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Job summary

Main area
Critical Care
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract
Fixed term: 12 months
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
196-LIS8376
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
St Thomas'
Town
London
Salary
£51,488 - £57,802 per annum incl. HCA
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
Today at 23:59
Interview date
08/05/2024

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Senior Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 7

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. 

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.



Job overview

Senior Specialist Speech & Language Therapist – Critical Care Band 7 (1WTE, fixed term maternity leave cover until 17th June 2025)

An exciting position has arisen within our Speech and Language Therapy critical care service at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust to cover maternity leave. We are looking for a dynamic and experienced Speech and Language Therapist to join our existing inpatient team of 26.2 WTE SLTs and 1.4 WTE SLT assistants. 

You will be based at St Thomas' Hospital and will be responsible for delivering high-quality care to adult inpatients with communication and/or swallowing disorders as part of a team of 5.2 WTE SLTs working in critical care.

The suitable applicant will have experience of working at a post-graduate level, independently managing adults with acquired communication and swallowing disorders, and patients who have tracheostomies and may also be ventilator dependent.  Experience of instrumental assessment and leadership/supervision experience is essential. Teaching is a significant part of the role and you will participate in nurse/medical education and provide external talks and presentations as needed.  

 

Main duties of the job

* Please see Job description for full details 

  • To take autonomous responsibility for delivering a highly specialist service to adult inpatients referred from Critical Care areas with communication and/or swallowing disorders. This includes patients with tracheostomies and/or ventilator dependency. 
  • To provide independent clinical management of patients requiring assessment and rehabilitation of complex communication and swallowing disorders, with the aim of restoring optimum function or offering compensatory strategies. This will include assessing the patients’ needs for alternative/augmentative communication where appropriate.
  • To contribute to the development of  expert Speech and Language Therapy services  in Critical care in collaboration with the Clinical Lead SLT, and to be an autonomous advanced specialist resource for  treatment of critical care  patients on the  St Thomas’ site.
  • To take responsibility for planning and delivering training in swallowing and communication management to nurses, junior doctors, and medical students working within the Critical Care service, as requested.

Working for our organisation

There is a strong ethos of clinical support, supervision and development within the team. The service is able to offer you excellent supervision and peer support, with an emphasis on team working.  Quality improvement projects and research ideas are strongly encouraged, both within SLT and in the multi-professional teams. We have regular team meetings, plus opportunities for continuing professional development through in-house training, clinical excellence networks and external courses.  

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

*Please see Job Description for full details

  • To provide highly specialist independent clinical management of inpatients with complex disorders of swallowing/communication. To demonstrate an advanced level of clinical decision making to assess, make a clinical diagnosis, develop, implement and evaluate specialised treatment programmes with the aim of restoring function or offering compensatory strategies.
  • As a core member of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) to influence decision making regarding treatment planning and consequences for rehabilitation of communication and swallowing. To use strong negotiation skills in order to support and advocate for patients and carers, contributing to best interests discussions and decisions.
  • As a core member of the MDT to participate in team meetings/working parties and where appropriate propose and assist in implementation of policy/service development.
  • To provide highly specialist independent clinical management for patients requiring ventilatory support and /or with tracheostomies in situ presenting with communication and/or swallowing difficulties.  To have highly developed knowledge of different modes of ventilation and the impact of mechanical ventilation and respiratory compromise on swallowing and phonation.  To have specialist knowledge in methods to establish and facilitate phonation and swallowing function in patients on mechanical ventilation.  To offer training, support and second opinions for other members of the SLT team with complex critically ill patients.

Person specification

Professional Registration

Essential criteria
  • Registered member of HCPC
Desirable criteria
  • Registered MRCSLT

Qualifications/Education

Essential criteria
  • Diploma/Degree leading to RCSLT licence to practice
  • Masters or equivalent level of post-graduate specialist training short courses, specific training and membership of relevant CEN
  • Attendance at advanced dysphagia training including completion of videofluoroscopy competencies
  • Completion of FEES Interpretation competencies
Desirable criteria
  • Completion of FEES scoping competencies

Previous Experience

Essential criteria
  • Significant specialist experience working with adults with acquired disorders of communication and swallowing including working at a specialist level with tracheostomy patients and ventilator dependant patients.
  • Significant experience of performing, evaluating and reporting on videofluoroscopies independently.
  • Experience of support and supervision of junior staff
  • Experience of development and delivery of informal and formal training of other professionals
Desirable criteria
  • Significant experience of practical nasendoscopy
  • Lead role in Quality Improvement project

Skills/knowledge/ability

Essential criteria
  • Evidence of advanced independent management and knowledge of communication disorders in patients with tracheostomy and mechanically ventilated patients
  • Evidence of skills in selection and use of AAC
  • Evidence of advanced independent management and knowledge of dysphagia with acquired neuromuscular disorders, complex medical and post-surgical conditions and with tracheostomy and mechanically ventilated patients, including undertaking and interpreting videofluoroscopy to advanced level.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Laura Harbert
Job title
Clinical Lead SLT - Critical Care
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
02071887798
Additional information

Dr Sally Archer (Consultant SLT/Acute Team Lead)  [email protected].

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