HealthJobsUK

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job purpose

• To work as an occupational therapist within intermediate care team, providing occupational therapy for patients who require Intermediate Care in the community. This will include:
• Assessment and reablement to facilitate timely discharge from  community settings
• Assessment/reablement of patient in their own homes 
• Supervise the clinical work of OT students or support workers that may be placed with the post holder
• To work flexibly as an integral part of the interdisciplinary Intermediate Care Team, contributing occupational therapy skills to all parts of the team
• To participate in a working rota with other members of the team to cover weekdays and public holidays from 09:00 to 17:00

Communication and relationship skills

Internal:

• Team manager
• Team members
• Community therapy staff
• Other professionals
• Primary health care team
• PALS
• Intermediate care and specialist teams
• Professional lead for continuing and funded nursing care

External:

• Patients and their carers
• Social care providers
• Voluntary agencies
• Housing services
• Other primary care trusts
• Acute hospital trusts
• Community pharmacies
• MedOCC
• Care home providers

Ensure effective communication within the team, the patient and other professional mainstream services and to act as the patient advocate.

Communicate  patient information, verbally and in writing to various professionals.

Provide advice, motivation and education, to patient’s family and carers in respect of their medical/health condition, where there may be barriers to understanding, being empathetic and providing reassurance.

1. Knowledge, training and experience

•  Registration with Health Professionals Council (HPC)
• Diploma/Degree in Occupational Therapy
• Knowledge of current legislation and national guidelines affecting relevant practice
• Good understanding of Clinical Governance and managing risk in your own work
• Proven  experience, some of which should be in the community
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary Team (MDT)
• Experience in treating patients with a broad range of physical conditions
• Some understanding of mild/moderate dementia
• Understanding of community setting for care and functioning of integrated teams
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written
• Good IT skills
• Some experience in audit techniques and research
• Ability to work independently
• To be responsible for maintaining and developing own competency to practice through CPD activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal/professional development

2. Analytical and judgement skills

•  Ability to prioritise and respond appropriately to patient referrals
• Proactive management of risks

3. Planning and organisational skills

•  Liaise with health and social care professionals regarding patient care, treatment progress and discharge planning
• Ability to adapt and be flexible in responding to changing needs and demands of the service

4. Physical skills

•  Undertake a range of clinical competencies specific to your professional discipline, which would include holistic and functional assessments
• To take a lead within the service to demonstrate safe manual handling, manoeuvring of wheelchairs and use of hoists, when handling clients with disabilities

5. Responsibility for patient/client care

•  Undertake the care of patients, as appropriate ensuring individual needs are met through the use of evidence-based practice
• Assess, plan, implement, and evaluate programmes of care in consultation with the senior occupational therapist

6. Responsibility for policy and service development implementation

•  Follow organisational policies and procedures
• Abide by HPC codes of conduct
• Maintain a professional manner and act as a role model
• Work collaboratively with other team members, colleagues and services in practice and service development within the context of integrated/ inter-professional working

 Responsibilities for financial and physical resources

•  No budgetary responsibility
• Assess patients for standard equipment, request their provision, deliver where necessary and teach patients/carers safe use, taking into consideration risk assessments

8. Responsibilities for human resources (HR)

•  To be responsible for work delegated to associate practitioners
• Motivate and supervise junior staff

 Responsibilities for information resources

•  Ensure records are kept up to date and safeguard patient confidentiality by being aware of professional, legal and ethical responsibilities
• Record and submit accurate, timely data and information to inform caseload management and service development

 Responsibilities for research and development (R&D)

•  Actively participate in clinical audit and clinical governance activities including risk assessments and complaints investigation.

 Freedom to act

•  Work as an autonomous practitioner within the intermediate care team, with overall management responsibility of a defined caseload.
• Work within defined departmental, professional and organisational protocols, policies and codes of conduct, contributing to the interpretation of national and local policy relevant to specialist clinical area