Job overview
Are you passionate and ready to make a real impact to the lives of newborns?! An exciting opportunity has arisen for a passionate and driven Occupational Therapist to work within Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Trust Neonatal Unit. We are looking for an experienced, compassionate and dedicated Occupational Therapist to be part of the Multi disciplinary team, to provide specialist care to support the development of premature and medically fragile infants, while empowering families to confidently care for their baby.
You will work closely with parents and families using the FiCare model, alongside a diverse team including Neonatal Consultants, Nurses, and other AHP's to ensure the best outcomes for our neonatal patient's and their families.
This role offers you the opportunity to take on an exciting leadership position, combining both operational and clinical responsibilities. You will play a critical role in service development and audit processes.
This is a rare opportunity to get involved in the most early intervention possible and really make a difference to infant's and their family’s lives! So if you are experienced in Paediatric or Neonatal care, and passionate about making a lasting impact, then we want to hear from you!
Main duties of the job
Occupational therapists promote infant neurodevelopment on the neonatal unit by enabling parents and caregivers to provide individualised developmentally supportive care. Adapting the environment ensures we promote the best sensory experience for brain development.
Occupational Therapists support the parent-infant relationship by helping parents understand their infants’ behavioural cues and signs of stress. We work with parents/carers to help infants regulate their neuro-behavioural body systems. This enables them to take part in caregiving activities in a supportive and meaningful way.
Occupational therapists use specialist assessment and early interventions focused on sensory, motor, attention, regulation and play development to ensure infants reach their developmental potential. This supports their participation in co-occupations such as sleeping, eating and early interaction which are crucial for the health and development of infants and parents/carers
Working for our organisation
We have over 10,000 fantastic people working hard at LTHTR to deliver quality services to our patients. Whatever your role, you help look after 370,000 people in our local area & give specialist care to 1.5 million people across Lancashire & Cumbria.
Working with us gives you the knowledge and sense of pride that every activity you do genuinely does make a difference to support our patients & staff, ensuring we keep thriving & delivering outstanding healthcare right across our local towns.
You’ll have access to varied development opportunities, learn new skills, meet fab people & do things you’d never have done. You’ll learn about working in a hospital, interacting with people from all different roles to build skills & enhance your career path.
You’ll make an impact, be challenged to think differently, be bold & help innovate to keep improving things. Everything we do centres around patient care and enhancing their experience which means your role is pivotal and something really to be proud of.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We will offer you a supportive work environment where you can develop your specialist skills and knowledge. You will be a key provider in the delivery of high-quality health care. There are opportunities for personal and professional development.
Duties to include, but not be limited to:
1. To directly support the delivery of Occupational Therapy to patients
2. To communicate and collaborate with all Core Therapies and children's service stakeholders
3. To support service development and planning. * Manage own caseload and prioritisation based on clinical need
4. Record assessment, differential diagnosis, clinical reasoning and analysis clearly in patients' notes
5. Record reasoned treatment and management plans in patient notes
6. Demonstrate advanced level of assessment and treatment skills to meet patients clinical need
7. To provide leadership and management support
This post offers great development opportunities!
If you would like to find out more or come and see what we do, please contact us to arrange a time convenient for you. Sarah Tandy or Pam Price Occupational Therapists Paediatrics 01772 524114
*PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE INTERVIEW DATE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE*
Person specification
Qualifications and Education
Essential criteria
8. HCPC registered
9. Occupational Therapy degree/diploma
10. Evidence of CPD in paediatrics
Desirable criteria
11. Practice Placement Educator
12. Member of RCOT
13. Masters qualification or working towards
14. NBO/NBAS, NIDCAP, FINE I/II, SI or willingness to complete
Knowledge and Experience
Essential criteria
15. Previous varied paediatric experience with knowledge and experience of a range of assessment and intervention/approaches in neonatal and/or paediatric care
16. Knowledge of child development, common neonatal and paediatric conditions and indepth knowledge of developmental disabilities and factors influencing early infant development
17. Experience in developing the OT’s role.
18. Proven experience in a wide range of clinical areas, and working with children of a variety of ages from 0-19
19. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
20. Managerial experience or willingness to develop
21. Relevant postgraduate Occupational Therapy NHS clinical experience, preferably inclusive of neonatal care
Desirable criteria
22. Experience in monitoring work performance
23. Membership of speciality groups
24. Previous Band 7 experience
25. Knowledge and experience of using a wide range of different infant assessments eg. Bayley Scales of Infant Development, NBO, NBAS, Prechtl General Movement Assessment or willingness to complete
26. General Movement Assessment or willingness to complete
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
27. Demonstrated ability to carry out occupation based assessment
28. Application of Occupational Therapy models of practice and evidence-based practice.
29. Management of a varied neonatal or paediatric caseload with evidence of skills in acute and/or community settings
30. Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of disabilities on patient, families and carers
31. Ability to manage caseloads, prioritise workloads and work independently.
32. Ability to prioritise designated caseload and departmental duties.
33. Willingness to develop own knowledge and practice in neonatal and contributes to the development of others
34. Advanced clinical reasoning skills.
35. Demonstrates ability to seek, analyse and draw valid conclusions from available information
36. Demonstrate problem solving approach and sound clinical decision making to facilitate a timely discharge.
37. Demonstrate knowledge of a wide range of assessment techniques and tools.
38. Ability to analyse tasks and activities, synthesise findings and develop goal orientated treatment plans.
39. Ability to proactively resource information to address patient’s needs in a timely manner.
40. Able to use coaching strategies to support parent participation in caring for infant
41. Developing and providing education and teaching programmes to other professionals and students
42. Ability to take an overview of the service, and to initiate and contribute to its development. Demonstrate an understanding of health and safety, importance of confidentiality and equal opportunities in relation to patient care and departmental operation.
43. Ability to support the supervision and education of junior staff and students.
Desirable criteria
44. To demonstrate an understanding of internal and external factors affecting Occupational Therapy provision
45. Experience in collecting and evaluating audit and quality assurance programmes and participating research
46. Previous experience in applying Clinical Governance to practice.
47. Involvement in the training and education of others (i.e., carers, staff and educators)
48. Contributes to research and/or innovation within the profession and specialty and across professional teams.
Values and Behaviours
Essential criteria
49. Willingness to work flexibly.
50. Excellent communication and interactive skills.
51. Good personal organisational and time management skills.
52. Ability to manage and recognise differences of opinion in both patient related and interprofessional settings coping positively with interpersonal tensions/barriers.
53. Proactive approach.
54. Ability to positively manage exposure to patients and environments which may be highly distressing, antagonistic, open to aggression and unpleasant.
55. Commitment to lifelong learning
56. Adherence to College of Occupational Therapy, HCPC guidelines and codes of ethics and professional conduct.
57. Able to provide effective timely care across the acute Trust within neonatal services
58. Takes responsibility for implementation of Trust health and safety policies in local working environment.
Desirable criteria
59. Membership of professional body.