Skip to main content
Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Therapies
Grade
Band 4
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Part time
37.5 hours per week (Full Time and Part Time Hours Available)
Job ref
153-SP03315
Employer
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Royal Bournemouth Hospital
Town
Bournemouth
Salary
£25,147 - £27,596 pa/pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
04/07/2024 23:59
Interview date
12/07/2024

Employer heading

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust logo

Therapy Assistant - Band 4 - OPS Therapy Team

Band 4

As University Hospitals Dorset we are a three site acute trust with ‘university hospital’ status through our partnership with Bournemouth University, working with an annual budget of £730m.

We offer highly regarded health services, employing some 10,000 staff. Our ambitious £250m estates programme is well on the way to delivering state-of-the-art facilities over the next two years to meet the current and future healthcare needs of the populations we serve.

In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with over seven miles of sandy beaches you’ll find inspirational opportunities to achieve your perfect work/life balance. With the New Forest and the Purbecks on our doorstep, we’re also less than three hours from London by road or train. The thriving towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch give way to idyllic villages and unspoilt landscapes just minutes from our hospitals.

We believe that having a diverse workforce, and allowing people to be themselves, is essential in ensuring we offer an inclusive, welcoming and productive place to work.

We especially welcome applications from minority groups in the community who may be underrepresented in our workforce. 

At UHD our active staff network groups are the Women's Network, Black Asian Minority Ethnic Group (BAME), Pride Network, European (EU), Pro Ability Staff Network, and the Armed Forces Support Group.

As a Trust we are proudly signed up to the Disability Confident and Armed Forces Covenant guaranteed interview schemes.

Job overview

We are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for a Band 4 Therapy Assistant to work within  the Older Person’s Services (OPS) Therapy Team. The OPS Therapy Team strives to ensure older  people presenting to our acute hospital receive the highest quality care in a timely manner from 
clinicians with a holistic approach and passion in caring for older people. 

The therapy team are responsible for the assessment and management of patients in the Emergency Department, the Older Person’s Assessment Unit (OPAU), short stay and complex older person’s medical wards. This is a rotational post across the inpatient older adult's therapy services.

The key responsibilities would require you to work alongside the therapists to support the team with assessing and rehabilitating the older person. The post holder would work alongside other qualified therapists and rehab assistants to provide a Therapy service to patients, managing your own 
caseload of patients under the guidance of a qualified clinician. 

The OPS Therapy Team are extremely dynamic, looking to improve and integrate health and social care for older people in Dorset and Hampshire. Our approach is to ensure that the assessment and 
intervention process for the older person is as seamless and effective as possible whilst on their journey from hospital to home. 

Administrative responsibilities will be required within this role to support the qualified therapists.

 

Main duties of the job

Previous experience of working with older people, in an acute hospital or community setting is essential. The post holder must have a Foundation Degree in health or assistant practitioner qualification equivalent. 

The post will include 7 day working and therefore the post holder will be expected to participate in weekend rotas. You will be required to achieve a certain competency level which we will give you support and training to help you achieve. We have a structured in- house training programme and a 
supportive team of clinical staff.

Ideally you should be a car driver with a full driving licence and have access to your own car. The role may include assessing patients in their home environment, with support as required from the qualified clinicians.

We welcome full time or part time applicants. 

Base Location: Royal Bournemouth Hospital

Interview Date: TBC

Working for our organisation

Our values define who we are as #TeamUHD.  They underpin everything we do now and in the future. They define how we treat our patients, visitors, and each other, our valued team mates and colleagues

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To understand the role in more detail please read the full job description and person specification documents which are attached to this advert

'This post requires a foundation degree in health care, or equivalent'

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Foundation Degree in health or assistant practitioner qualification or L5 equivalent.
Desirable criteria
  • Attainment of competencies gained from multi-professional team working

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Previous work as a Therapy Assistant or equivalent (e.g. Exercise Physiologist, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Physiotherapy Assistant) where direct patient care is involved over a significant period of time in a healthcare environment.
  • Working with adult patients with chronic disease or multiple pathologies
Desirable criteria
  • Previous experience working in an acute setting
  • Working within a multi-disciplinary team.
  • Experience of evaluation, standard setting and evidence based practice within a healthcare/ rehabilitation setting

Technical Skills Competencies

Essential criteria
  • Ability to assess a patient with specific objective assessment tools, sometimes without supervision, and identify appropriate therapy intervention
  • Ability to work independently on own initiative with guidance/supervision from qualified staff, mainly at a distance.
  • Effective time management and organisational skills.
  • Ability to manage own caseload when necessary
  • Basic computer literacy.
  • Ability to act on own initiative, eg responding to an emergency situation

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • General knowledge of pathologies related to the older person
  • The effects of physical and cognitive impairment, on patients’ skills, abilities and lifestyle
  • Basic rehabilitation techniques and therapy intervention
  • Exercise prescription and monitoring eg of physiological signs during exercise
Desirable criteria
  • Knowledge of risk assessment, audit and service development

Interpersonal skills

Essential criteria
  • Good verbal communication skills both face to face and over the telephone
  • Basic teaching skills
  • Ability to engage, motivate and inspire patients
  • Confident in dealing with difficult situations e.g. aggressive behaviour, conflict
  • Ability to document results of interventions clearly and concisely
  • Empathy with older people.
  • Ability to work as part of a team

Other requirements specific to

Essential criteria
  • Hold a clean driving license
  • Ability to move and handle patients and equipment using approved techniques

Personal Attributes

Essential criteria
  • Flexible attitude
  • Well motivated
  • Able to work independently when required with rational, safe clinical reasoning skills
  • Able to take direction from senior staff and work well within a team
  • Ability to recognize boundaries of own job role and seek advice from qualified therapist as necessary

Language Requirement

Essential criteria
  • Be able to speak English as necessary to undertake the role

Employer certification / accreditation badges

UHD ValuesApprenticeships logoArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardDisability confident employerStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Step into health

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Jessica Singleton
Job title
Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist
Telephone number
0300 019 6191
Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies