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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Clinical 

• To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work including the management of patients in your care and supporting less experienced staff to do likewise.
• To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner.
• To undertake a comprehensive assessment of patients with spinal cord injury, including those with diverse or highly complex presentations/multi pathologies.
• Assess patients understanding of treatment proposals, gain informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• To plan and deliver individual occupational therapy treatment proposals, based on a specialist knowledge of evidence based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment skills/options e.g. upper limb management, splinting and FES, patient education, verbal/physical independence in functional activities including home/work/school assessments.
• Continually reassess/evaluate patient progress and alter treatment programmes as required.
• To represent the occupational therapy service and/or individual patients at the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meetings or ward rounds, to ensure the delivery of a coordinated multidisciplinary service and integrate occupational therapy treatment into the overall treatment programme. This will include discussion of patient care, patient progress, appropriate referrals for further interventions and involvement in discharge plans.
• To effectively communicate with patients and their parents and/or carers, to progress and encourage compliance with their treatment and rehabilitation programmes. This will include patients who may have difficulties in understanding or communicating; for example patients who are deaf, blind, illiterate, dysphasic, have learning difficulties, have mental health problems (including those with suicidal tendencies), those experiencing difficulties accepting their diagnosis, and for those who may not speak English or it is their second language. This will involve the use of skills such as persuasion, motivation and explanation to ensure optimum outcomes for the patient.
• To provide spontaneous and planned advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers and other professional to promote understanding of the aims of occupational therapy and to ensure a consistent approach to patient care.
• To accept clinical responsibility for a designated case load of patients, to organise this effectively and efficiently with regard to clinical priorities and use of time.
• To participate in the Key Worker System, to use the Needs Assessment Checklist and to chair multidisciplinary Goal Setting meetings (taking minutes for distribution), to co-ordinate the individual patients rehabilitation and discharge plans.
• To ensure correct provision of equipment for patients to facilitate discharge.
• To support patients through acceptance of stressful, complex physical conditions.
• Consistently maintain accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date treatment records for your patients, in line with legal (BAOT Standards of Occupational Therapy practice) and departmental requirements and communicate assessment and treatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports or letters when appropriate.
• To be responsible for the safe and competent use of all equipment and patient aids/appliances.
• To be involved in the assessment for and provision of specialised equipment, including shower chairs.
• To participate in the provision of an occupational therapy service within the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries Outpatients Service.

  Professional

• To set high personal and professional standards of work within the BAOT/Trusts clinical guidelines, National Service Frameworks (NSF) and NICE guidance and monitor own and others quality of practice as appropriate.
• To be responsible for teaching student occupational therapists to graduate level on functional skills and knowledge within the area of spinal injuries. This will involve the use of appraisal documentation.
• To assist with the training and supervision of less experienced staff and occupational therapy, TIs and assistants.
• To participate in the programme of in-service training as an active member, by attendance at and/or delivery of presentations and training sessions, either separately or at shared learning sessions.
• To participate in the staff appraisal scheme and personal development plan as both appraiser and appraisee.
• Undertake the measure and evaluation of own work in line with current occupational therapy practice through application of EBP (Evidence Based Practice), audit, research, outcome measures and reflective practice.
• To take on the optional responsibility of link training for Health and Safety, Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, or Manual handling, or some other additional training duty within the department as requested.

Organisational

• To be responsible for organising and planning own work caseload to meet service and patient priorities, realising the need to be flexible and being able to adjust plans/delegate, as situations arise.
• To provide supervision and co-ordination of junior staff, students, TIs and assistants on a daily basis.
• To participate in the team management of the daily activities of the occupational therapy service within the MCSI.
• Deputise for more senior staff in their absence taking responsibility for the operational management of the team, allocating and organising staff to meet service priorities on a daily basis.
• To organise and participate in patient sporting and social activities.
• To undertake as directed the collection of appropriate data or statistics for use in service audit and research projects. To undertake audit/research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery using a range of research methodologies as part of MDT audit and/or occupational therapy department research initiatives.
• To identify opportunities to improve/develop the occupational therapy service to MCSI in order to provide the best patient care within the resources available.
• To participate in departmental meetings, to contribute ideas for the progress and planning of the service.