Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist

Job summary

Advanced Practitioners are clinical physiotherapy/occupational therapy specialists with an extended scope of practice, who see patients referred for assessment, clinical diagnosis and management. The post holder will be able to call on investigations and examination by other disciplines to complete their assessment.

To be responsible for planning, co-ordinating, delivering and evaluating the physiotherapy/occupational therapy service provided to patients within the Trust on a day to day basis.

To work autonomously as the therapy, lead within the multidisciplinary team (MDT) providing specialist advice and maintain close working relationships with other health professionals/referrers to ensure efficient, effective and appropriate delivery of the service in the specialist area providing an integrated service to patients.

To effectively communicate and liaise within the Trust and with external agencies, to achieve a co-ordinated and integrated approach to the care of the individual patient.

To promote continuity of care between inpatient and outpatient settings through consultation with patients, families, medical and nursing staff.

To supervise and educate therapy staff and take an active part in multi-professional education.

To identify areas for audit and research and undertake these activities.

Main duties of the job

To hold responsibility for own caseload and to be responsible for the therapy input to the specialist service/speciality.

To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner. Professional autonomy is the term describing the therapist's ability to make decisions independent of other health care professionals. To hold responsibility for own caseload and be responsible for the therapy input to the service.

To be responsible for appropriate referral of patients to other health professionals including consultants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists, orthotists and other health and social service teams. Provide and receive complex information relating to patient's diagnosis, treatment and long term rehabilitation outcomes to patients carers and the multidisciplinary team (MDT).

To use specialist counselling skills with patients, carers, partners and advocates. Use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively and motivate patients, to progress rehabilitation and treatment programmes. This will include patients who may have difficulties in understanding or communicating. For example, patients may be dysphasic, depressed, deaf, blind or who may be unable to accept diagnosis or who are suffering psychological distress.

About us

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust is one of the largest NHS trusts in the West Midlands providing primary, acute and community services and we are incredibly proud of the diversity of both our staff and the communities we serve. We are building a workforce that can help us to fulfil our values, improve the quality of care for patients, and solve the health care problems of tomorrow. We're passionate about the value that diversity of thinking and lived experience brings in enabling us to become a learning organisation and leader in delivering compassionate care for our patients.

We are delighted that we have been rated as "Good" by CQC. We have achieved numerous awards; The Nursing Times Best Diversity and Inclusion Practice and Best UK Employer of the Year for Nursing Staff in 2020.

The Trust is a supportive working environment committed to creating flexible working arrangements that suit your needs and as such will consider all requests from applicants who wish to work flexibly.