Job overview

Our Clinical Health Psychology team is seeking a Principal Practitioner Psychologist to work within the East Sussex Healthcare Trust (ESHT) Critical Care Service (Eastbourne District General Hospital and Conquest Hospital, Hastings).  Psychology is well integrated within the Critical Care Service in this Trust, and much valued. You will have the opportunity to work across the pathway which offers varied work and opportunities, such as: inpatient and outpatient work, MDT-working, teaching, staff support and reflective practice. 

We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced clinician with a passion to work as part of an acute medical team, and seek someone with prior experience of clinical health psychology and of working with psychological trauma, grief and loss.

 You will join a welcoming and skilled clinical health psychology team in SPFT, and a local network of psychologists working in Critical Care in the South East.  You will have the opportunity to contribute to the experience of supervising trainee psychologists, consultation and teaching with physical healthcare staff teams, and to be involved in the continuing development of the service.

Main duties of the job

This is an opportunity to gain experience with a variety of roles due to the nature of the medical context, psychological ways of working. The core elements are:

·       Assessment of and, as appropriate, therapy for patients admitted to  critical care and/or their relatives, experiencing significant psychological distress associated with critical illness or due to the critical care environment

·       Offering ongoing 1:1 therapy to patients discharged from critical care, and/ or their relatives, drawing on a range of psychological theories & models 

·       Attending the weekly critical care rehabilitation team meetings to support the development of individualised, psychologically informed 'rehab prescriptions' (NICE Guidance: Critical Care Rehabilitation)

·       Consultation with the critical care staff to support care of complex patients

·       Support & signposting for critical care colleagues experiencing psychological distress associated with their work role

·       Teaching & training with physical healthcare colleagues in critical care

·       Receiving regular supervision from the lead psychologist, & providing supervision (as required) to trainee clinical psychologists

·       Contributing to service development / reviews

·       Attending the wider monthly clinical health psychology  meeting when appropriate / biannual away days for peer support from fellow clinical health psychology colleagues working across a range of medical & occupational health settings

Working for our organisation

Sussex Partnership Trust provides mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex and is rated good overall and outstanding for caring by the Care Quality Commission.  Recent positive staff survey results include:

• 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
• 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team
• 77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles

Working in Sussex:

•       Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns there’s always new experiences to be enjoyed
•        Embrace the city life with great access to visit Brighton and London
•        With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure

Clinical Health Psychology:

You will join a Trust wide Clinical Health Psychology Team.  This is a supportive team of professionals working into different physical health settings and services.  We work hard at supporting and caring for one another.  As part of our team you will be offered opportunities for continuing professional development and peer support.