Advanced Physiotherapist

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

The post holder will provide physiotherapy assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for adult service users with a Learning Disability condition, as an autonomous practitioner. To provide physiotherapy advice, guidance and information to service users and health and social care professionals. . To plan, deliver and evaluate the service in liaison with the Physiotherapy Strategic and Professional Lead.

Principal Responsibilities:

Clinical

To be professional and legally accountable for all aspects of own work to ensue a high standard of clinical care.

To undertake comprehensive assessment of service users and use advance clinical reasoning skills and analysis of non clinical issues to form accurate diagnosis and prognoses in a wide range of highly complex conditions with multipathology, chronic and /or terminal presentation.

To formulate individualised condition management and short and long term plans, utilising a wide range of treatment skills and strategies; to create, implement and monitor specialised programmes of care.

To assess capacity, gain valid information consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with the service users who lack capacity to consent.

To use effective communication skills in the explanation of complex pathologies and negotiation and delivery of palliative or rehabilitative treatment to service users with cognitive/intellectual impairment e.g., acute/chronic mental health conditions.

To provide spontaneous and planned advice, teaching and guidance to service users, relatives, carers and health and social care professionals.

To use specialist skills to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive.

To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive service user treatment and intervention records in line with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy professional standards.

To refer to and recommend, in conjunction with the Wheelchair Services the provision of specialist seating systems and wheelchairs.

To work in partnership with the Appliance Department in the provision of specialist orthoses as required.

Organisational

To plan and organise effectively and efficiently with regard to service user caseload and use of time. To prioritise and balance other service user related and professional demands and ensure these remain in accordance with those of the department.

To be responsible for the allocation, supervision, and clinical training of physiotherapy students to gradate level. To liaise with university lecturers and complete assessments and appraisals.

To respond proactively to the needs of the service user by organising and co-ordinating multi agency activities e.g., case reviews, Care Programme Approach.

To be responsible for the prescription, authorisation and ordering of service user orthoses and appliances and their review.

To contribute to and take responsibility for the interpretation and the implementation of Government Policies to develop and enhance the Physiotherapy service to service users e.g., National Service Frameworks, White Papers, in liaison with the Physiotherapy Professional Lead.

To comply with and contribute to Departmental and Organisational Policies and to be involved with reviewing, updating, and implementing as appropriate.

To adhere to the Trusts rights-based approach, taking into account service user choice.

To take responsibility for ensuring your own personal safety and that of service users and staff within inpatient and community services. Co-ordinate appropriate assessments and action plans to address any issues affecting the safety of staff or others.

To take reasonable care for the health and safety of yourself and any others that may be affected by your acts or omissions at work.

To ensure that you are familiar with the terms and conditions of your post.

Professional

To develop effective working relationships with other professionals within the Trust and externally, in order to enhance the delivery of care to services users.

To manage and lead on research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery. To undertake the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects.

To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through additional training and clinical professional activities and to maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.

To attend mandatory and in-service training programmes and to deliver training sessions and presentations both internally and externally.

To participate in the staff appraisal scheme and formulation of Personal Development Plans as both appraiser and appraisee.

Generic Responsibilities for all staff:

All post holders will agree to:

• Commit to the vision of supporting Mersey Care in becoming a leading organisation in the provision of community services, mental health care, addiction services and learning disability care, and in doing so fully utilise their skills and experience to support the objectives of the Trust.
• Role model the values of the Trust Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Respectfulness, Enthusiasm and Support in all activities and interactions with employees, service users and other stakeholders
• Challenge the stigma associated with mental health and learning difficulties.
• Comply with the Duty of Candour, defined by Francis as: 'The volunteering of all relevant information to persons who have or may have been harmed by the provision of services, whether or not the information has been requested and whether or not a complaint or a report about that provision has been made.
• Work across professional and organisational boundaries to improve services for all.
• Maintain their specific knowledge base and develop new skills.
• Value the contribution of the patient/ service user voice.
• Operate within any organisational codes of practice or those from a relevant professional body.
• Respect equality and diversity across all areas of working practice and communications with staff, service users and other stakeholders.
• Take responsibility for the accurate and timely collection and recording of data and ensuring all personally identifiable information is protected and used only for the purposes for which it was intended.
• Comply with all health and safety legislation and local policies and procedures.
• Adhere to all organisational policies.
• Have knowledge and understanding of technology in the workplace which is sufficient to maintain their efficiency and also how technology can empower service users in a digital environment.
• Comply with the NHS Constitution in relation to the staff responsibilities that it sets out for NHS employees.
• Attend a one day Just and Learning & Civility and Respect training workshop.
• Be an ambassador for Just & Learning and Civility & Respect following the training.
• Positively advocate the just and learning culture within your team.
• Be a confident supporter and implementer of the Trust CARES Values including Civility & Respect within your team.
• Support their team/services to create a positive environment for Just and Learning Culture.
• Participate in Just and Learning Culture events.
• Bring Just and Learning Culture updates/information to the attention of team members and other MCT colleagues they work with.
• Support and encourage the sharing of concerns about the safety and quality of care with senior leaders with the aim of improving safety and quality.
• Actively participate in creating an open culture within your team so that concerns and difficulties can be discussed safely and respectfully.
• Speaking up in the event that they are exposed to incivility between colleagues in the workplace #iwillspeakup.
• Listening and understanding others who have concerns and taking a collaborative approach to work towards a solution to improve civility and respect.

This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be reviewed in light of the changing needs of the Trust in consultation with the postholder.

Qualifications

Essential

• Physiotherapy Degree
• Health Professions Council registered

Desirable

• Specialist postgraduate study
• Membership of northwest specialist interest group (ACPPLD)
• Attendance at Postural Care Course

Knowledge/Experience

Essential

• 4 Years post qualification including 2 years specialist experience of working with adults with a Learning Disability
• Sound knowledge of evidence-based strategies
• Previous experience of outcome measures and audit
• Demonstrate knowledge of supervision and ability to provide education and supervision to qualified and unqualified staff
• Computer literate

Desirable

• Experience of leading a small team
• Experience of using research methodology

Skills

Essential

• Highly developed communication skills both verbal and nonverbal
• Good listening, negotiation, and motivating skills
• Ability to lead and work as part of a team and to facilitate team working
• Good organisational skills
• Ability to prioritise workload using time management and delegation skills

Other

Essential

• NHS experience as a qualified staff
• Good general health
• Reasonable level of fitness
• Ability to carry out the job role in a timely manner i.e., car driver
• Confident in water (hydrotherapy)

Values

Essential

• Continuous Improvement
• Accountability
• Respectfulness
• Enthusiasm
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Strong customer service belief
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).