Ward Occupational Therapist | Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust in Poole

Are you an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist looking to broaden your practice within our dedicated specialist team? Join our ward team.

As a ward Occupational Therapist based at Alderney Hospital, you will bring your clinical and inspiring leadership expertise to the patient journey. You will be assessing and leading on the discharge process to get people back into the community and supporting flow from the acute hospitals. You will be joining a supportive, multidisciplinary team providing highly specialist advice and programmes of care to other professionals, to ensure high quality person-centred care and interventions. There is an expectation to work across sites as needed.

With your effective communication, professionalism and innovation, care delivery to our patients will be of the highest standard. This is a part-time position with a minimum of 30 hours.

Providing OT based assessment and discharge planning for a range of physical presentations such as stroke and neurology, orthopaedics, frailty, falls, cognitive impairment and many more in a ward setting.

• Knowledge and experience in moving and handling.
• Experience of using a range of equipment.
• Experience of carrying out cognitive assessments.
• Skills to holistically assess and formulate a patient centred rehab program.
• Knowledge and experience of working with the older person, particularly with frailty.

Ability to recognise and manage a deteriorating patient, problem solving and crisis management of an acute situation, skills in carrying out a basic physical assessment including basic observations and recognising when it is appropriate to escalate.

Carry out rehab and assessment on the rehab ward, complete home visits/dc visits as needed, support the therapy assistants, students and the ward as a whole.

Demonstrable skills in communication, organisation, caseload management, autonomous working and supervision and mentorship of both trained and junior colleagues.

Problem solving and innovation to inform service development and improve quality standards. A large part of this role is overseeing and planning complex discharges, working closely with the MDT and ensuring patient flow through the ward from the acute hospitals.

Employment in this post requires an Enhanced/Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which the Trust will cover the cost of.

At Dorset HealthCare we’re on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through our outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We’re a dynamic, forward-looking Trust, running 12 community hospitals, specialist inpatient facilities and a wide range of integrated community and mental health services for a population of almost 800,000 people.

We do things differently here – it’s one of the reasons the CQC rated us ‘outstanding’ in 2019. It’s also why 95% of patients across our services say they have a good or very good experience of our services and 89% of staff feel they can really make a difference.

Whether you’re looking to work with us in one of our bustling market towns, vibrant urban locations, thriving seaside spots, or among the rolling hills of Dorset, there are lots of ways you can make a difference in our communities.

Our 7,000-strong workforce is at the heart of what we do and our success is a testament to our brilliant people. We're all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities and we celebrate diversity. We’re an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be authentic, and we are all encouraged to be the best version of ourselves.

Working with us you’ll be part of a strong team, challenge yourself, build a career, and teach us what we don’t know. And you’ll be working towards our vision to be better every day through excellence, compassion and expertise in all we do.

For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification. When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.

We understand that AI can be a useful tool when completing your application. However, we are seeing an increasing over-reliance of AI tools, which can negatively affect your application as it reduces a candidate’s individuality, and makes it difficult for us to gain a clear and authentic understanding of your experience, skills, and in turn your suitability for the role. All submissions must be truthful and if you do use AI, it should only be used to enhance your application and not create your supporting statement in its entirety. Your supporting statement should be in your own words and must accurately reflect your personal experience and achievements. Where we have concerns that AI has been used to generate content that misrepresents your experience and suitability for the role, we may withdraw your application.

As part of our vision to have a skilled, diverse and caring workforce, Dorset HealthCare offers support for people getting into work. We offer an employability service to support individuals with application writing, interview skills and other employment support. If you would like or know of anyone who would value this support, please do contact dhc.wideningparticipation@nhs.net.