Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Duties and Responsibilities 

Nature of work 

To form professional relationships with clients and communicate condition related information to them in a way that respects their views, autonomy and culture.

To use tact and diplomacy to provide and communicate complex, sensitive information where motivational negotiating, empathetic and reassurance skills are needed, where barriers exist to understanding, maintaining confidentiality within Trust Policies.

Communicate and work together with other teams within provider services and other providers to ensure optimum patient centred care. Using various methods of communication, this will include oral, written, electronic or other verbal or non-verbal methods

To involve patients and carers in the planning of care/rehabilitation programmes and encourage self-management where appropriate.

Act on own initiative, taking prompt and effective action in emergency situations.

Able to work unsupervised and as part of a team

To work autonomously and undertake lone working in the community

To exhibit and maintain a high personal standard of professional expertise, attitude and behaviour at all times in accordance with Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and local Trust, and service policies.

Planning

To deputise for the senior staffs in matters related to the daily running of the service as and when necessary.

To work in collaboration with patients, relatives, carers and the multi-disciplinary team in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating care.

To be responsible for prioritising and organising own caseload, managing conflicting demands on time.

To participate in and facilitate group work, committees and workshops as required.

To organise and attend multidisciplinary case conferences and liaison meetings as necessary.

Any specific projects

To actively influence service improvements and lead on projects.

To ensure that services are provided in accordance with the Trust’s standards, procedures and objectives of quality assurance, and that they are consistent with best professional practice

To take the lead in development of protocols and guidelines as required and as appropriate to the clinical area

To consider the views and wishes of service users, carers and families, respecting their diversity

Complete all appropriate risk assessments for patients

Have a working knowledge of local policies and procedures for vulnerable adults

Understand basic legal issues around child abuse and have a working knowledge of child protection procedures, statutory local procedures and points of referral

Ensure adherence of self and other members of the team to the Trust Lone Working arrangements

Maintain current registration with the Health Professions Council in line with Trust Policy and follow the code of conduct of the Health Care professional’s council. 

Patient contact

To undertake comprehensive physiotherapy assessments of patients who may have complex conditions including multi pathology. Use well developed clinical reasoning to select appropriate assessment techniques.

To analyse the information gained from the assessment to formulate an accurate physiotherapy treatment plan for the patient and then discuss and agree goals and outcomes for treatment with them. To set realistic timescales for achieving these.

To select and be able to perform appropriate treatment techniques from a wide range of specialist skills. The selection of techniques will be based on both theoretical and practical knowledge and evaluated past experience.

To demonstrate the physical ability to carry out physiotherapy assessment and interventions.

To be responsible for all aspects of safety relating to equipment used.  To be responsible for checking and/or teaching competency of junior staffs in using equipment e.g. appliances, gym equipment, NMES items etc.

To plan and undertake discharge of patients from Neurotherapy service when agreed goals have been reached or treatment is no longer appropriate (e.g. the patient has reached a plateau or there is a change in their medical circumstances). To be able to negotiate this with patients who wish to continue treatment on an on-going basis.

To be able to correctly identify inappropriate referrals to Neurotherapy service and have the confidence to refer on or back as required.

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work including the management of patients in your care.

To efficiently manage a challenging caseload, demonstrating flexibility with varying levels of staff, varying complexity of patients and fluctuating numbers of patients on the caseload.

To produce timely and accurate patient’s records and reports in accordance with Health Professions Council and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy regulations. 

Communication

 Patient/family contact

Using verbal, non-verbal and written communication tools, ensure that patients and carers (if appropriate within the scope of patient confidentiality) have an understanding of their condition and the role and aims of Physiotherapy in relation to this. The physiotherapist must be able to persuade, motivate and negotiate, as well as demonstrate empathy and reassurance. The physiotherapist must effectively amend their communication techniques according to individual needs of the patient.

To be confident in their own diagnosis and be able to communicate that effectively to others (including medical professionals and other Allied Health Professionals).

To share information in a timely manner with the senior physiotherapist if there are concerns about a patient’s safety, condition or progress.

To urgently report and take appropriate action if there are any concerns about staff and/or patient safety to more senior staff.

To represent the Neuro therapy service in meetings with other professionals with an aim of accurately contributing and reporting back relevant information to their line manager or team leader.

Important relationships job holder must maintain 

a. Internal:    
            i.    All members of Neurotherapy service 
            ii.    Generic therapy teams across Bedfordshire
            iii.    Discharge Planning Team
            iv.    Community Nursing Teams
            v.    Specialist Nurses i.e. Safeguarding leads, Tissue Viability nurse etc.
b.    External:    
           i.    Hospital nursing and therapy staff
           ii.    Patients, relatives and care agencies
          iii.    Local Authorities including adult social care
          iv.    General Practitioners
          v.    Housing Associations

Providing reports, proposals to Senior Management Team, presentations, meetings.

Complete and maintain all documentation in a contemporaneous style, legibly, accurately and in a concise manner. This will include records of patient visits, profession specific paperwork, referral documentation, outcome measures and patient screening tools.

To maintain timely and accurate patient records, which include patient held records.

To record and report accurate and timely data in relation to all contacts with clients and other activities onto the computer system within 24 hours.

People Management

To support and guide assistant practitioner in both clinical and organisational skills.

To deputise for more senior therapy staff and delegate duties in a competent and safe way to non-qualified staff.Responsible for day-to-

day supervision of junior staff the Neurotherapy service

requirement to take part in appraisal and KSF process.

Research & Development Activity

To contribute to meetings about clinical governance and service development

Undertake audits in line with Trust policy and clinical governance agenda

Undertake or participate in research to improve service as required

To participate in the delivery of the Neurotherapy service development plan

To be an active participant in the Supervision and Appraisal process. This includes prior preparation and being able to identify own learning needs and objectives. 

Clinical and Practice Governance

Observe and maintain strict confidentiality with regards to any patient/family/staff/records and information in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act

The post holder must adhere to the Trust risk assessment and risk management processes

The post holder must adhere to infection control policies and procedures

The post holder must participate in clinical and safeguarding audits as required

Provide patients and their families /carers with information on standards they should expect from the team

Participate in clinical supervision on a regular basis

The post holder is required to participate in relevant emergency preparedness process for their team.