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Clinical Psychologist - Fatigue Services
The closing date is 05 August 2025
This is an exciting opportunity to support an established fatigue clinic within Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust providing a highly specialised clinical psychology service as part of a multi-disciplinary team to people with ME/CFS and Long Covid, including assessment, therapeutic intervention, consultation, undertaking research and audit, supervision, and training.
The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously as an independent practitioner within defined aims and professional guidelines, under the supervision of a Consultant Clinical Psychologist also working in the Fatigue Clinic, and will be part of the wider Clinical Health Psychology team.
We welcome applicants who are passionate about supporting patients within physical healthcare settings, and who will bring an enthusiastic and compassionate approach to the role.
Internal applicants would be welcome to apply with a view to a secondment opportunity.
Main duties of the job
The post will deliver a highly specialist clinical psychology service to the Fatigue Clinic, working in partnership with other Psychologists and Allied Health Professionals.
The post holder will be a valued member of the Psychological Medicine Service which encompasses Clinical Health Psychology, Children's Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry.
OUH Department of Clinical Health Psychology
The OUH Clinical Health Psychology department is a well-established team that supports a wide range of specialities across the acute hospital Trust.
The team has close academic links with the University of Oxford through the Clinical Psychology training programme and other research groups across the Medical Sciences Division. The department is research active and encourages team members to pursue their academic and research interests. The department actively supports CPD activity through study leave and funding for training courses.
About us
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. For more information on OUH please view OUH At a Glance by OUHospitals - Issuu
Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community.
We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence.
OUH At a Glance
A brief guide to who we are and what we do
Job responsibilities
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
CLINICAL
* To undertake highly specialist psychological assessment and communicate a clinical opinion in order to inform and/or develop a case formulation to guide psychological intervention/consultation. Assessment will be based on analysis interpretation and integration of highly complex information from a variety of sources including clinical interview, direct observation, questionnaire measures, literature review and psychometric assessment- incorporating medical investigations if relevant. To give an opinion based on this in cases where professional opinion may differ, and in which a judgment must be made about the significance of data where data may be unreliable/missing.
* As an integral part of a psychological assessment, to simultaneously exercise well-developed manual skills (i.e. accurate manipulation of a wide range of test materials, including physical materials), with which accuracy is important and it is often necessary to take account of interfering factors (such as patient distractibility, or level of comprehension).
* To develop specialised plans for formal psychological intervention and/or management of the patients psychological difficulties, based on the individual assessment and formulation, and making use of an informed judgment of evidence of treatment efficacy and psychological principles.
* To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining several provisional hypotheses.
* To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, carers or group.
* To support the work of the multidisciplinary team, providing training, supervision and consultancy as appropriate.
* To communicate effectively, empathically and clearly with patients and family members regarding psychological or medical matters which will regularly be highly complicated (such as explanation of multi-faceted clinical formulations including psychological principles, medical factors, personal and family psychological factors, and the implications of these), highly emotionally charged (such as eliciting/discussing experiences of trauma or childhood abuse), and which may require managing difficulties in understanding (such as cognitive difficulties), or overcoming communication challenges with patients who are experiencing high levels of anxiety, depression or symptoms in keeping with enduring mental health difficulties.
* To communicate effectively and clearly with clinical colleagues regarding psychological assessments and interventions by organizing and sharing the highly complex information involved in a relevant and usable form in formal written and spoken reports, as well as in day-to day liaison and consultation.
* In carrying out the duties of the post, to exercise very high levels of mental concentration for prolonged periods (for example in consecutive psychotherapy sessions), regularly requiring sustained emotional concentration (for example in communicating highly distressing news or eliciting/discussing experiences of trauma or childhood abuse), while sitting in a constrained position for extended periods.
* In carrying out the duties of the post, to cope with and manage behaviours that challenge, including verbal abuse and risk of physical aggression (for example from people experiencing high levels of distress or enduring mental health difficulties).
* To exercise standard keyboard skills and use a computer as necessary for clinical work, including literature searches, word processing, developing and maintaining training packs, information leaflets, inputting data, report writing, maintaining electronic patient records and other tasks as necessary for the efficient running of the service.
* To record activity and outcome data as required by Psychological Medicine Senior Management Team
CONSULTATION
* To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice and consultation to other professionals in relation to patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care (for example advising medical teams on psychological principles and research, or acting as consultant to AHP colleagues in understanding and managing behaviours that challenge).
RESEARCH AND SERVICE EVALUATION
To take responsibility for keeping up to date with relevant clinical research
To identify, initiate and complete clinical research as a routine activity (including collaborating actively with MDT colleagues on research projects).
To carry out and co-operate in audit/service-related projects (for example clinically relevant research as agreed by the Regional Spinal Injuries Service).
To use computer software in developing and operating systems for storage and analysis of data and creation of reports for colleagues in relation to audit activities and clinical research.
To supervise research and development activities of Assistant Psychologists as appropriate.
TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION
To participate in regular supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines and trust policy.
To participate in in the trusts annual values-based appraisal process.
To attend all relevant mandatory training when required.
To supervise assistant psychologists as necessary, and any other psychologists or professional colleagues associated with the post.
To provide teaching on Clinical Psychology on the Oxford Training Course in Clinical Psychology as appropriate.
To provide teaching and training to other professional colleagues/staff groups on psychological matters as appropriate.
ADMINISTRATIVE/ORGANISATIONAL
To attend regional service meetings and clinical health psychology meetings as appropriate.
To maintain accurate clinical notes and documentation for professional and legal requirements in line with OUHFT policy.
To take part in service/departmental policy implementation and development (by for example working under supervision on policy implementation, as well as raising issues and proposing and discussing changes).
To plan and organize the work of assistants as appropriate, in addition to their own caseload, research and other responsibilities and liaise as necessary with other colleagues.
Person Specification
Training and Qualifications
* Honours degree in psychology at 2:1 or above
* Post-graduate Doctoral level qualification in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent for those trained pre 1996).
* HCPC Registration
Experience
* Experience of clinical work in a relevant setting
* Experience with individual work, families and indirect work through MDT colleagues or other carers
* Experience of working in a clinical health psychology service
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.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
£53,755 to £60,504 a yearper annum pro rata
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