Occupational Therapy Assistant Practitioner Nottingham, England
Job description
Do you want to gain experience work as a Band 4 Assistant practitioner and be involved in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of patients who have complex physical and cognitive needs? We are looking for an enthusiastic Band 4 Assistant Practitioner to join the Medicine and Surgery Occupational Therapy Team at NUH, QMC Campus. The post is full time, for a two year fixed-term contract.
You will work with patients and carry out treatment programmes under the guidance and supervision of a registered therapist in order to provide rehabilitation and other interventions to facilitate their safe discharge. Some clerical and administration tasks will also be undertaken (eg keeping records, filing, photocopying). You will be expected to work independently.
This is an excellent opportunity for somebody who has previous experience as a therapy or rehabilitation assistant in an NHS or care setting.
There is also a requirement to contribute to the weekends and bank holiday shifts as part of our service wide rota.
The successful applicant will work alongside the Occupational Therapists who cover the medicine and surgery wards on QMC campus including colorectal, HPB and vascular surgery as well as the general medicine wards. They will be involved in assessment, progression and discharge planning of this patient group and will be expected to utilise rehabilitation programmes. You will be responsible for your own caseload, working both individually and alongside other members of the team. Your OT tasks will include being responsible for gathering information about home circumstances, completing specific functional assessments, ordering equipment and providing rehabilitation and planning discharges.
Excellent communication skills are a must in this role as you will be expected to communicate with patients, carers and members of the MDT.
Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) is one of the biggest and busiest NHS Trusts in the country. We are a large, complex, person-centred organisation with an excellent national and international reputation for the quality of patient care, research, education and innovation.
The Therapies and Rehabilitation Directorate sits within NUH's Clinical Support Division, and employs over 700 staff. Staff development is strongly encouraged through training and supervision, with specific career development programmes for our vital assistant practitioner workforce.
The Medicine and Surgery team cover a variety of wards. We can offer you an inclusive and thorough induction programme, regular supervision and an annual appraisal with your supervisor, opportunity to develop your clinical skills within a supportive MDT, and commitment to your learning and development.
The successful candidate will have previously worked in a care environment and be able to manage their own caseload. They will be expected to undertake assessments and use their clinical decision making skills to interpret their assessment and plan treatment/discharge planning accordingly. They will also need to demonstrate use of a wide range of equipment to promote independence to enable their practice. They will be expected to lead on access visits.
You will be expected to work independently to promote wellbeing, safety and independence within your patients essential activities of daily living, by providing instruction, advice and treatment to both the patient and/or their carers. During this time you must maintain patient dignity at all times, treating each patient as an individual and being sensitive to cultural and religious needs.
You will be expected to make referrals onto appropriate hospital and community services eg. Physiotherapy, ICELS, community OT and maintain comprehensive and accurate records in line with Trust policy.
You must have excellent communication skills. You must be able to develop, maintain and promote effective professional working relationships with other disciplines and members of the team and use effective communication skills to gain co-operation with treatment where there may be significant barriers to understanding or ability to co-operate with the treatment.
The team work with patients who have long term conditions and you must be able to provide emotional support to patients, families and carers to enable them to cope with the psychological effects of their injury/illness.
You will be able to develop, maintain and promote effective professional working relationships with other disciplines and members of the team including nursing and medical staff and feel confident to do so.
You will be able to provide advice and support on a day to day basis to other support workers including delegating tasks for them to complete.
NUH has a set of values and behaviours to improve the experience for our patients and our staff (We listen, we care). This means that in undertaking this role the post holder is expected at all times to behave is a way that demonstrates commitment to the delivery of thoughtful patient care and continuous improvement.
In addition to the above summary, please familiarise yourself with the full Job Description and Person Specification documents attached to this advert.
