Neonatal Specialist Physiotherapist

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust

This job is now closed

Job summary

Ready to be part of something extraordinary? Where the smallest steps for our patients and their families can be their biggest moments. We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic physiotherapist with specialist skills in neonatal care to join our team and further develop an integrated AHP service on the neonatal unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. Working alongside the nursing and medical staff and sharing knowledge and experience will be a key part of this role.

As a neonatal team we work together, to provide comprehensive, compassionate, individualised care and support to our babies and their families, which are then realised in the outstanding outcomes we achieve for our babies (NNAP 2022).The NICU is a busy tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with 18 intensive care/ high dependency cots and 13 special care cots. Our neonatal unit has 7 full time Consultant Neonatologists and outcomes remain excellent with survival rates well in excess of the Epicure 2 rates for infants < 27 weeks gestation. We are proud to be a Level 3 BLISS accredited tertiary unit, undertaking some of the most complex and pioneering medical care, including Total Body Cooling, HFOV, Nitric Oxide Therapy and Laser ROP Surgery. We work tirelessly to deliver exceptional levels of care, which are realised in the outstanding outcomes we achieve for our babies as seen on the VON report.

Pre arranged visits to the department are welcomed. Additional hours may be available.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for an enthusiastic, highly motivated and appropriately trained physiotherapist with a positive attitude to team working. Ideally you will have attended relevant specialist training courses and completed some neonatal competencies. Training will be available for extending and developing competencies if required.

You will be expected to provide highly specialist clinical expertise in the assessment and management of premature and term babies working closely with other members of the team.

You will be able to evidence that you have delivered specialist training to MDT, as well as educating and supporting parents.

We know that the secret to our success is through investment in our team, and so in return for your commitment and enthusiasm, we promise you: a supported Induction and Orientation programme tailored to your needs, advanced Leadership and Management training programmes with coaching or mentoring support, a focus on staff wellbeing and emotional support, including access to our on-site wellness centre and training, including emotional resilience, relocation package for those moving from out of area (subject to suitability), flexible working opportunities, NHS benefits, including Pension and Discount Schemes.

About us

The Trust is committed to driving excellence in care for our patients and communities and was rated good by the Care Quality Commission report published 2020 and became a University Hospital. We are ranked as the third in the country for research; embedding education and training across the organisation and we continuously strive to achieve our core values which are at the heart of everything we do. The Trusts main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, starting life as a military hospital over a century ago and now one of the largest hospitals on the south coast and you may have seen us on the TV series Nurses on the Ward. The Trust provides comprehensive secondary care and specialist services to a local population of 675,000 people across South East Hampshire. The Trust employs over 8,000 staff and are #ProudtobePHU; our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because its the right thing to do, but because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for providing outstanding care and support for patients, colleagues and our community you will find a home at PHU. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veterans status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs.

Date posted

12 May 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£21,871 to £25,028 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

C8192-CD-23-0521

Job locations

Queen Alexandra Hospital

Southwick Hill Road

Cosham

Portsmouth

PO6 3LY

Job description

Job responsibilities

To provide clinical and professional leadership which includes delivering an advanced specialist service to the Neonatal Unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth.
To provide highly specialist clinical expertise including physiotherapy assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment of neonatal and paediatric patients at Queen Alexandra hospital , working collaboratively with MDT colleagues within childrens services.
To work closely with other AHPs and MDT members, senior operational leads, team leads and clinical specialists to deliver a newly funded service on the neonatal unit.
Ensure the delivery of high quality multi-disciplinary care and positive experience for new-born babies and parents of new-born babies and to paediatric inpatients.
To deliver high quality and evidence-based training.
Supervise, educate, and assess band 5/6 or non-specialist therapist, assistants and technicians and students.
To report directly to the 8a on team performance, operational implementation of work streams and service delivery issues including contingency planning.
To work closely with team, and senior therapy leads to develop and transform services and be responsible for implementing change at team level in line with the Trusts strategic aims.
To participate in paediatric therapy on-call rota.
May involve occasional bank holiday working.

Key Responsibilities:

Professional responsibilities and leadership

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of your own work.
To work autonomously and without direct supervision.
To maintain own professional competence to practice.
To assess parents understanding of therapy interventions, taking into consideration barriers to parent participation.
To hold a caseload at a highly specialist level and using advanced clinical reasoning, skills and involving parents, carers and the MDT as required.
To use advanced skills and expert knowledge to ensure that care is based on best available evidence to improve health outcomes and promote health and wellbeing of patients.
Evaluate patient and parent progress, reassess, and alter treatment programmes of own caseload and team if required.
To keep accurate, legible records of patient care in line with service guidelines.
Provide a source of expertise and support to colleagues across the therapy services and work with other statutory and independent agencies.
Support junior members of the team and participate in supervision and appraisals.
Represent your profession and the therapy service at multi-disciplinary meetings to ensure a co-ordinated and integrated approach to patient care including discharge planning.
Represent the profession across PHUT.
To demonstrate and implement National Codes of Professional Conduct and Professional Standards of Clinical Practice (e.g., HCPC, CSP ).
To actively participate in the trust appraisal process.
To report, investigate and manage incidents, sharing learning from incidents and risk with the team and wider organisation as appropriate.
To investigate and manage complaints in accordance with Trust policy, share and implement learning across the team.
To work closely with the Therapy 8a Leads and Head of Therapies to ensure services are delivered efficiently and within budgetary constraints including monitoring of demand and capacity within designated area, to ensure efficient resources are available to maintain service delivery.
To work with senior therapy leads to monitor performance and analyse data to provide performance information to service managers to support the delivery of KPIs, management of demand and capacity and to inform future workforce, skill mix requirements and service development.
To work with the Therapy 8a Lead and Head of Therapies to ensure staff are clinically competent, services are clinically effective and safe, and an excellent patient experience is delivered.
To embed the principles of integrated working across therapies and the wider multi-disciplinary team as required.
To advise the Therapy 8a Lead and Head of Therapies on professional issues relating to the provision and development of your defined clinical area including an awareness of the impact of national/regional/local strategy within your defined clinical area.
Propose, produce, interpret, and implement policies, procedures, standards of service, clinical guidelines within your defined clinical area.
Responsible for the safe and competent use of equipment within your defined clinical as appropriate and that that you attain competency prior to use and that equipment defects or accidents are reported.
Undertake risk assessments in a variety of complex situations for self, patients, colleagues, and relatives.
Responsible for maintaining stock of equipment or materials used within specific clinical areas.
Plan and organise non-clinical activities pertaining to your specialist area, meetings, training activities and conferences.

Communication

Provide and receive complex, sensitive, or contentious information to parents, carers, and other staff.
Use highly developed interpersonal verbal and non-verbal skills to overcome significant barriers to communication, acceptance or understanding.
Communicate sensitively and effectively with parents, carers, relatives, or other professionals in situations that may be hostile, antagonistic, or highly emotive.
Establish robust communication networks with other professionals to optimise continuum of care, therapy intervention and discharge planning to ensure a consistent MDT approach to care.
Responsible for recording personally generated information regarding patients e.g., written, and electronic records, reports, and activity data in accordance with professional and local standards including maintaining confidentiality.
Concentrate while undertaking work that is not always predictable. With competing demands for attention, prioritise workload and manage interruptions relating to patient care.
Work with a number of patients and parents who may be challenging and emotionally demanding, parents who may have communication, psychological, cognitive, or mental health issues with frequent exposure to distressing and emotional circumstances.
To provide regular support to staff members who may have been exposed to emotional and stressful situations.
To attend and actively participate in specialty, peer group and departmental staff meetings.
To ensure timely and effective communication to senior therapy staff on all professional matters.

Education and training

Participation in CPD activity including teaching on specific subjects and delivering core training programmes to team members, other professionals, and students.
Provide and conduct specialist training for a range of individuals and groups including patients and their carers, other health professionals, general public, external agencies, and national specialist interest groups.
Provide clinical practice placements for pre-registration students and apprentices and support other staff within your team to supervise students.
To ensure that new members of staff, locums, students, and visitors receive appropriate orientation and induction programmes.
To keep updated with new developments within your specialist area and attend relevant training as appropriate.

Job description

Job responsibilities

To provide clinical and professional leadership which includes delivering an advanced specialist service to the Neonatal Unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth.
To provide highly specialist clinical expertise including physiotherapy assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment of neonatal and paediatric patients at Queen Alexandra hospital , working collaboratively with MDT colleagues within childrens services.
To work closely with other AHPs and MDT members, senior operational leads, team leads and clinical specialists to deliver a newly funded service on the neonatal unit.
Ensure the delivery of high quality multi-disciplinary care and positive experience for new-born babies and parents of new-born babies and to paediatric inpatients.
To deliver high quality and evidence-based training.
Supervise, educate, and assess band 5/6 or non-specialist therapist, assistants and technicians and students.
To report directly to the 8a on team performance, operational implementation of work streams and service delivery issues including contingency planning.
To work closely with team, and senior therapy leads to develop and transform services and be responsible for implementing change at team level in line with the Trusts strategic aims.
To participate in paediatric therapy on-call rota.
May involve occasional bank holiday working.

Key Responsibilities:

Professional responsibilities and leadership

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of your own work.
To work autonomously and without direct supervision.
To maintain own professional competence to practice.
To assess parents understanding of therapy interventions, taking into consideration barriers to parent participation.
To hold a caseload at a highly specialist level and using advanced clinical reasoning, skills and involving parents, carers and the MDT as required.
To use advanced skills and expert knowledge to ensure that care is based on best available evidence to improve health outcomes and promote health and wellbeing of patients.
Evaluate patient and parent progress, reassess, and alter treatment programmes of own caseload and team if required.
To keep accurate, legible records of patient care in line with service guidelines.
Provide a source of expertise and support to colleagues across the therapy services and work with other statutory and independent agencies.
Support junior members of the team and participate in supervision and appraisals.
Represent your profession and the therapy service at multi-disciplinary meetings to ensure a co-ordinated and integrated approach to patient care including discharge planning.
Represent the profession across PHUT.
To demonstrate and implement National Codes of Professional Conduct and Professional Standards of Clinical Practice (e.g., HCPC, CSP ).
To actively participate in the trust appraisal process.
To report, investigate and manage incidents, sharing learning from incidents and risk with the team and wider organisation as appropriate.
To investigate and manage complaints in accordance with Trust policy, share and implement learning across the team.
To work closely with the Therapy 8a Leads and Head of Therapies to ensure services are delivered efficiently and within budgetary constraints including monitoring of demand and capacity within designated area, to ensure efficient resources are available to maintain service delivery.
To work with senior therapy leads to monitor performance and analyse data to provide performance information to service managers to support the delivery of KPIs, management of demand and capacity and to inform future workforce, skill mix requirements and service development.
To work with the Therapy 8a Lead and Head of Therapies to ensure staff are clinically competent, services are clinically effective and safe, and an excellent patient experience is delivered.
To embed the principles of integrated working across therapies and the wider multi-disciplinary team as required.
To advise the Therapy 8a Lead and Head of Therapies on professional issues relating to the provision and development of your defined clinical area including an awareness of the impact of national/regional/local strategy within your defined clinical area.
Propose, produce, interpret, and implement policies, procedures, standards of service, clinical guidelines within your defined clinical area.
Responsible for the safe and competent use of equipment within your defined clinical as appropriate and that that you attain competency prior to use and that equipment defects or accidents are reported.
Undertake risk assessments in a variety of complex situations for self, patients, colleagues, and relatives.
Responsible for maintaining stock of equipment or materials used within specific clinical areas.
Plan and organise non-clinical activities pertaining to your specialist area, meetings, training activities and conferences.

Communication

Provide and receive complex, sensitive, or contentious information to parents, carers, and other staff.
Use highly developed interpersonal verbal and non-verbal skills to overcome significant barriers to communication, acceptance or understanding.
Communicate sensitively and effectively with parents, carers, relatives, or other professionals in situations that may be hostile, antagonistic, or highly emotive.
Establish robust communication networks with other professionals to optimise continuum of care, therapy intervention and discharge planning to ensure a consistent MDT approach to care.
Responsible for recording personally generated information regarding patients e.g., written, and electronic records, reports, and activity data in accordance with professional and local standards including maintaining confidentiality.
Concentrate while undertaking work that is not always predictable. With competing demands for attention, prioritise workload and manage interruptions relating to patient care.
Work with a number of patients and parents who may be challenging and emotionally demanding, parents who may have communication, psychological, cognitive, or mental health issues with frequent exposure to distressing and emotional circumstances.
To provide regular support to staff members who may have been exposed to emotional and stressful situations.
To attend and actively participate in specialty, peer group and departmental staff meetings.
To ensure timely and effective communication to senior therapy staff on all professional matters.

Education and training

Participation in CPD activity including teaching on specific subjects and delivering core training programmes to team members, other professionals, and students.
Provide and conduct specialist training for a range of individuals and groups including patients and their carers, other health professionals, general public, external agencies, and national specialist interest groups.
Provide clinical practice placements for pre-registration students and apprentices and support other staff within your team to supervise students.
To ensure that new members of staff, locums, students, and visitors receive appropriate orientation and induction programmes.
To keep updated with new developments within your specialist area and attend relevant training as appropriate.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Evidence of specialist level of practice including in depth experience at band 6 level.
Supervision of staff/students.
Leadership, recruitment, and selection of staff.
In individual/group and teamwork in a variety of relevant settings.
Of research/audit.
Documented evidence of Continuous Practice Development (CPD).
Practice innovation.
Of working with users/carers and external agencies.
MDT management.

Qualifications

Essential

HCPC Registration.
Recognised professional pre registration qualification (diploma, degree, masters).
Good written and spoken English (IELTS level 7).

Desirable

Practice Educators (student) Qualification.
Evidence of relevant paediatric/neonatal post graduate training.
Leadership training.
MSc or Post Grad Diploma in topics relevant to the role.
Member of professional body e.g., CSP.
Resilience training.
Previous NHS experience.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

Highly developed knowledge in specialist neonatal and paediatric field, underpinned by evidence based theory.
Highly specialist knowledge and experience of a wide range of approaches to the management of patients within neonatal and paediatric care.
Knowledge of processes and policies relating to work in a neonatal and paediatric setting e.g., safeguarding, developmental/educational needs.
Specialist knowledge and application of assessments, interventions, outcome measures.
Supportive, excellent interpersonal skills including ability to communicate clearly both written and oral.
Outstanding leadership skills.
Understand legal responsibilities of your profession, with knowledge of professional and ethical issues in practice.
Ability to build effective working relationships within the Multi-Disciplinary Team.
Knowledge of health and safety issues.
Detailed knowledge of the principles and application of clinical governance including experience of quality issues and audit.
Self-motivated, assertive, diplomatic, and tactful.
An ability to work alone, autonomously and set own priorities Evidence of working independently and to take full responsibility for clinical care of patients.
Ability to work flexibly and manage pressurised situations.
Ability to delegate and negotiate.
Able to analyse professional and ethical issues, including ability to critically appraise own performance.
Ability to recognise when to seek advice.
Supervisory and appraisal skills.
Ability to organise and respond efficiently to complex information.
Ability to cope with a stressful working environment.
Ability to build effective working relationships.
Competent IT skills.
Presentation skills.
Commitment to lifelong learning.
Ability to engage with service users, including a commitment to client centred, non-discriminatory practice.
Ability to keep accurate and legible patient notes including numeracy and literacy skills.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Evidence of specialist level of practice including in depth experience at band 6 level.
Supervision of staff/students.
Leadership, recruitment, and selection of staff.
In individual/group and teamwork in a variety of relevant settings.
Of research/audit.
Documented evidence of Continuous Practice Development (CPD).
Practice innovation.
Of working with users/carers and external agencies.
MDT management.

Qualifications

Essential

HCPC Registration.
Recognised professional pre registration qualification (diploma, degree, masters).
Good written and spoken English (IELTS level 7).

Desirable

Practice Educators (student) Qualification.
Evidence of relevant paediatric/neonatal post graduate training.
Leadership training.
MSc or Post Grad Diploma in topics relevant to the role.
Member of professional body e.g., CSP.
Resilience training.
Previous NHS experience.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

Highly developed knowledge in specialist neonatal and paediatric field, underpinned by evidence based theory.
Highly specialist knowledge and experience of a wide range of approaches to the management of patients within neonatal and paediatric care.
Knowledge of processes and policies relating to work in a neonatal and paediatric setting e.g., safeguarding, developmental/educational needs.
Specialist knowledge and application of assessments, interventions, outcome measures.
Supportive, excellent interpersonal skills including ability to communicate clearly both written and oral.
Outstanding leadership skills.
Understand legal responsibilities of your profession, with knowledge of professional and ethical issues in practice.
Ability to build effective working relationships within the Multi-Disciplinary Team.
Knowledge of health and safety issues.
Detailed knowledge of the principles and application of clinical governance including experience of quality issues and audit.
Self-motivated, assertive, diplomatic, and tactful.
An ability to work alone, autonomously and set own priorities Evidence of working independently and to take full responsibility for clinical care of patients.
Ability to work flexibly and manage pressurised situations.
Ability to delegate and negotiate.
Able to analyse professional and ethical issues, including ability to critically appraise own performance.
Ability to recognise when to seek advice.
Supervisory and appraisal skills.
Ability to organise and respond efficiently to complex information.
Ability to cope with a stressful working environment.
Ability to build effective working relationships.
Competent IT skills.
Presentation skills.
Commitment to lifelong learning.
Ability to engage with service users, including a commitment to client centred, non-discriminatory practice.
Ability to keep accurate and legible patient notes including numeracy and literacy skills.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).