Urgent Community Response - Health and Therapy Assistant

Job summary

It's an exciting time for our Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service. We are expanding our teams to include the ability to provide virtual ward capacity whilst continuing to build on our successful UCR model.

UCR services work with patients in their homes across West Sussex communities to avoid hospital admissions, support those being discharged home and provide virtual ward support using remote monitoring technology and enhanced medical oversight.

We are looking for Health and Therapy Assistants to join us, so if you're an enthusiastic and motivated individual looking be part of a team providing excellent cutting-edge urgent community care, we'd love to hear from you.

We are a multidisciplinary team working flexibly to provide a seven-day service, 365 days a year, between 8am and 8pm. We deliver:

• A rapid response to people in the community who are experiencing acute episodes of ill-health.
• Virtual ward admission utilising remote monitoring technology and enhanced medical oversight to provide a safe alternative to hospital admission.
• A supported discharge service to facilitate timely hospital discharges.
• Acute reablement for up to 10 days, supporting people to achieve functional goals and work towards independence with activities of daily living.

Main duties of the job

The focus of this role is providing personal, health and therapy care for patients across the area with acute and diverse needs.

Your day will be varied and interesting, supporting patients towards achieving more independence in their activities of daily living. You will be supported by nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy colleagues to review the needs of patients and input into onward referrals. Due to the development of shared competencies across the registered staff groups, Health and Therapy Assistants now have a greater scope of independent working and access to skill development across each of these disciplines.

Your role will include assisting in the ongoing assessment and provisionof care, reablement and reporting all changes in patient status to your registered colleagues both verbally and in written records. You will undertake simple clinical and therapeutic procedures such as taking physical observations, venepuncture, administeringmedications, simple wound care, rehabilitation programmes and equipmentprovision. You will record the outcome of contacts with patients, their relatives, and colleagues from the wider team such as physiotherapists and you will have a key role in empowering patients to regain their health and independence in collaborationwith the multidisciplinary team.

About us

You will be part of a supported induction programme and offered job relevant training to ensure that you feel confident and able to undertake this role to the best of your ability while being able to reach your own potential through personal development along with peer and supervisory support.

The team works closely with other services within Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, as well as our acute and community partners, GPs, South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), adult social care and voluntary and third sector organisations.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2021 NHS Staff Survey results with compassionate culture and leadership, and support for staff wellbeing, scoring highly
• Rated 'Good' with 'Outstanding' features by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• Located in stunning Sussex, with easy access to the South Downs and the coast
• A great variety of working environments, in the community, in patients' homes and in our community hospitals
• Excellent training and development opportunities
• Real Living Wage Employer, with great rates of pay
• Supportive flexible working patterns such as part time, flexi time, annualised hours etc.
• Supportive team environments
• Cost-effective and convenient workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove and Brighton
• Thriving BAME, Disability and Wellbeing, LGBT+ and Religion and Belief staff networks
• Accredited Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, committed to creating inclusive workplaces