Senior Occupational Therapist

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Fulfil your potential in hospitals that make history:

Charing Cross, Hammersmith, St Mary's, Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea and Western Eye.

With five world-renowned hospitals, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is full of opportunity if you are looking to develop your healthcare career.

We are an NHS Trust of approximately 16,000 people, providing care for over a million and a half patients from north west London and beyond every year.

We have a rich heritage and an ambitious vision for the future of our patients and local communities.

With our partners, Imperial College London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, we form Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre, one of 6 academic health science centres in the UK, working to ensure the rapid translation of research for better patient care and excellence in education.

We are proud of our heritage in innovation and we are early adopters of new insights in technologies, techniques and treatments for improving health.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity to enhance your career is available - join our integrated Acute and Specialist Medicine therapy team at St Mary's Hospital. You will have the opportunity to complete 9 months rotations within our Major Trauma Emergency Department, Acute Medical Unit, Care of the Elderly inpatient ward, Infectious Diseases Unit, Hepatology and Gastroenterology wards. We are seeking a dynamic Occupational Therapist who thrives in a fast-paced environment. Our team consists of occupational therapists, physiotherapists and rehab assistants; we are a diverse interdisciplinary team, which encourages skill sharing to empower therapists to be holistic and autonomous practitioners, whilst also appreciating profession specific competencies.

Our therapy team provides opportunity for enthusiastic and highly motivated therapists to expand their skills in admission avoidance, complex discharge planning, and frailty. We pride ourselves in providing a high quality of care for our patients utilising the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) and working alongside our wider multidisciplinary team (MDT). This is a role which sees high quality service provision for its service users, reducing length of stay and encouraging patient involvement all stages of decision-making.

You will have the opportunity to assess and treat a wide range of patient cohorts; frailty, falls, dementia, delirium, musculoskeletal injuries, neurological conditions and other long-term conditions. Our Acute and Specialist Medicine therapists build a wide range of skills across the emergency department and acute/ specialist medical units, within a supportive and inclusive working environment.

Our Acute and Specialist Medicine therapy service operates from Monday to Friday with varied shift patterns of 7.5 hours. You will also be a part of the weekend service in ED and AMU, prioritising patients medically optimised for discharge where you will then be allocated rest days.

As a team we champion Quality Improvement and you will have opportunities to be involved in Quality Improvement initiatives as well as multidisciplinary team education as part of this forward thinking clinical team. We embed the ethos of the campaign - NHS England's 'AHPs into Action' to pioneer positive change. We also strive to deliver evidence based practise under the Royal College of Emergency Medicine guidelines to inform our projects.

We are an improvement and education focussed team and value the career progression and clinical development of our team. You will have access to a robust in-service training programme, clinical supervision and wider training and learning opportunities.

Main duties of the job

• To provide high quality standard of occupational therapy management to patients at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. To participate in a cross site rotational scheme, providing a high standard of occupational therapy. To perform advanced assessment of patients with diverse presentations and complex physical and psychological conditions, to develop and deliver an individualised treatment programme.
• When providing occupational therapy within this Trust you will be expected to be professional, efficient, effective, with a commitment to evidence based practice and continuous professional Development.
• The post holder will be required to participate in the rostered weekend service cover arrangements including, unsocial hours and overtime (specific rota details are held locally within departments). Staff will do so once they have completed the relevant induction and achieved the required competencies.

Working for our organisation

At Imperial College Healthcare you can achieve extraordinary things with extraordinary people, working with leading clinicians pushing boundaries in patient care.

Become part of a vibrant team living our values - expert, kind, collaborative and aspirational. You'll get an experience like no other and will fast forward your career.

Benefits include career development, flexible working and wellbeing, staff recognition scheme. Make use of optional benefits including Cycle to Work, car lease schemes, season ticket loan or membership options for onsite leisure facilities.

We are committed to equal opportunities and improving the working lives of our staff and will consider applications to work flexibly, part time or job share. Please talk to us at interview.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required.

For both overviews please view the Job Description attachment with the job advert.

Person specification

Education/ Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Degree (or equivalent) in Occupational Therapy.
• State registration with the Health Care Professions Council.
• Evidence of CPD through maintenance of a portfolio.
• Able to demonstrate specialist learning from band 5 rotations, formal post-graduate level learning and informal CPD (both general and specific to clinical fields of speciality).

Desirable criteria

• Membership of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT)
• Membership of RCOT special interest groups relevant to speciality
• Clinical Educators Course

Experience

Essential criteria

• Recent experience in relevant occupational therapy specialities and clinical settings
• Demonstrate an understanding of the use of evidence based practice in speciality
• To have participated in service development projects.
• Experience of supervision of students/ therapy support workers, with development of basic supervision skills.

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience in the NHS or social care as a qualified occupational therapist
• Previous experience of prescribing wheelchairs and seating and other specialist equipment
• Involvement with Clinical Governance issues and an understanding of their relation to patient care

Skills/Knowledge/ Abilities

Essential criteria

• Able to apply a range and depth of knowledge to this specialist area
• Able to use knowledge of a range of treatment approaches in the specialist area.
• Able to make sound clinical decisions based on knowledge/ experience/circumstances and utilise advanced clinical reasoning skills.
• Competent IT skills.
• Self-motivated and able to work unsupervised.
• To make sound judgments and reliable decisions in a variety of demanding situations

Desirable criteria

• Able to apply a range and depth of knowledge to this specialist area

Please ensure you check your emails regularly as this is how we will communicate with you throughout the recruitment process. If you are shortlisted you will be contacted by email and text message (if you provide a mobile contact number).

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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.

Documents to download

• Job description (PDF, 720.5KB)
• Functional Requirement Form (PDF, 272.6KB)
• Our Strategy 2023-25 (PDF, 230.4KB)