Occupational Therapist - B&D Children

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities: 

·       To provide a high standard of assessment and contribute to the diagnostic process, based upon clinical findings. 

·       Develop and implement an individualised intervention programme in conjunction with the child and family/carers referred to the service

·       To be responsible for organising and prioritising own workload

·       To delegate appropriately to generic therapy assistants.

·       To have organisational knowledge relating to Trust protocols and procedures and adhere to them.

·       To be responsible for providing accurate records of information required by the Trust, HPC and college guidelines.

·       To ensure effective risk management at team level by accident/incident reporting, assessing and controlling risk and ensuring residual risks are added to the Trust register.

Clinical Skills

·       To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for own unsupervised actions guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.

·       To be responsible, and accountable, for service delivery to clients/patients.

·       To be able to initiate referrals to other health professional specialist services and agencies.

·       To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence based practice, literature and peer review.

·       To comprehensively assess patient understanding of suggested occupational therapy intervention.

·       To gain valid informed consent and to have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who are unable to consent to treatment.

·       To perform a comprehensive  assessment of patients, including those with multiple complex pathologies, utilising evidence-based clinical reasoning skills, skilled observation standardised and non-standardised assessment in order to identify specific functional needs of the child within the domains of self-care, productivity (school or play) and leisure.

·       To utilised skilled reasoning to develop and provide child-centred intervention programmes based on evidence-based practices which may be undertaken by parents/carers, team members, other agencies involved in the child’s care.  This may include advice, hands-on treatment, splinting, postural management techniques, groups and other options.

·       To provide skilled education of the child, carers and education and non-statutory agencies on the impact of the child’s needs on their level of function and assistance in the child’s skill acquisition.

·       To motivate children and carers and cooperation for treatment where there may be significant barriers to understanding e.g. learning disability, language cultural diversity, religious beliefs, pain.

·       To provide ongoing periodic reviews of the child’s needs and modify therapy programmes in order to ensure continued effective intervention according to the child’s changing needs, including urgent response to rapid change of needs e.g. deterioration.

·       To provide case coordination linking with key professional and the child and family/carers for more complex cases.

·       To provide to carers a moving and handling plan with other team members, for all children where moving and handling is a potential risk within departmental procedures.

·       To assess for provision of appropriate equipment and environmental adaptation, often of significant cost and recommend to providers, within and external to the Trust.

·       To be responsible for the equipment used in intervention and follow team policies, including ensuring competence of carers and staff using equipment.

·       To independently organise and plan own caseload management and prioritise according to needs and care pathway guidance, including referral on to relevant services, following local procedures to implement change should a  situation arise.

·       This job may include working in difficult environments with frequent exposure to unpleasant working conditions or regular basis e.g. bodily fluids including sputum, vomit, urine, lice, dirt.

·       To be responsibility for maintaining own clinical competence to practice through continuing professional development activities including mandatory and other courses identified through the Trust appraisal system, maintaining a portfolio, seeking advice from clinical specialist and colleagues to ensure validity, efficacy and effectiveness of intervention.

·       To recognise personal limitation of clinical competence and refer to senior staff for support.    

Communication

·       To maintain excellent lines of communication with clients and their families, as well as with other professionals involved in the clients’ care.

·       To attend multidisciplinary discussions and case conferences relating to clients to ensure a well-co-ordinated care plan. This process will be supported by a Senior Therapist.

·       To be sensitive to the emotional needs of clients and their families when imparting complex/distressing information. 

·       To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible.

Training

·       To act as mentor to students, providing effective education, facilitating their development and promoting high standards of nursing care.

·       Ensure students are actively supported to enable them to achieve their learning needs.

·       To ensure own continued professional development and support a culture of lifelong learning in self and others.

·       To undertake, and assist, in the planning of own mandatory training and workshops.

·       To undertake a regular appraisal, developing a personal development plan that includes clinical competencies reflecting the health needs of the local population and relates to Trust strategy.

·       To support new staff and their integration within the team.

·       To support training as part of the role including changes to professional development and implementation of new policies and guidelines.

·       To undertake all mandatory training. 

Leadership

·       To participate in the development of an effective team and the development of productive working relationships throughout the Trust.

·       To actively promote integrated health professional working internally and externally.

·       To facilitate the development of a positive and ‘supportive’ team culture by taking responsibility for dealing effectively with potential conflict. To delegate to Therapy Assistants appropriately.

·       To supervise the Therapy Assistants reporting any concerns to senior members of the Service.

·       To supervise students on visits as directed by the clinical specialist, taking on students’

supervision and planning.  Report any concerns or development areas back to the clinical specialist.       

·       To participate in the audit process, departmental developments and Trust initiatives linking in with the clinical governance agenda.

·       To actively contribute to any in-service training through attendance and participation in training programmes including occasional facilitation of learning to team members, therapy assistants and students on placement.

·       To assist in service development needs as required by the Clinical or Operational Managers and attend key meetings pertinent to service development as requested.

·       To be vigilant of own, team members and child and family/carers and other professional’s safety, highlighting any concern and intervening with the child in a suitably appropriate environment. 

Computer/Administration

·       To be computer literate and encourage implementation of the Trust’s IT Strategy.

·       To ensure accurate recording of actions, and updating patient’s records, maintaining confidentiality at all times.

·       To take part, and assist, in the planning and administration relating to day to day running of the caseload.

·       To assist all team members with the day today activities of the team and attend to urgent enquiries  and information .

·       To manage responsibilities delegated by clinical specialist or manager and priories according to needs.  

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.