HealthJobsUK

PRIMARY DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical :

Ø  To set a high personal standard of work, to be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of patients in your care.

Ø  To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient treatment records in line with Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) standards and local/Trust policy. To communicate appropriately with other disciplines (this might include meetings, report and letter writing)

Ø  To carry out physiotherapy assessment as an autonomous practitioner. This will involve the use of specialised observation and assessment tools. 

Ø  To develop and deliver effective specialised treatment, and plan and implement appropriate review for children allocated to your caseload. NICE guidance, Standards of Care and best practice guidance should be considered. This will include regular monitoring of the results of any intervention with ongoing evaluation and adaptation.

Ø  To provide therapy intervention according to the child’s needs, using appropriate treatment techniques in either an individual or group situation; providing activity programmes, advice and equipment as required. This will involve the management of therapy input to children with a range of complex conditions, including those with severe physical and cognitive impairment or disability.

Ø  To have a knowledge of specialist resources and equipment relevant to children and to give advice regarding its use.

Ø  To assess and treat children in a range of settings. This will include the Child Development Centre, special and mainstream schools, nurseries or home visits when clinically indicated. This will necessitate travel from venue to venue and lone working situations. Lone worker policy must be followed.

Ø  To advise and support parents/carers and other professionals in meeting the needs of children on your caseload.

Ø  To be responsible for your own practice and accountable for all aspects of therapy treatment and care delivered to the child.

Ø  To work closely with partner agencies to ensure Physiotherapy treatment is fully integrated into a child’s holistic programme.

Ø  To analyse clinical, social, educational and psychological information from a range of sources and understand the impact that this will have on children and their therapy input.

Ø  To provide necessary information to other professionals, families and other agencies including written reports and programmes, and to contribute towards statutory assessment processes as required.

Ø  To take part in safeguarding procedures and attend multi agency meetings as necessary.

Ø  To manage clinical risk within your own caseload, including undertaking appropriate manual handling risk assessment.

Ø  To contribute towards the development of clinical practice within the department.

Ø  To train and line-manage technical instructors and students, with supervision from more senior members of the team.  This will include clinical supervision, performance management and appraisal.

Ø  To participate in safeguarding supervision and to be aware of and adhere to child protection procedures.  This may include written reports and core group meetings.

Ø  To work within teams to ensure waiting lists are managed efficiently and effectively.

 Professional/Educational:

Ø  To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities, and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.

Ø  Be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at, and participation in, in-service training programmes.  This also may include individual training sessions, external courses and peer review, as agreed with the therapy manager.

Ø  Ensure that your own practice and that of any staff under your supervision meet the required professional standards of physiotherapy practice.

 Organisational:

Ø  Participate in the staff appraisal scheme as an appraisee and be responsible for complying with your agreed personal development programmes to meet set knowledge and competencies.

Ø  To undertake as directed the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects. 

Ø  Be responsible for the safe and competent use of gym, and the equipment that you use with patients, through teaching, training and supervision of practice.

Ø  To be responsible for organising and planning own caseload to meet service and patient priorities.  Readjusting plans as situations change/arise, adhering to agreed departmental levels of activity for timely service delivery. 

Ø  To be an active participant in the development of the Community Paediatrics Therapy Service.

Ø  The post holder may be required, from time to time, to carry out other reasonable requests and duties as required, consistent with the responsibilities of their banding and development as agreed between employee and manager.

Physical Effort:

Ø   Moderate to intense physical effort on a daily basis. Tasks include kneeling/standing/floor sitting. 

Ø   Moving and therapeutic handling of physically unpredictable children and young adults.

Ø   Using hoists and equipment.

Mental effort:

Ø   Dealing with complex patients on a daily basis.

Ø   Daily requirement for prolonged periods of concentration e.g. assessment and treatment of complex and sometimes unpredictable patients.

Ø   Ensuring good communications with patients/carers who have impaired understanding or communication difficulties.

Ø   Frequently using complex problem solving skills, making and dealing with difficult clinical decisions.

Ø   Daily requirement for multi-tasking e.g. writing notes, communicating with the team, telephone calls, with regular interruptions

Ø   Set goals and plans with the patient, also involving the family as indicated.

Ø   On a daily basis organise/prioritise your workload.

Ø   Prepare and deliver training packages to a range of staff.

Ø   Work with team members on service development.

Ø   To take personal responsibility for booking and preparing for clinical supervision/ safe-guarding supervision.

Emotional effort:

Ø   Dealing with patients and families of children with complex needs. This may result in anxiety, anger, isolation etc.

Ø   Frequently helping patients and carers come to terms with their impairments/ disability.

Ø   Immediate response to complaints/demands from distressed or anxious patients, carers and other professionals

Ø   Managing confrontation and differing opinions regarding patient management.

Ø   Supervise physiotherapy team members; support them through their development.

Ø   Support teams with complex emotional situations.

Ø   Working with children who have life-limiting or deteriorating conditions.

Ø   Being involved with and participating in safeguarding procedures.

 Working conditions:

Ø   Exposure to some bodily fluids, vomit and soiled linen.

Ø   Occasional exposure to verbal and physical aggression, unpredictable behaviour.

Ø   Risk of exposure to contagious conditions e.g. coughs diarrhoea and vomiting.

Ø   Working in non-therapeutic environments, e.g. home, school

COMMUNICATIONS & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

Ø  Work effectively and flexibly within the therapy team on a daily basis, with support from other team members.

Ø  Ability to communicate with all personnel in a variety of clinical and multidisciplinary settings.

Ø  Communicate in an effective, professional and appropriate manner with patients and their families.

Ø  To foster a teamwork ethic in accordance with trust values to promote quality patient care.

All Job Holders are required to:

Ø  Work to the Trust values - Put patients first, Take ownership, Respect others, Be positive, Listening, Learning, Improving. 

Ø  Adhere to Trust policies and procedures, e.g. Health and Safety at Work, Equal Opportunities etc.

Ø  Maintain personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the job, participate in appropriate training activities and encourage and support staff development and training.

Ø  Attend statutory, essential and mandatory training.  

Ø  Respect the confidentiality of all matters relating to their employment and other members of staff. All members of staff are required to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Ø  Comply with the Corporate Governance structure in keeping with the principles and standards set out by the Trust.

Ø  Comply with the codes of professional conduct set out by the professional body of which registration is required for the post.

Ø  Ensure they are familiar with the Risk Management Framework, follow policies, procedures and safe systems of work, make known any hazards or risks that they identify and take all necessary actions to reduce risk. 

Ø  Ensure the welfare and safety of children within their care. This includes staff who come into contact with children and families in the course of their work as well as those staff who have a specific role with children and families.

Ø  Ensure they attend Child Protection training at the appropriate level within the specified time frame.

Ø  Staff must comply with Safeguarding Policies and Procedures in order to promote safeguarding and prevent abuse to vulnerable people using Trust services.

Ø  Maintain the prevention and control of infection and fully comply with all current Trust Infection Control policies and procedures.

Ø  Take responsibility for any records that they create or use in the course of their duties, in line with the Public Records Act and be aware that any records created by an employee of the NHS are public records and may be subject to both legal and professional obligations.