Assistant Practitioner - Community Respiratory

Job summary

The Morecambe Bay Respiratory Network in conjunction with the Community Respiratory Service, have secured funding until April 2026, to trial a number of new services across Morecambe Bay, including (but not limited to) integrated MDT clinical pathways for chronic respiratory disease management, additional localised pulmonary rehabilitation programs, and specialist home rehabilitation and support, for people with respiratory disease living with high symptom burden who are at high risk of deterioration and urgent care use.

This role offers you a permanent contract with our Trust (UHMBT), and a role aligned with the Community Respiratory Service until 31st March 2026. Further funding for us to continue these Respiratory services beyond April 2026, will be dependent on the success of this trial period.

So, if you have a passion for respiratory care and want to help us to improve the lives of people living with respiratory disease across Morecambe Bay, and if you are up for a challenge and want to help us make these new services a success - then this role could be for you!

The role of Assistant Practitioner will support the delivery of our Home Pulmonary Rehabilitation service across Morecambe Bay

Main duties of the job

You will work closely with our specialist respiratory MDT to deliver a home-based PR service to people of Morecambe Bay.

The role will involve a mixture of patient-facing (in the domiciliary setting), remote and telephone consultations to people who have chronic lung disease (e.g. COPD, ILD) who are severely impaired by their respiratory symptoms and illness, or who have just been discharged from hospital following an acute exacerbation of their COPD.

Your role will include (but is not limited to)

• Supporting registered clinicians with holistic patient assessments including, exercise testing, functional assessment, clinical observations and symptom questionnaires.
• Visiting patients in their own home to carry out patient education, treatment and deliver programmes of therapy/rehab or exercise under the remote supervision of Physiotherapy/OT or Nurse colleagues
• Measuring for/installing small items of OT equipment
• Provide brief intervention smoking cessation and motivational interviewing support
• Assess and correct inhaler and exercise technique
• Record clinical consultations to EMIS web electronic records
• Record PR clinical audit data on excel
• Travel independently across Morecambe bay to visit people in their homes, deliver equipment and attend service meetings/training.
• Work autonomously within your own scope of practice
• Actively participate in CPD, reflecting on own performance and seeking feedback

See JD/PS for further detail.

About us

UHMBT Integrated Community Service provides care outside of the hospital setting, including community locations and people's own homes.

UHMBT Hospital services operate from three main hospitals-Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI), and Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) in Kendal, as well as a number of community healthcare premises including Millom Hospital and GP Practice, Queen Victoria Hospital in Morecambe, and Ulverston Community Health Centre.

FGH and the RLI have a range of General Hospital services, with full Emergency Departments, Critical/Coronary Care units and various Consultant-led services.

WGH provides a range of General Hospital services, together with an Urgent Treatment Centre, that can help with a range of non-life threatening conditions such as broken bones and minor illnesses.

Our community services for adults are provided in people's homes, community centres, clinics, GP Practices, community hospitals and our main hospitals. Our aim is to work with people to help them remain independent, improve their health and manage their conditions through high quality care, advice and support.

The Community Therapy team covers South Cumbria with bases in Kendal and Barrow. The post holder will be based at Kendal and provide community rehab to those living in the South Lakes area.

The post holder would need their own transport to enable them to visit people in their own homes.