Job summary
Are you looking to develop your skills in a supportive team? Are you interested in the relationship between physical and psychological health? Then this could be the post for you! At the Plymouth Dialysis Unit (PDU) we are developing our Clinical Psychology provision, and we are looking for an enthusiastic psychologist to join our multi-disciplinary team.
The PDU supports individuals experiencing significant physical health challenges. Dialysis has a huge impact on the daily lives and wellbeing of individuals with renal failure. Our team strives to provide holistic care and we have taken action to address the historic lack of specialist psychological support for our client group. This post will be part of the developing Renal Psychology Service.
We are excited to be advertising a new Clinical Psychologist role for hours per week.
This is an opportunity to be inspired by remarkable individuals, from our service users and staff team; to input into innovative service development; and to develop your career in a nurturing environment. We would love to hear from you if you are interested in this exciting post.
***Preference will be given to internal Trust staff, as well as 'Priority' and 'At Risk' status including NHS At Risk staff throughout Devon who are able to display recent relevant experience as dictated by the Person Specification.***
Main duties of the job
As a Clinical Psychologist, you will be offering psychological care to individuals with renal failure, who require dialysis, or may be considering their treatment options. You will have an active role within the multidisciplinary team, offering support, training, and reflective spaces to your colleagues in the team.
We encourage interest from applicants with experience working in physical health settings, but also support those without direct clinical health psychology experience to recognise their transferable skills. We urge candidates with diverse experiences and backgrounds, both personally and professional, to apply for this role. You will be supported to develop your knowledge of renal disease and the relationship between the psychological and physical. You will have protected CPD time to focus on your professional development and will be very much supported by the PDU team.
A job plan will support you to maintain a balance of direct clinical work, systemic working with the team, administrative duties, and professional development. You will have regular clinical supervision and line management. You can rely on a supportive network of local psychologists working in clinical health psychology at UHPT, and connections with the South West regional Renal Psychologists group. You will be part of our developing relationship with the local universities for teaching and trainee placements.
About us
We are a people business - where every member of staff matters and can make a difference. Patients are at the heart of everything we do. Joining University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust means becoming part of a team of dedicated staff, who are committed to leading the way through innovation, clinical excellence and great customer care. The Trust has great opportunities for career development in a highly progressive working environment. We offer all of this in a vibrant, modern city with a historic reputation for adventure. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY. If you have any issues with applying online and need additional support including reasonable adjustments with the application process please contact the recruitment team on 01752 432100. We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants around less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. Please contact the recruiting manager to discuss this prior to your application submission. We commit to giving this full consideration in each case. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply for our roles, as diversity strengthens our teams. It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.
Job description
Job responsibilities
You will be a qualified Clinical Psychologist passionate about the psychological needs of people experiencing renal failure and dialysis. The purpose of this role is to provide psychological support to individuals who have renal failure, their loved ones and the multi-disciplinary staff caring for them.
You will achieve this through:
1. The delivery of evidence-based psychological therapies, using your knowledge and skills to assess, formulate, offer intervention, and evaluate psychological needs.
2. Your strengths in reflective practice, and abilities to share this with the multidisciplinary team.
3. Your ability to adapt to the changing needs of the population and service. Contributing to service development, listening to the feedback from service users, their loved ones, and the wider healthcare team.
4. Your understanding of risk and safeguarding, prioritising the safety of all staff and service users.
5. Using this post to develop your skills in supervision, teaching, training, and clinical leadership.
6. Working as an autonomous professional within HCPC and BPS guidelines and codes of conduct and guided by the policies and procedures of the services, taking responsibility for your work with support of your clinical supervisor.
Person Specification
Personal
Essential
7. Post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) or an equivalent counselling psychology qualification as accredited by the BPS; including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, life span developmental psychology and two or more distinct psychological therapies
8. Demonstrable experience of working as a clinical/counselling psychologist
9. Demonstrable experience of working with chronic and life-threatening illness, death and dying
10. Demonstrable experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment
11. Demonstrable experience of teaching, training and/or professional and formal clinical guidance
12. Demonstrable experience of providing supervision to staff ( allied health professionals, specialist nurses etc)
13. Good analytical and judgemental skills
14. Proven knowledge and demonstrable experience of giving and receiving clinical supervision
15. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
16. Able to provide and receive complex, sensitive, emotive or contentious information both with individuals, groups of professionals, colleagues, families, carers and the public
17. Confident in providing highly specialist advice relating to the diagnosis, care, treatment or education of patients
18. Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
19. Advanced level proven knowledge of clinical psychology or counselling psychology including highly developed knowledge of health psychology or clinical health psychology models
20. Proven evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS including regular attendance at psychology related conferences, workshops in line with expectations as recorded in CPD log and IPR/annual appraisal
21. Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others
22. Ability to tolerate and remain calm in the face of high levels of emotional distress and emotional demands
23. Ability to tolerate exposure to verbal abuse and hostility
24. Communicates with diplomacy and assertion with staff from all disciplines
25. An ability to interact effectively with people with physical and or mental ill health and their carers
26. Ability to assimilate complex information and use reflective/analytical thinking
27. A strong interest in continuing to develop expertise in general and specialist field of psychology
Desirable
28. Demonstrable experience of working in a hospital environment
29. Familiarity with and understanding of relevant government policies, guidelines, literature and guidance, and its implications for clinical practice with regard to Medical patients
30. Highly developed proven knowledge and competency in comparing and contrasting frameworks and approaches used in clinical, counselling, health and applied psychology
31. Being comfortable in dealing with uncertainty, lack of control, death and dying
Skills
Essential
32. Competent and familiar with information technology