Senior Occupational Therapist (Mixed Neuro-Medical Rotation)

Job overview

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has 300+ therapy staff from occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy.  Each service has a head of profession accountable to the chief of therapies who represents therapies across the trust. We focus on equitable provision and shared decision making with our patients.

We value continuing professional development and promote access to internal and external learning opportunities, including the on-site training facilities and medical school library. This ensures all staff develop skills and knowledge to reach their full potential.

The King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Band 6 Occupational Therapist Medical/ Neurological Mixed Rotation offers qualified and experienced occupational therapists an exciting opportunity to work at a more senior level across a number of different clinical areas.

You will be working within our supportive therapy teams to provide high quality occupational therapy assessments and interventions and promote the development and improvement of our services.

The rotation posts are between seven & nine months in duration and are across:

• Acute Medicine Unit
• Stroke
• Health and Ageing Unit
• Hand Therapy
• Critical Care
• Livers
• Cardiology
• Trauma and Orthopaedics
• Neurosciences

Main duties of the job

As a leading teaching hospital, King’s is a dynamic place to work. We pride ourselves on delivering good quality patient care and you will be expected to provide best-practice interventions through evidence-based practice, keeping up-to-date research and ensuring compliance with trust and national policies and procedures. You will identify your learning needs and access internal/ external training and supervision. You will supervise and motivate junior members of staff and students to do the same. Students are regularly on placement from local universities, and this is a fantastic learning opportunity. You will proactively participate and lead CPD sessions through journal clubs, in-service skills training and peer support. You will be forward-thinking and identify areas for service development, completing projects relating to these in each rotation.

The work environment is fast-paced and you will be responsive to the changing needs of the service.  You will maintain a high standard of autonomous working, completing prioritisation of a caseload and complex assessment and treatment of patients as well as discharge planning. You will display excellent communication skills and partnership working with patients, their families/carers, multi-disciplinary teams, social services and intermediate care.

This post requires a flexible approach to working across sites and a commitment to working weekends on a 7-day working rota.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

CLINICAL

• 1.    To identify, prioritise and manage patients who require occupational therapy input.  Including education of the MDT to promote appropriate referrals for both discharge planning and rehabilitation. 2.    To assess and treat patients with complex needs who would benefit from a coordinated multidisciplinary assessment, rehabilitation and discharge services. 3.    To be competent in the administration of specific occupational therapy assessments of motor, sensory, cognitive, perceptual, psychosocial and occupational areas. 4.    To be competent in the development and implementation of remedial and preventative treatment programmes addressing motor, sensory, cognitive, perceptual, psychological and occupational areas. 5.    To identify risks, complete risk assessments and implement risk management strategies including the use of therapeutic manual handling techniques and the lone working policy and document this accurately. 6.    To recognise any change in the condition of the patient and alter treatment accordingly or escalate to medical teams as required. 7.    To work within local policies and procedures, national standards and guidelines and adhere to the Royal College of Occupational Therapy professional standards and ethics. 8.    To support patients in setting their own goals, then implementing this and evaluating appropriately. 9.    To plan and implement individual and/or group interventions, in collaboration with clients and carers, to achieve therapeutic goals. 10. To select evidence based techniques as part of a coordinated treatment program. 11. To assess and demonstrate to patients and carers the safe use of equipment and adaptations and recommend provision of equipment to support discharge. 12. To liaise with professionals in onward services to ensure continuity of care. 13. To respect the individuality, values, culture and religious diversity of patients and contribute to the provision of a service sensitive to these needs, ensuring equity of service provision. 14. make appropriate clinical observations and keep accurate electronic records and activity data in accordance with professional and trust standards. 15. To write occupational therapy functional and discharge reports for social services, onward inpatient services and community services. 16. To work as an autonomous practitioner and display appropriate problem solving, analytical and judgement skills. 17. To assist with planning and prioritisation of the team and departments’ workload in the event of staff absence to ensure the occupational therapy priority services are maintained. 18. To comply with all relevant trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to equal opportunities, health and safety and confidentiality of information.

COMMUNICATION

• 1.    To communicate complex information to patients and family/ carers who may have barriers to understanding. 2.    To actively participate in team meetings within occupational therapy and with the MDT, including weekly MDT meetings, case conferences and best interest meetings and to delegate for specialist or team lead occupational therapist as required. 3.    To be skilled in communicating reasoning and motivating patients to participate in sessions. 4.    To communicate professionally in person and by telephone with families/ carers and other professionals. 5.    To manage differences of opinions and difficult conversations within the team, MDT and with patients, families/ carers.

MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

• 1.    To supervise, provide support and complete appraisals with occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants and technicians and students. 2.    To be aware of the importance of staff wellbeing, accessing trust support as required and raising any concerns with supervisors or senior staff. 3.    To contribute to the hospital’s clinical governance arrangements and quality agenda. 4.   To assist in developing services and standards according to the occupational therapy objectives. 5.    To participate in the planning, evaluation and audit of practice, clinical pathways and protocols within the occupational therapy services with a view to measuring efficiency and ensuring high quality standards. 6.    To be responsible for competent use and maintenance of equipment, raising any concerns and reporting when further resources are needed. 7.    To carry out administrative duties as required e.g. assisting in ordering, receiving and maintaining stock and managing petty cash. 8.    To have good IT skills and use a variety of IT systems to input patient and staff data as required.

TRAINING, EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

• 1.    To review and reflect on own practice and performance through effective use of professional and operational supervision and appraisal. 2.    To promote development of occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, technicians and students according to their training and development needs as identified through supervision and appraisal. 3.    To regularly supervise occupational therapy students on practice placement. 4.    To demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate current research, apply them to practice and disseminate findings at a local level. 5.    To broaden research and development skills through participation in local audit and research projects. 6.    To demonstrate ongoing personal and professional development through participation in internal and external development opportunities, recording outcomes in a portfolio. 7.    To keep in touch with new developments and changing trends in occupational therapy and participate in wider issues of providing an occupational therapy service i.e. quality assurance, public relations including liaison with the community; planning and policy making 8.    To demonstrate leadership skills through the management of designated projects. 9.    To participate in and present on the in-service training programmes, multi-disciplinary trainings and external conferences. 10. To undertake any other duties commensurate within the grade.