Occupational Therapist

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a leading Cancer Hospital in London, and the Occupational Therapy Department is recruiting to our bank pool, to work across Adult wards and outpatients at our Chelsea and Sutton sites.

You will be joining a supportive and friendly team of qualified Occupational Therapists working in an acute setting to support needs of patients undergoing cancer treatment across all tumour groups.

Main duties of the job

The Band 6 Occupational Therapist is an active member of a team that provides a high quality, evidence based occupational therapy service for the patient with cancer.

As a skilled practitioner, the postholder is a source of knowledge and expertise for patients, relatives and colleagues of all disciplines.

With the support of the Band 7 Occupational Therapist, they will organise occupational therapy activities within a defined clinical area and will also liaise closely with all members of the multi-professional rehabilitation team in the provision of a specialist input to a variety of education programmes.

Working for our organisation

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services. We have two hospitals – one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey – as well as a Medical Daycare Unit in Kingston Hospital.

At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do.

At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our values and can play a crucial role in our on-going achievements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information please refer to the job description and personal specification

Working autonomously in ward and outpatient settings to provide complex clinical assessment of the biomechanical, sensory, psychological, cognitive, perceptual and interpersonal deficits affecting the functioning of individuals with cancer, their families and carers through the use of advanced clinical reasoning.

Developing and implementing individual specialised therapeutic rehabilitation programmes specific to patient’s needs based on activity analysis using a client-centred, problem solving approach.

Developing and implementing treatment and educational groups for people with cancer and their carers such as Health & Well Being groups.

Working autonomously in ward and outpatient settings to provide complex clinical assessment of the biomechanical, sensory, psychological, cognitive, perceptual and interpersonal deficits affecting the functioning of individuals with cancer, their families and carers through the use of advanced clinical reasoning.

Developing and implementing individual specialised therapeutic rehabilitation programmes specific to patient’s needs based on activity analysis using a client-centred, problem-solving approach.

Liaising with multi professional team within the hospital and community, to achieve optimum rehabilitation outcomes and planned coordinated packages of support across health and social care.

Taking a key role in organising and facilitating discharge planning case conferences where functional independent is paramount.

Teaching patients specialised strategies aimed towards the management of symptoms related to cancer e.g. relaxation and anxiety management, breathlessness and fatigue management.

Carrying out complex functional and risk assessments required to provide appropriate equipment and to teach patients, carers and staff safe and correct use to maximise safety and independence within the hospital and home environments.

Assessing environmental risks and prescription of equipment and adaptations in the patient’s home. This may involve lone working.

Undertaking risk assessment of manual handling issues related to patient’s rehabilitation, complying with the Trust’s Manual Handling Policy.

Maintaining contemporaneous and high quality patient documentation as well as writing formal reports necessary for the implementation of care packages and home equipment to enable safe discharge and ongoing rehabilitation.

Education/Qualifications

• Diploma/Degree in Occupational Therapy recognised by UK College of Occupational Therapists.
• State Registration with Health Care Professions Council for Occupational Therapy.
• Experience in general physical field.
• Evidence of experience of dealing with oncology patients and their families / carers.
• Evidence of experience in clinical supervision and appraisal.
• Evidence of experience of principles and practice in audit, outcomes measurement and clinical governance.
• Attended: Accredited wheelchair course.
• Accredited splinting and hand therapy course.
• Membership of British Association of Occupational Therapists.
• Membership of OPC (Occupational Therapists specialist section in Oncology and Palliative Care)

Skills Abilities/knowledge

• Organisational skills: Ability to prioritise and manage time effectively

Other Requirements

• Professionalism: Commitment to maintaining high quality standards of professional conduct & clinical expertise.

Skills Abilities/knowledge

• Knowledge of functional assessment and treatment techniques for oncology and palliative care patients, including physical, cognitive, psychosocial functional assessments and treatment, as well as specific symptom and lifestyle management techniques (e.g. relaxation, anxiety, breathlessness and fatigue management).
• Risk assessment: Ability to carry out risk assessments concerning patients and staff safety, including Manual Handling.
• Ability to assess risks associated with lone working, take responsibility for reporting to colleagues and ensuring self and patient are safe at all times.
• Ability to assess potential risks with regard to patients’ discharge from hospital.
• Developed clinical reasoning as well as analytical and creative problems solving skills.
• Communication skills: Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills as required in an oncology and palliative care setting. Ability to deal with imparting bad news.
• Reflective Skills: Ability to reflect on clinical practice.
• Team skills: Ability to work as part of a supportive team.
• Autonomous working: Ability to work in a highly motivated, self directed manner on clinical and departmental activities.
• Supervisory skills: Ability to fulfill supervisory role for undergraduate students.
• Educational skills: Ability to teach both patients and carers in areas relating to rehabilitation.
• Proven ability to prepare and deliver presentations and education sessions to health care colleagues and members of public.
• IT skills: Ability to enter data, prepare reports, formal written documentation and multi-media presentations.
• Knowledge of group dynamics, planning, facilitating, running and evaluating therapeutic groups.

Other Requirements

• Manner: Confident and pleasant.
• Assertiveness: Ability to advocate on patients’ behalf within the hospital and with community agencies.
• Confidence in promoting OT role within the trust and externally.
• Motivation: Demonstrated ability to remain self motivated within requirements of role.
• Ability to recognise own personal and professional development needs.
• Coping strategies: Ability to recognise own emotional needs and utilise coping strategies in addition to clinical supervision and staff support.
• Able to work on both sites and to be flexible to meet the needs of the role

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.

Due to the high volumes of applications we receive, we reserve the right to close any adverts before the published closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications. We advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment. Please ensure your information is accurate to avoid errors with processing your application

All applicants will be contacted by email to the address supplied on your application. Applicants are advised to check their email accounts regularly and to ensure that email filters are set to allow our emails.

Flu Vaccination – What We Expect of our Staff

At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease.

The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the upmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient-facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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.