We are looking for an enthusiastic Principal Practitioner Psychologist to become part of an established psychology team within the Dental Hospital at King's College Hospital (KCH).

The successful post holder will support and develop the delivery of integrated psychological care pathways in dental and orofacial services at KCH.

The post holder will work with psychology colleagues and in multidisciplinary teams in Denmark Hill and Queen Mary Hospital, Sidcup.

Main duties of the job

To provide integrated psychology care pathways, particularly in facial pain, orthognathic surgery, in special care and restorative dentistry, functioning as a lead specialist in at least one of these areas.

To assist the clinical lead and take an active role in the development of systematic provision of psychological care for patients and consultation to consultant colleagues in orofacial surgery and dentistry.

To build connections and work with orthognathic and other specialist psychology teams nationally.

To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

To hold a caseload of patients from across dental and orofacial pathways.

To provide clinical supervision, consultation and leadership as appropriate, helping to develop the provision of psychological care in orthographic and restorative dentistry pathways and Queen Mary Hospital.

To take an active role in audit, measurement of outcomes and in sharing these with stakeholders in Dental Hospital Management and the wider adult clinical health psychology network.

To assist in the development of business cases potentially grow the team in order to support a more equitable provision of psychological interventions across KCH dental patients.

About us

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c�1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and around 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King's College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in Bromley.

King's is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone's contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust's carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

The trust-wide strategy Strong Roots, Global Reachis our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we can take Team King's to another level.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

• To maintain, develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of excellent specialist psychological care for patients within the Dental Hospital and to personally provide highly specialist clinical input.
• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, clinical formulations and interventions to dental patients with psychological needs at levels expected of a psychologist who has achieved the equivalent of a PG Diploma-worth of post-qualification specialist development.
• To support in the proactive development and strengthening of care pathways particularly in the development of services at Queen Mary Hospital.
• To build connections and work with other clinicians and senior colleagues and contribute to strategic decisions when clinicians need to respond to complex or urgent situations.
• To work flexibly, including providing psychological input to the dental and orofacial MDTs, provision of outpatient clinics and reviews, where appropriate.
• To provide psychological support to clients who are emotionally distressed, due to the serious consequences of their medical condition, and/or to other traumatic events in their lives.
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively, highly complex and sensitive information with patients, carers, colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team and other health professionals, taking account of sensory and cultural barriers to communication.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To involve patient in the development of clinical services and research where possible.

KR 2 Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning

• To attend multi-disciplinary meetings to ensure effective functioning and review of complex aspects of patient care and service delivery, when appropriate.
• To contribute to the effective working of the dental psychology service and to take a lead in ensuring a psychologically informed framework for the wider service.
• To support in developing the dental psychology teams delivery of accessible, acceptable and high-quality services for patients who have complex needs.
• To support the development of dental staff wellbeing initiatives and to work collaboratively with staff wellbeing colleagues to promote their services where appropriate.
• To develop the team's to deliver accessible and acceptable services in diverse communities served by the dental hospital and to be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To participate in clinical governance initiatives as agreed by the local clinical governance committee and to act as clinical governance link worker, if appropriate.
• To advise other members of the dental hospital in specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

KR 3 Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work.
• To identify any aspects of the service which could be improved and propose changes to practices or procedures that affect the dental psychology team and, where appropriate, to disseminate such changes and improvements to the wider clinical health psychology workforce to inspire and support improvement in other clinical services.
• To initiate and implement service development projects, as agreed with clinical/professional lead.
• To participate in the ongoing implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines) across the dental psychology team and the adult and paediatric clinical health psychology speciality.
• To develop the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of the organisation and the wider community.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trusts equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

• To provide professional and clinical supervision to more junior psychologists and other professionals, as appropriate.
• To deputise when appropriate for the Consultant Clinical Psychologist in dental and if needed in the wider KCH clinical health psychology network.
• To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
• To attend regular team meetings and speciality meetings.
• To help to develop appropriate strategies to ensure the sustainability and consistency of the dental workforce, including the dental psychology team, through reflective practice for example.
• To provide highly specialist psychological consultation and professional and clinical supervision to colleagues and others.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

• To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base of the major trauma psychology team and wider trust by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and major trauma and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Entry-level qualification in Applied Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration
• Additional training to a level commensurate with the post and relevant to the post
• Completed training course in clinical supervision
• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in physical health care
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in physical healthcare.
• Experience of health services research, evaluation and audit, and dissemination through teaching, training and publication.
• Experience of providing teaching and training to psychologists or other professional groups.
• Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training.
• Experience of carrying out post-doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects.
• Experience of proposing and implementing service development projects that impact beyond own service area
• Experience of participation in recruitment
• Record of publications in either peer reviewed, academic or professional journals/books
• Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.
• Experience of working with adults and with adolescents/ young people.

Desirable

• Experience of delivering psychological interventions for anxiety PTSD chronic pain BDD

Knowledge

Essential

• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessment and therapies in physical health
• Knowledge of policy and legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to clients in dental care, mental health, child and adult protection, and equalities.
• Evidence of continuing professional development, as recommended by the BPS and HCPC
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.

Desirable

• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in dental care

Employer details

Employer name

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Kings College Hospital

Denmark Hill

London

SE5 9RS

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

213-CAY-6599212