Job overview
We have an exciting opportunity to recruit a full time Band 6 Physiotherapist to join our Integrated Stroke & Neuro Rehabilitation Therapy Team.
We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated and enthusiastic candidate with a special interest to work in the field of stroke or neuro rehabilitation. You will be working as part of the MDT across the stroke & neuro pathway on a rotation wheel. As part of the physiotherapy team, you will provide responsive and high-quality rehabilitation within the community sector and inpatient rehabilitation settings as clinical need requires. You will be a HCPC registered Physiotherapist with sound knowledge and experience of specialist neurological assessment and treatment procedures for this client group.
The rotation wheel will include: Acute Stroke, Inpatient Stroke, and Community Stroke Rehabilitation, along with Inpatient Neuro, Community Neuro and Outpatient Neuro Rehabilitation on a 6 month rotation across Blackburn, Pendle and Rakehead Rehabilitation Unit.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are required together with good organisational and time management skills. Flexibility in working patterns to meet the needs of the service is essential. You will be required to support the physiotherapy service in clinical and service development projects, alongside working under pressure managing your clinical caseload. Access to a car driver is essential as you will be required to travel between patient visits and clinical sites.
Main duties of the job
You will be responsible for providing clinical care to a defined caseload of stroke or neuro patients depending on the service you are working within. The position will require you to complete highly specialised assessment, planning and intervention skills. The role will require you to work as an autonomous practitioner in a variety of clinical settings including clinics, patients own home, care homes, hospital etc.
As part of the assessment process, you may be required to select and apply appropriate evidence-based assessment tools and outcome measures to identify clinical benefit within clinical practice, treatment planning and intervention. As part of the role, you will be expected to formulate patient centred goals along with individualised management and treatment plans, where appropriate, including effective discharge planning and onward referral.
As the stroke/ neuro physiotherapist you will be expected to use a variety of evidence-based interventions to a specialist level according to the needs of the individual patient to ensure we drive high quality, effective and efficient care. Within clinical practice you will provide comprehensive risk assessment and clinical/ governance reports outlining clinical findings.
Working for our organisation
The Integrated Stroke Therapy Team is a SSNAP ‘A’ rated service which provides specialist stroke services to adults within the acute, inpatient & community setting. While the Integrated Neuro Team deliver therapy at Rakehead Rehabilitation unit which is a 17 bedded inpatient neuro rehab unit, alongside Community and OP Neuro Rehabilitation across Pennine Lancashire.
The integrated therapy team consists of a whole MDT team including Occupational Therapists, Speech & Language Therapists, Physiotherapists, Clinical Psychology, AHP Professor in Neurorehabilitation and Stroke along with Therapy Assistant Practitioners.
As a service we are actively involved in research developments and keen to encourage staff to participate in service improvement projects. We also have a robust training and supervision structure in place to support staff to full fill their role.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
CLINICAL
1.Be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of patients in your care.
2.Undertake a comprehensive assessment of patients including those with diverse or complex presentations/multi pathologies; use advanced clinical reasoning skills and manual assessment techniques to provide an accurate diagnosis of their condition.
3.Formulate and deliver an individual physiotherapy treatment programme based on a sound knowledge of evidence based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment skills e.g. manual physiotherapy techniques, patient education, exercise classes, and other alternative options.
4.Take delegated responsibility from the Band 7 Physiotherapist for managing patients with particular conditions and be responsible for providing specialist physiotherapy assessment and treatment plans for patients with these conditions.
5.Use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients to progress rehabilitation and treatment programmes. This will include patients who may have difficulties in understanding or communicating. For example, patients may dysphasic, depressed, deaf, blind or who may be unable to accept diagnosis.
6.Evaluate patient progress, reassess and alter treatment programmes if required.
7.Manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.
8. When working in the community and domiciliary settings, work as a lone practitioner with telephone support from a more senior physiotherapist if required.
9. Supervise junior physiotherapists and assistants’ record keeping system according to professional and the physiotherapy service standards.
PROFESSIONAL
1.Be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through Continuing Professional Development activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
2.Be responsible for teaching student physiotherapists to graduate level on physiotherapeutic skills and knowledge within core clinical areas as required.
3.Be responsible for teaching, assessment and contributing to the performance assessment and appraisal of newly qualified physiotherapists and physiotherapy assistant staff, as required.
4.Maintain and develop current knowledge of evidence based practice in the relevant clinical areas, developing specialist knowledge of particular conditions and patient types.
5.Undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidence based practice projects, audit and outcome measures, either individually or with colleagues.
ORGANISATIONAL
1.Responsible for the supervision and co-ordination of junior staff and assistants on a daily basis.
2.Deputise for the Band 7 in their absence, taking responsibility for operational management of the team, allocating and organising the work of junior and assistant staff to meet service priorities on a daily basis.
Person specification
Essential
Essential criteria
* Registration with Health and Care Professions Council
* post graduate experience of working in the field of stroke or neuro rehabilitation
* previous band 5 experience
* access to a vehicle for work purposes to commute between sites
* Experience of delivering training to colleagues in health and/ or other relevant agencies
* experience of using a range of neuro specialist treatment skills
* Experience of undergraduate student and/or support staff supervision
* Awareness of local and national NHS/Social Care agenda and its relevance to service area
Desirable criteria
* Student accredited course
* External training relevant to clinical area
* Involvement in Special Clinical Interest Group
* Workload management skills including prioritisation and delegation