarita Saint Jean - clara.saintjean@nhs.net.

Main duties of the job

Please see the Job Description and the Persons Specification for further details about the job role. If you are unable to access the PDF, the details of the job description can also be found in the 'Detailed Job Description and Main responsibilities' section.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job description

Job responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES

Clinical

To be professionally and legally accountable for all work undertaken. To work within the standards and guidelines of the team, the Trust, BAOT, HPC and COT code of ethics.

To ensure that the client and or their carer understands treatment protocols and gives informed consent to assessment and treatment.

To undertake specialist occupational therapy assessment of clients with diverse needs through subjective questioning, objective assessment, and other written material available.

To prioritise factors involved in the clients presenting condition through clinical reasoning based on knowledge of current professional opinion, clients prognosis and other physical, social emotional and mental health issues.

To set goals for treatment with clients and/or their carer and ensure that care is client centred and agreed by the client and/or their carer.

To ensure a high standard of clinical practice using evidence-based practice, standardised assessment, outcome measures and national/local clinical guidelines.

To independently screen and assess complex multi-disciplinary referrals for therapy input. This screening requires individual responsible action when at times no other professional is currently involved. This screening will establish priority, determine needs, and initiate a plan of intervention.

To act as a lead assessor for multidisciplinary initial assessments, supported by Senior Therapy staff. Acting as a representative of the team and asking probing questions on behalf of other professionals within the team.

To manage a caseload of clients with simple to complex needs with supervision and guidance as necessary from senior staff. To successfully monitor, evaluate and review occupational therapy treatment/interventions within a multi-disciplinary framework and to modify as necessary taking a key worker role as indicated.

Develop and conduct Occupational Therapy intervention with clients assessing their occupational needs and addressing quality of life, and physical, cognitive, affective, social, and environmental issues utilising appropriate individual or group treatment methods.

To use developed physical skills in client interventions, such as upper limb rehabilitation, activities of daily living, splint fabrication/orthoses (hand splints).

To devise and manage a treatment plan individual to a clients presenting condition through, for example, the use of functional rehabilitation, adaptation, equipment provision, education, and health promotion.

To modify the clients occupational therapy treatment/management plan as appropriate following ongoing re-assessment and evaluation of progress.

To ensure that the client/carer understands the clinical reasoning process and the management plan.

To work autonomously in isolated community situations which vary in relation to local socio-economic and multi-cultural issues with telephone support available if required.

To use knowledge of other multi-disciplinary roles and external agencies to ensure effective referral management and achieve best client care.

To have the ability, knowledge and skills required for moving and handling people in community environments.

To be physically able to install specialist occupational therapy equipment in client homes always applying safe manual handling, especially when doing so in restricted spaces

To ensure that client and service records are recorded and maintained on IT databases and that client documentation is accurate, contemporaneous and is according to trust and local policies.

To prescribe, delegate and monitor the work of rehabilitation assistants and counter sign documentation.

To educate and teach the relevant carers/health workers to participate in on-going rehabilitation care programmes for clients, as appropriate.

To actively be involved in the development of new specialist clinical services within the Team, with support and guidance from Senior OT staff.

To manage clinical risk in own caseload and ensure that rehabilitation assistants and students comply e.g., manual handling risk assessment and local policy regarding lone working.

Management

To ensure that accurate and evaluative records of client care and OT statistics are maintained in accordance with the service policy.

To input and retrieve computerised information.

To manage a clinical caseload supported by senior staff.

To participate in the individual performance review and appraisal system.

To provide supervision, annual appraisal, and monitoring of the clinical and administrative work of rehabilitation assistants and students, including informal day to day support, with support from senior staff.

To be responsible for the safe use of all equipment and to ensure that all equipment defects, accidents, and complaints are reported to the Team Leader immediately.

To comply with the Whittington Health Trust policies and procedures, and the Health and Safety at Work Act.

To participate in the collection of accurate statistics and audit programmes as required by the Service for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

To participate in the induction of new staff members.

To attend, actively participate in and as required initiate and lead multi-disciplinary meetings and case conferences.

To attend Occupational Therapy staff meeting and other relevant meetings.

To manage own diary in respect of the teams priorities e.g., case load, in-service training, supervision, and meetings.

To be involved in the implementation of the teams clinical governance plan.

To contribute to the efficient, day to day running, of the team

Professional

To keep up to date with occupational therapy clinicalpractice through CPD activities and maintain a personal development portfolio

To develop a knowledge base in rehabilitation, assessment, clinical reasoning and management skills

Undertake an evidence-based project and present findings to the Team for discussion and possible implementation of change.

To evaluate your practice through audit and outcome measures, with support of more senior occupational therapists when required.

To be actively involved in the occupational therapy service clinical groups, BAOT/RCOT Clinical Interest Groups and other professional developments.

To access library services, medical databases and the Intranet to further develop clinical practice and service initiatives.

To develop links and communicate with other members of the multidisciplinary team.

To be aware of Trust and RCOT guidelines relevant to community rehabilitation

Communication

To use a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication skills to ensure that the client and/or their carer understands the relevant advice and education given. This includes clients who have a non English speaking background, those with interpreting requirements, a hearing impairment, altered emotional states, a cognitive/learning/behavioural disability, not understanding or accepting a clinical decision based on sound reasoning, or with communication deficits.

To communicate sensitive information in an understandable form to patients and their carers and enable client's co-operation in treatment. Part of this process must reflect on ensuring the client and/or their carer understands the clinical reasoning process and the management plan and gives informed consent to intervention.

To communicate closely with colleagues on all matters related to client care, service organisation and delivery.

To attend and actively participate in any relevant meetings and conferences as required.

To provide specialist mediating and negotiating skills in situations where communication has broken down and assist in managing conflict with support from senior colleagues.

To establish and maintain lines of communication within the Team, with service users and with acute, and community services/agencies, including voluntary services.

To produce client reports and discharge summaries for G.P.s, social workers, and referrers and to provide copies to clients following agreement.

To comply with the Trust and operational policy on all documentation.

Education

To utilise opportunities to develop skills and knowledge, apply critical appraisal and keep up to date with current practice in the field and attend accredited courses.

To participate in the in-service training, post registration training, lectures, and education programmes to other OT`s, other disciplines and to visitors to the department.

To act as professional practice educator for occupational therapy students.

To participate in education programmes for client groups.

To actively participate in health promotion and health education initiatives within the locality and in the community directorate.

To comply with all mandatory training requirements

Research and Development

To participate in the evaluation of clinical practice .

To keep up to date in the development of research and clinical practice in the field of community OT, rehabilitation, and related areas.

Other

To maintain and develop specific departmental duties as designated by the senior OT/Service manager.

To undertake any other duties that may be allocated.

To make use of various forms of transport (public, bicycle, walking, pool car, and taxi) as appropriate to visit clients in their preferred environment eg home, work place, residential home, and resource centres.

Person Specification

Qualifications/Education

Essential

  • BSc (OT) or equivalent
  • State registration with HPC
  • Post Registration courses e.g. Normal Movement Counselling Neurology Care of Older People Postural management


Desirable

  • Post-Graduate degree


Knowledge and Experience

Essential

  • Strong concept of the OT role within community neurological rehabilitation
  • Knowledge of up-to-date evidence-based practice, including a variety of neurological assessment and treatment approaches
  • Demonstrates an insight into the problems of disability and its effects
  • Supervision of: Students, Assistants
  • Experience of participating in supervision and appraisal
  • Ability and experience in applying physical skills and effort in the treatment of clients with complex disabilities in their own homes/community setting


Desirable

  • Participation in audit/service improvement project/research
  • Teaching of: Junior Staff, Students, Other Disciplines, Carers.


Skills and Abilities

Essential

  • Fluent written and spoken English
  • Involvement with Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork
  • Skilled in assessment and treatment planning
  • Demonstrates good clinical reasoning skills
  • Ability to self motivate and take initiative
  • Ability to apply a client centred approach
  • Ability to prioritise and problem solve


Desirable

  • Able to work autonomously as a lone worker


Personal Qualities

Essential

  • Self motivated
  • Personally and professionally responsible


Desirable

  • Flexible approach to changing circumstances and departmental needs


Other

Essential

  • Member of RCOT


Employer details

Employer name

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust

Address

Islington Outlook Centre

133 St John's Way

London

N19 3RQ

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

220-WHT-2434

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