Occupational Therapist in St Austell

Cornwall Hospice is looking for a skilled, enthusiastic and highly motivated Occupational Therapist to be based at our hospice in St Austell. You will need to remain flexible to work between the St Austell and Hayle inpatient hospices with the possibility of outreaching to community settings and the home environment.

The candidate will have experience in holding their own caseload and have worked within a ward environment including working with the multi-disciplinary team. The candidate should also have previous experience in oncology/haematology, or palliative care; however, experience working within rehabilitation, management of long-term conditions and symptom control would also be desirable. A degree or diploma in Occupational Therapy along with HCPC registration is also essential.

This post offers the opportunity to work with a highly specialist multi-disciplinary team providing care and support for people with a wide range of palliative conditions and other life-limiting illnesses. Your hours can be flexible to accommodate a balance between work and personal life.

Main duties of the job:

• To provide a high standard of Occupational Therapy service performing a specialist assessment of patients, including those with highly complex presentations and using evidence-based, patient-centred principles and develop a treatment plan which is carried out as an autonomous practitioner.
• To develop highly specialist knowledge in palliative care and in the rehabilitation of individuals living with a palliative condition or life-limiting conditions.
• To act as an expert resource and provide advice, education and support to other health care professionals within the multidisciplinary team as appropriate.
• To attend multidisciplinary team meetings to ensure there is an integrated approach that benefits patients' overall care and discharge plans.
• To liaise with other healthcare professionals providing therapy services internally and across other services in Cornwall.
• To promote the key values of specialist palliative care and liaise with patients, families and carers.
• To demonstrate and promote the values of Cornwall Hospice - Compassion, Togetherness, and Integrity.

About us:

Our employees and volunteers are essential to the care we provide. In return, for joining a team of people having such a positive impact on others, we provide:

• A chance to make a real difference
• Supportive working environment
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities
• Generous annual leave entitlement of 35 days including bank holidays (pro-rata), which increases with service and the option to buy or sell leave.
• Contributory pension scheme
• Life Assurance
• Non-contributory medical cash plan, with the option to include your family members
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced sick pay scheme
• EarlyPay Scheme

Job responsibilities:

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including management of patients in your care.
• To hold responsibility for own caseload and work as an autonomous practitioner.
• To undertake a comprehensive specialist assessment of palliative care patients including those with diverse or highly complex presentations/multi pathologies to determine appropriate treatment and goal setting of palliative care patients.
• To use advanced clinical reasoning skills using specialist knowledge underpinned by theory and/or practical experience and advanced expertise.
• Formulate and deliver an individual programme based on sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment to recommend the best course of intervention for that particular episode of care.
• To evaluate patient progress, reassess and alter treatment programmes as required.
• To assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• To provide and receive highly complex or sensitive information where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills.
• To communicate complex information to patients/carers/relatives and other health and social care colleagues.
• To deal with distressed carers and family who may have high levels of anxiety, be angry or confused.
• To analyse clinical and social information from a range of sources and integrate into Occupational Therapy assessment and development of care/treatment plan.
• To use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients and carers to progress rehabilitation and treatment programmes.
• To be able to motivate and persuade patients with a range of highly complex conditions/disabilities to work with treatment/management programmes and work towards agreed goals.
• To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.
• To work within the standards and guidelines of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), Cornwall Hospice, British Association and of Occupational Therapists (BAOT), The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT), and to have a good working knowledge of national and local standards and care pathways and monitor own and others quality of practice as appropriate.
• To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient treatment records in line with BAOT and Cornwall Hospice record keeping standards of practice.
• To represent the Occupational Therapy service and/or individual patients at multidisciplinary team meetings, to ensure the delivery of a co-ordinated multidisciplinary service and integrate occupational therapy treatments into the treatment programme.
• To work in a variety of settings including wards, patients' homes and clinics as required and transport self and equipment to visit patients and attend meetings.
• Facilitate the discharge planning process.
• Work with patients, carers, other professionals and agencies to meet identified needs.
• Provide teaching and guidance to both patients and carers as required.
• Ensure that referrals are dealt with in a timely manner, taking into consideration clinical priorities in case management.
• Manually handle equipment (wheelchairs, health care equipment) and furniture frequently, following ergonomic risk assessment as per statutory training and service risk assessment.
• Moving and handling of patients in relation to assessment, treatment and rehabilitation.

Professional:

• To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through Continuous Professional Development (CPD) activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
• To participate in the staff appraisal scheme as an appraisee and be responsible for complying with your agreed personal development programmes to meet set learning and competencies.
• To demonstrate a sound understanding of clinical governance, including ability to audit own and teams practice.
• To be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at and participation in in-service training programmes, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses.
• Be actively involved in the professional clinical groups, and other professional activities.
• Promote awareness of the therapy role within the multidisciplinary team, including providing delivering of teaching and education and negotiating priorities where appropriate.
• To undertake as directed the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects.
• To participate in the supervision, education and assessing performance of students on placement at Cornwall Hospice including medical, nursing and allied health professional students.
• To continually monitor the service and assist in developing policy together with line manager in supporting the development and progression of Occupational Therapy practice and the service provided by Cornwall Hospice.

General:

• This job description is intended to provide an outline of the duties and responsibilities of the post and is not exhaustive and may be amended periodically as necessary.
• The post holder may be asked to undertake other duties within the general level and scope of the post and to work at other sites within the organisation as need arises.
• Ensure strict confidentiality, following the Caldicott principles and meeting clinical governance standards.
• Maintain awareness and compliance with Cornwall Hospice policies and procedures as detailed in the Staff Handbook and Health and Safety Policy and procedures reporting any maintenance or safety issues immediately to the appropriate manager.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check:

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration:

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.