Job responsibilities
Job Profile Summary
Reporting to the Therapy Services Manager, the Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist will provide innovative clinical and managerial leadership which inspires, motivates, and empowers therapists in the delivery of excellent patient experience.
This role will focus on delivering a high quality, robust and responsive service to all patients requiring Occupational Therapy Services with a specialist interest all adult rehabilitation, working alongside consultants and all members of the multidisciplinary team.
Working as an autonomous practitioner, the Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist will provide advanced assessments, clinical diagnosis, and management of patients in the neurorehabilitation, generic rehabilitation, amputee and neurosurgical areas, ensuring that the service is informed by best evidence and expert knowledge.
Job Responsibilities
- Lead, manage and deliver the Occupational Therapy service to provide high quality care to all patients
- Act as a source of expertise on the management of patients, providing support and advice to senior occupational therapists and other health professionals both within the service and within other specialities.
- Be responsible for the day-to-day operational service planning and delivery of the Occupational Therapy Service.
- Educate and train occupational therapists, occupational therapy students and other healthcare professionals in the management of neurological disorders.
- Provide aspirational clinical support to all other therapists and to develop them both clinically and non-clinically, acting as a good role model.
- Keep informed of developments within professional clinical practice relevant to this area of occupational therapy and to cascade this information and incorporate into local practice as appropriate.
- Work independently and within the MDT, managing discharge, transition home and onward referrals of patients, including involvement in complex discharges.
- Provide support and advice to doctors, nursing staff, allied health professionals, patients, and their families/carers.
- Identify clinical research and audit priorities to drive the occupational therapy clinical development strategy.
- Assist with the collection and evaluation of capacity, productivity, and other relevant data.
- Support the Rehabilitation and acute Services in their strategic development of the service as well as the development and delivery of innovative service improvement projects focussed on improving quality of care and patient outcomes.
- Provide the Rehabilitation and acute Services with assurance of proactive management of a clinical incident, ensuring appropriate actions are taken to mitigate or respond to identified risks.
- Assist in the recruitment and selection of occupational therapy staff and the wider therapy staff.
- Work within CCLs, Health and Care Professions Council and Royal College of Occupational Therapy (RCOT) Standards of Practice.
- Adhere at all times to personal and professional standards, which reflect credit on the profession and encourage others to do likewise.
- Be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work, ensuring a high standard of clinical care for patients under own management and supporting others to do likewise.
- Be responsible for the management and development of the weekend therapy assistants.
Education
- Degree in relevant AHP profession - Essential
- Evidence of experience /post graduate training and CPD relevant to specialty area - Essential
- Evidence of continuous and current professional and academic development relevant to clinical field - Essential
- Education to Masters level in specialty area Desirable
- Evidence of training or experience in appraisal, supervisory skills, and leadership/management - Desirable
- Evidence of post graduate training or experience in basic research skills e.g., literature reviews, critical appraisal - Desirable
- Membership of a special interest group Desirable
Certifications
- Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council Essential
Languages
- Ability to speak and write in English is required skills in another language are desirable.
- Complexity of Work
- Expert clinical reasoning skills in the appropriate application of a range of techniques and approaches to the management of the relevant clinical area of occupational therapy.
- Specialist knowledge and application of best evidence-based practice in relevant speciality area and application of therapy assessment and intervention for a range of conditions.
- Demonstrate expert manual and skills necessary for assessment and treatment of patients,including complex therapeutic handling, cognition, vocational, environmental and use of specialised occupational therapy equipment.
- Ability to remain updated with professional practice and research and integrate this into daily clinical practice.
- Able to communicate effectively and flexibly verbally and in writing, and to adapt communication style to the needs of patients and Caregivers.
- Able to lead, inspire, motivate, and empower teams using effective clinical leadership qualities.
- Able to mentor, coach and support patients, Caregivers and colleagues and establish and maintain good working relationships.
- Able to organise, prioritise, delegate and work to deadline effectively.
- Proven negotiation and conflict resolution skills.
- Able to work in a potentially stressful environment and with patients or carers who may be displaying aggressive or challenging behaviour.
- Proven excellence in developing/and providing education and teaching to other professionals and students.
- Advanced knowledge of clinical quality and patent safety issues and policy.
- Knowledge of the influence of psychosocial and cultural factors on health/illness behaviours.
- Understanding emerging role of therapies in evolving health environment.
- Ability to reflect on and critically appraise own performance.
- Effective resolution of professional ethical issues.
- Ability to carry out physical effort during the working day and carry out concurrent activities requiring skill and dexterity.
Work Experience
- Extensive postgraduate experience working within acute and rehabilitation at a senior level with experience of the assessment and treatment of cognition.
- Extensive experience of leading an effective team of qualified therapy staff and students, including recruitment and induction, setting objectives, coaching, and developing and managing performance.
- Extensive experience of multidisciplinary/multi agency working.
- Experience of completing audits, quality standard setting and risk management processes for clinical effectiveness.
- Experience of using clinical governance framework to monitor and improve quality of patient care.
- Experience of incident investigation and implementation of change of practice as a result of clinical incidents.
- Demonstrate evidence of learning from experience and having undertaken formal and informal CPD, both generic and specific to clinical field/specialty.
- Experience of supporting a culture of research awareness.
- Evaluation of clinical practice including participation in research/audit/service evaluation and quality.
- Experience of empowering patients to make informed choices about the management of their condition and engaging them in the planning and delivery of treatment, taking into account cultural, linguistic, medical, emotional, psychological and physical factor.
- Experience in the assessment of capacity, ability to work within the legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent and to support other caregivers to do likewise.
Physical Requirements
- Requires extensive sitting and dexterity to perform work on a PC.
- Typical physical demands include ability to sit, stand or walk extensively.
Personal Protective Equipment
- Follows standard precautions using personal protective equipment as required.
Safeguarding
All caregivers have a personal and a professional responsibility to identify and report abuse. A patient or fellow caregiver may disclose information of being abused or suspected abuse. A caregiver may also witness abuse or simply have concerns of abuse taking place. Should any caregiver suspect abuse then it is vital that the CCL safeguarding policy and procedure is immediately implemented.
It is the caregivers responsibility to ensure they are fully compliant with CCLs safeguarding and training and read, understood and adhere to the CCLs Safeguarding Policy and Protocols.
