Senior Orthopaedic Therapy Instructor

We are looking for an enthusiastic and proactive person to join our Elective Pathway Team at Northampton General Hospital working 22.5 hours a week. This post involves working alongside Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Nurses and Assistant Practitioners. We provide a seven-day service across the trust. You will need to be a car driver with access to your own vehicle and business insurance. Fuel expenses are covered by the trust. This post provides a great opportunity to demonstrate your orthopaedic knowledge working with a dynamic elective orthopaedic team as a senior therapy instructor. This role can provide the understanding of how the elective pathway operates starting from pre-operation to post-operation. The Elective Pathway Team provides a service working with patients in a ward environment and in the community. We also have a partnership with the Trauma team by facilitating early discharges and supporting the caseload on the wards.

Main duties of the job

• Provision of clinical services: Demonstrate an awareness and understanding relevant to orthopaedic conditions and their impact on function and rehabilitation.
• To have a holistic understanding of the patient and their condition, as well as the impact of psychosocial dynamics on their function.
• To enable patients to co-operate in their rehabilitation programme using encouragement, reassurance, tact and sensitivity; overcome barriers to understanding with patients whose understanding is impaired.
• To identify and implement correct treatment plans within known patient care pathways under the indirect supervision of a qualified therapist.
• To assess and formulate treatment and discharge plans for patients as guided by the agreed treatment framework.
• To identify patients that do not fall within care pathway/agreed framework and who need referral to qualified staff.
• Using protocols and set processes to assess patients’ mobility and functional abilities and assess for and issue appropriate low-level equipment.
• To constantly assess patient’s stamina/understanding during treatment sessions and modify treatment as appropriate.
• To work in a flexible and responsive way when under pressure.
• To provide and receive complex patient care information with the multi-professional team, patients and carers in board rounds, ward rounds, family meetings and discharge planning meetings and use this information to modify patient care.

Working for our organisation

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs. Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Patient Care: To be an integral member of a therapies team, to assist qualified therapy staff in assessing and carrying out specific therapy interventions for clients with more complex needs.
• Review and implement treatment programmes making necessary modifications prior to reporting back to a qualified therapist in line with the band 4 competency framework.
• Provide support and training to other qualified and non-qualified staff within the therapy team.
• Manage and prioritise own case load independently, carry out delegated duties and work flexibly and at a fast pace to support the smooth running of the therapy department.
• To assist/facilitate same day discharges under guidance of therapists.
• To provide advice to patients/carers on safe use and care of prescribed equipment.
• Maintain accurate and up to date records of clinical interventions, consistent with legal and organisational requirements.
• Be responsible for maintaining rehabilitation equipment in the department.

Improving patient and visitor experiences

• To be a point of contact for patients and relatives in the clinical area.
• To communicate factual and sometimes complex information to patients and relatives with patients consent.
• To contribute to the development and sharing of patient and carer information.
• Support with gathering and using patient feedback to help improve and develop services.
• Respect the individuality, values, cultural and religious diversity of patients and contribute to the provision of a service sensitive to these needs.
• Be aware of ethical issues which impact on Therapy service provision and work under the guidance of Therapists in relation to this.

Using audit, evaluation and research

• Through guidance from the qualified therapists, be aware of and implement, evidence-based practice and outcome measures as appropriate to the clinical area.
• Support therapists to implement agreed action plans from both national and local strategies, benchmarking standards and clinical audits as appropriate.
• Participate in audit and research projects as required by service leads and collect data as required.
• Support therapists to foster a culture which allows innovation and practice development within the clinical area.
• Monitor outcomes of patient intervention using outcome measures.
• Collect and record accurate and timely data/information to contribute to department service standards and procedures.

Management and Teamwork

• To actively participate in the clinical education of therapy students.
• To participate actively in sharing and receiving in-service training and development to ensure continuous professional development, as appropriate to grade and experience.
• Support the induction of new staff.
• To identify training needs and facilitate professional development through active participation in supervision and appraisals.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• Manage and delegate day to day work tasks; prioritise work with reference to the Directorate’s and team’s plans; therapy goals and staffing levels.
• Work with the multidisciplinary team across all the service as required.
• Work flexibly to provide cover to other clinical areas according to the needs of patients and demands of the service.
• Assist therapists in arranging and providing in-service training, study days etc.
• Assist the therapists in ensuring working conditions are kept optimal, or if not, dealt with appropriately.

Trust Wide Responsibilities

• Act as a resource for members of the multi-disciplinary teams across the Trust through involvement in multi-professional teaching and training in the area of expertise.
• Act as a role model in customer service towards patients, visitors and staff in the hospital.
• Regularly attend and participate in care group and professional meetings.

Person specification

• Car driver and ability to travel between hospital sites and patient homes.
• Flexible and confident manner with a positive approach and high levels of motivation.
• Ability to manage work pressures to enable management of a caseload alongside involvement in non-clinical and professional activities.
• Appreciation of the dynamics of working within a team.
• Physical ability to undertake manual handling of patients and equipment on a daily basis.

Skills

• Well-developed communication skills, including interpersonal skills, liaison, influencing and negotiation.
• Basic IT literacy, including use of emails in Microsoft or similar.
• Ability to problem solve.
• Ability to work on own without immediate support.
• Ability to organise and prioritise own workload.
• Good observation skills.
• Ability to use initiative in addressing own learning needs and appraise own performance.

Knowledge and Experience

• Working in an acute NHS healthcare environment.
• Significant experience of working with a broad range of medical conditions and age groups.
• Knowledge and understanding of roles, responsibilities and working practices of Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists.
• Understanding of basic anatomy and physiology relevant to Therapy care including muscle groups, gait and skeletal anatomy.
• Understanding of the respiratory system and effects on the body and its function.
• Basic IT skills including use of email.
• Knowledge of the psychosocial elements of healthcare.
• Recognise boundaries of own scope of practice and duty of care, seeking assistance as appropriate.
• Experience of working within a community-based setting.
• Experience of working with Orthopaedic patients.

Education, Training and Qualifications

• Personal portfolio of evidence of work-based learning in healthcare.
• Or NVQ level 4 in care related topic or good standard of education equivalent to A level or BTec.
• UK Full driving licence.
• A combination of short relevant courses.
• Foundation degree or equivalent in health-related subject.

At Northampton General Hospital we provide general acute services and hyper-acute stroke, vascular and renal services to people living in Northamptonshire. As well as this we are an accredited cancer centre and provide cancer services to a wider population of Northamptonshire and parts of Buckinghamshire. We are proud to be the first hospital in the UK to have obtained Pathway to Excellence designated accreditation from the American nurses credentialing centre (ANCC). We celebrate staff achievements and value the importance of working as one big team. That’s why we talk about Team NGH. It’s all about working together to provide the best possible care for our patients and supporting each other to grow and develop our skills. We are driven to helping you to be the best you can be. We want to recruit the best people to deliver our services across the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and help to unleash everyone’s full potential. As an organisation, we value how we communicate and promote our vacancies to all communities.