Senior Occupational Therapist

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust; Christchurch; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Part time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity awaits for a part-time Band 6 Senior Occupational Therapist to join a dynamic multidisciplinary team at a leading NHS Foundation Trust. This role focuses on providing essential support for patients transitioning from hospital to home, ensuring a seamless discharge process. The ideal candidate will possess strong community and leadership skills, along with a passion for improving patient outcomes. Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to enhancing healthcare services in a beautiful coastal area, where work-life balance is prioritized. If you are ready to make a meaningful impact in the community, this is the role for you.

Qualifications

• HCPC Registration is required for this role.
• Minimum of 18 months experience in acute NHS settings.
• Evidence of clinical interventions in acute and community settings.

Responsibilities

• Support safe patient flow from acute hospital to home recovery.
• Provide high standard therapy services to elderly patients.
• Perform as an autonomous practitioner in patient assessments.

Skills

Community and leadership skills

Clinical interventions

Goal setting

Holistic assessment

Therapeutic moving and handling skills

Supervision of junior staff

Education

BSc (Hons) in Occupational Therapy

HCPC Registration

Member of British Association of Occupational Therapy

Fieldwork Supervision Course

Job description

As University Hospitals Dorset we are a three site acute trust with ‘university hospital’ status through our partnership with Bournemouth University, working with an annual budget of £730m.

We offer highly regarded health services, employing some 10,000 staff. Our ambitious £250m estates programme is well on the way to delivering state-of-the-art facilities over the next two years to meet the current and future healthcare needs of the populations we serve.

In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with over seven miles of sandy beaches you’ll find inspirational opportunities to achieve your perfect work/life balance. With the New Forest and the Purbecks on our doorstep, we’re also less than three hours from London by road or train. The thriving towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch give way to idyllic villages and unspoilt landscapes just minutes from our hospitals.

We believe that having a diverse workforce, and allowing people to be themselves, is essential in ensuring we offer an inclusive, welcoming and productive place to work.

We especially welcome applications from minority groups in the community who may be underrepresented in our workforce.

At UHD our active staff network groups are the Women's Network, Black Asian Minority Ethnic Group (BAME), Pride Network, European (EU), Pro Ability Staff Network, and the Armed Forces Support Group.

As a Trust we are proudly signed up to the Disability Confident and Armed Forces Covenant guaranteed interview schemes.

Job overview

We are pleased to announce an exciting vacancy for a part-time Band 6 Senior Occupational Therapist to join our Interim Care Team at University Hospitals Dorset.

We are a multidisciplinary community team providing a discharge to assess service for patients to come out of UHD & community hospitals. The post will involve some weekend working on a shared rota with the multidisciplinary team. We are looking for applicants with community and leadership skills and experience who are able to work in order to provide expertise and clinical support to our community team.

The Interim Team are an extremely dynamic, innovative and supportive multidisciplinary team looking to improve and integrate health and social care for people in Dorset. This team aims to provide early supported discharge out of hospital for patients in their own homes. We work with patients with physical and mental health conditions.

This role requires HCPC Registration

Interview Date: 6th November 2024

Main duties of the job

• Support the safe flow of patients from the acute hospital to recovery at home by providing a fast paced rapid assessment service in the community following the ‘discharge to assess’ model.
• To provide a high standard of therapy service to elderly patients discharge from Bournemouth hospital and oversee a caseload of community patients supported by community therapy assistants.
• To perform as an autonomous practitioner and assess patient’s level of function, set realistic goals, and implement timely Occupational Therapy treatment programs with the aim of improving independence, function, and quality of life and referring onto other services as appropriate.

Working for our organisation

Our values define who we are as #TeamUHD. They underpin everything we do now and in the future. They define how we treat our patients, visitors, and each other, our valued team mates and colleagues.

UHD are investing in services across the Trust, with many being transformed and developed following merger and the New Hospital Programme.

In some cases this means that a services may move site this year or next, either temporarily or long term. Recruiting Managers interviewing for this role will be happy to answer any specific questions that you have at interview.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To understand the role in more detail please read the full job description and person specification documents which are attached to this advert.

Person specification

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) in occupational therapy
• HCPC Registration
• Evidence of C.P.D.
• Member of British association of occupational therapy
• Fieldwork Supervision Course

Experience

• Evidence of clinical interventions in the acute setting and core clinical areas.
• Experience of elderly rehabilitation within the acute and community settings.
• Experience of facilitation of the hospital discharge process, working within a multidisciplinary framework to meet patient’s needs holistically.
• Work allocation/caseload management
• Supervision of more junior staff
• Minimum of 18 months experience including acute NHS setting
• Involvement in change and service development
• Leading group exercise and education
• Experience in the primary care setting
• Ability to assess, manage & treat patients with complex multi pathologies at highly specialist level
• Skills in goal setting & using outcome measures
• Knowledge and skills in discharge planning and onward referral
• Skills in holistic assessment
• Ability to produce clear written documentation of intervention & reports
• Therapeutic moving & handling skills
• Ability to prioritise clinical workload
• Ability to teach & supervise Junior staff & assistants

Knowledge

• Understanding of the pathologies that elderly patients commonly present with.
• Occupational therapy intervention for patients with respiratory, chronic, multi pathology and complex conditions
• Understanding of NSF’s, Clinical Governance and their relevance to clinical situations
• Appreciation of appropriate outcome measures
• How to critique research articles and lead discussion groups

Interpersonal Skills

• Ability to deal appropriately with difficult and sensitive situations
• Ability to teach patients, relatives, carers & staff
• Ability to work effectively in a team
• Experience liaising with outside agencies and disciplines
• Ability to provide clear, confident and effective instructions in individual and group setting

Other requirements specific to the role

• Ability to use a keyboard to access and input information from a computer based system
• Ability to move and handle patients and equipment and work in confined spaces
• Ability to participate in weekend on-call, extended hours and weekend service
• Ability to drive and hold a clean drivers licence

Personal Attributes

• Well motivated
• Good time management
• Ability to work under pressure
• Flexibility to respond to urgent requests, changes to priorities and plans
• Initiative

Language Requirement

• Be able to speak English as necessary to undertake the role

Please note:

Staff recruited are expected to be available to work flexibly across all our Trust locations to meet service demands.

This advert may be closed early if sufficient applications are received.

COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself and our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst this vaccination is not a condition of employment we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated.

Internal Candidates: staff employed prior to merger who voluntarily change jobs will be appointed to UHD terms and conditions.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.