Paediatric Specialist Physiotherapist

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

CLINICAL

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of children in your care.
• To undertake advanced clinical assessments of children and use clinical reasoning skills and manual assessment techniques to provide an accurate diagnosis of the specific problems related to physiotherapy intervention.
• To design and deliver an individualised treatment programme based on sound knowledge of evidenced based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment options.
• To take delegated responsibility from the Advanced physiotherapist for managing a caseload of children with particular conditions and be responsible for providing specialist assessment and treatment plans.
• To recommend best course of intervention, taking into account such factors as the prognosis, age of child, family / carers circumstances, environmental factors etc.
• To develop comprehensive discharge / transfer plans as appropriate.
• To gain valid informed consent and work within a legal framework for patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• To use a range of age appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with children and their family / carers and others involved with the child’s care in order to progress treatment / interventions effectively
• To evaluate the child’s progress, reassess and alter treatment programmes as appropriate.
• To manage clinical risk within own case load.
• To work within Trust and CSP’s clinical guidelines, have a good working knowledge of national and local standards and monitor own and others quality of practice as required.
• When working in the community, work as a lone practitioner with the appropriate clinical and risk management support from senior colleagues.
• To be an active member of the respiratory evening and weekend on call rota. When working on the on call rota, undertake the assessment and treatment of acutely ill children with respiratory problems, who may have a complex presentation and maintain associated records as an autonomous practitioner.
• To work some or part of the weekend as and when services develop to incorporate 6 or 7 day working
• To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient records in line with local and CSP standards of practice.
• To represent the physiotherapy service or individual children at various multi-disciplinary meetings, to ensure the delivery of an integrated approach to treatment. This will involve discussion of the child’s progress, aims and objectives, treatment planning plus discharge / transfer arrangements as appropriate.
• To be responsible for the safe and competent use of all equipment including electrotherapy, gym equipment, aids and appliances and ensure that assistants / students / children / carers using such equipment attain competency through training and supervision.

PROFESSIONAL

• To undertake risk assessments on a daily basis, for example, work space, equipment, patients and self, using judgement skills to make the necessary adjustments in line with health and safety regulations.
• To comply with the Health and Safety at work regulations and all other health, safety and security standards in accordance with Trust policies.
• To treat as confidential all information obtained during the course of duties undertaken.
• To participate in the appraisal scheme, be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects  personal development.
• To attend and participate in the Trust mandatory training plus departmental in-service training.
• To adhere to departmental and Trust policies and procedures.
• To teach, assess and contribute to the performance assessment and appraisal of assistant therapy staff.
• To maintain and develop current knowledge of evidenced based practice in the areas of  each rotation, developing specialist knowledge of particular condition and patient types.
• To participate in the departments staff appraisal programme as an appraisee and  be responsible for complying with your agreed objectives and supervision contract.
• To undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidenced based practice projects, audit and outcome measures,  either individually or with more senior colleagues.
• To be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at and participation in formal learning, supervision sessions, peer review / support and external courses.
• To undertake, as directed the collection of Careflow activity data for service management and other data for use in audit or research.
• To manage and undertake audit and research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery using a range of methodologies as part of multi-disciplinary audit / research and departmental initiatives.
• To be actively involved in professional clinical groups such as the journal club, action  learning set, CSP clinical interest groups and other professional development activities.
• To provide clinical education and training to physiotherapy students to graduate level.
• To provide support, guidance and training to assistant therapy staff, assessing and  evaluating competence.

ORGANISATIONAL

• To be responsible for the supervision and delegation of appropriate tasks to more junior staff, assistants and students.
• To ensure that your own practice and that of any staff / students under your supervision meets the required professional standards and CSP rules of professional conduct.
• To deputise for the Advanced Physiotherapist in their absence, taking responsibility for operational management of the area to meet service priorities on a daily basis.
• To be responsible for organising and planning own caseload to meet service and patient priorities, readjusting plans as situations change / arise.
• To contribute to the development, implementation and promotion of departmental and Trust policies and procedures.
• To ensure effective use of time, resources and organisational skills in order to promote an organised and efficient working environment.

Inclusive Recruitment & Selection

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and accurate data capture is an important part of that to ensure we are supportive and representative. Our aim is to ensure that all applicants can see themselves in the available categories on our application form, but we recognise that some of our data capture fields are not inclusive. We have flagged this with our system provider to ask for change.

We offer encouragement and active support to applicants with additional needs, including those from ethnic minorities, with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community. If you wish to adjust any aspect of the recruitment process or wish to find out more about our recruitment & selection processes, please get in touch with our Recruitment Manager: [email protected]

We are continually reviewing our recruitment & selection process to support the long-term aim of Sheffield Children’s being a champion of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. If you have any ideas for improvement, please get in touch with Catherine Gilbert at [email protected]

Trust Values

The Trust is committed to providing great quality patient care and keep children, young people and families at the heart of what we do by following our CARE values:

• Compassion – leading by kindness and showing empathy, understanding and respect
• Accountability – striving to do the right thing and owning responsibility
• Respect – value differences, tackling inequality and fostering a culture of inclusion
• Excellence – delivering a high-quality standard of care