Detailed job description and main responsibilities

JOB PURPOSE

The Occupational Therapy Team Lead provides professional and clinical leadership to Occupational Therapy staff in the Medical Team based at the QEH site.

 The post holder supervises the day to day running of the medical Occupational Therapy team and is line managed by the Occupational Therapy Site Lead at QEH.  To achieve this, the post holder works in close collaboration with the OT Site Lead QEH, and the other Band 7 Occupational Therapy Team Leads.

 The Occupational Therapy Team Lead is a highly experienced clinician in medicine particularly neurology who independently manages a significant and highly specialised clinical caseload.

In conjunction with the OT Site Lead, the post holder coordinates a rolling programme of education, clinical evaluation, audit and research within the pathway team at QEH.

 As part of the senior clinical Occupational Therapy team on the QEH site, the post holder will deputise for the Occupational Therapy Site Lead QEH as required.

The post is based on the Queen Elizabeth site but may at times be asked to work on other sites in order to maintain service levels

 7-day working for Therapies is in place within the Trust and the postholder is required to undertake a different working pattern, including weekends, in the future.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

INTERNAL INCLUDE: Therapy Managers and Therapy leads, own Teams, referring clinicians, MDTs, on ward, therapy administrative team, HR, other Trust Committees and own clinical teams

EXTERNAL INCLUDE: GPs, Community Services, Social services, Local authorities, AHP managers and leads, Voluntary services, College of Occupational Therapists, Health professions council, DoH Networks and Policy Groups, Higher Education Institutes, Colleges and Schools, NHSE. 

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Clinical

1. To undertake all aspects of clinical duties and to carry a significant caseload of patients as an autonomous practitioner, including those with highly complex presentations

2. To work at an advanced level and to be professionally and legally accountable for a highly-specialised patient caseload and to decide priorities for own work area, balancing other patient related and professional demands

3. To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work, and of the pathway teams’ work. This will include the management of clinical risk, clinical governance, knowledge of indications and precautions of chosen techniques in line with National and Trust clinical guidelines and protocols where they exist.

4. To assess patients’ capacity, gain valid informed consent to treatment and where such capacity is lacking/absent to work within a legal framework in the management of the patient

5. To undertake the comprehensive assessment and accurate diagnosis of patients, including those with an extremely complex presentation, using investigative, palpatory, analytical and clinical reasoning skills

6. As appropriate to the job role, to request diagnostic procedures that will inform clinical decision making

7. To undertake physical treatment techniques utilising highly developed manual skills

8. To formulate individualised clinical management programmes, utilising a wide range of treatment skills and options to plan a highly-specialised programme of care.  

9. To use recognised outcome measures to evaluate the effect of Occupational Therapy interventions and ensure that treatment programmes are progressing appropriately.

10. To provide spontaneous and planned expert advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers, other disciplines and agencies. To promote understanding of the aims of Occupational Therapy and to ensure continuation of the treatment programme. To be consulted by staff within the pathway, the Trust and externally.

11. To participate in and where indicated, initiate multidisciplinary/multi-agency team meetings and case conferences to ensure the co-ordination of patient care. This may include the review of patient progress and discharge planning

12. To ensure accurate, comprehensive and up to date clinical records are maintained in accordance with Trust guidance and professionally agreed criteria

13. To identify and employ suitable verbal and non-verbal communication skills with patients where there may be barriers to understanding or the inability to accept diagnosis. To facilitate the best possible communication outcome in every situation and use appropriate services e.g. interpreters, SALT

14. To ensure that individual practice and that of the pathway team is user focused and patient views are incorporated into treatment planning.  

15. To employ appropriate skills such as persuasion, motivation and negotiation to gain co-operation in the continuation of the agreed treatment programme

16. To communicate with empathy, patient information which may be of a complex and sensitive nature including details of prognosis or disability that may be unwelcome

17. To receive highly complex patient related information from patients, relatives, carers and other professionals to effectively plan and develop individual case management

18. To communicate and advise regarding highly complex patient related information effectively to ensure collaborative working within the Occupational Therapy service and with other professionals across health and other agencies to ensure the delivery of a coordinated multidisciplinary service

19. To be integral in discharge planning including liaison with referring hospitals or community staff to which patients are discharged, providing timely discharge reports

20. To produce comprehensive patient related reports for other disciplines or agencies relating to assessment findings and/or treatment outcomes

21. To undertake an extended scope role as appropriate to the needs of the service (an extended scope practitioner undertakes delegated responsibility on behalf of medical practitioner(s) including the independent management of complete episodes of care of patients from referral to discharge)

22. To undertake the measurement and evaluation of own work through audit, outcome measurement, the application of evidence based practice and research where appropriate. To identify and initiate audit projects to review current clinical practice within the pathway

23. To lead the implementation and evaluation of Trust wide Occupational Therapy clinical outcomes within a designated pathway and monitor adherence with professional and national standards

24. To work to Trust and British Association of Occupational Therapy clinical guidelines and have a good working knowledge of relevant national standards to which quality of practice should be monitored

25. To raise Occupational Therapy staff awareness of current clinical developments and the implications these may have on clinical practice

26. To be accessible and provide expert clinical advice to colleagues in particular for highly complex case management

27. Once considered competent, to participate in week-end, bank holiday and extended working rotas where clinically appropriate

28. To fully participate in whatever pattern of working is required by the service in the future

All clinical staff are accountable and responsible for their own clinical competence and should limit their actions to those for which they are deemed competent in line with guidance from their professional bodies.