First Contact Physiotherapist (FCP)

Job description

Job responsibilities

The First Contact Physiotherapist has the following key responsibilities; to:

1) provide clinical expertise, acting as a first-contact physiotherapist making decisions about the best course of action for patients' care (including in relation to undifferentiated conditions). This will involve seeing patients, without prior contact with their GP (where the service is designed as such), in order to establish a rapid and accurate diagnosis and management plan. independently, without day to day supervision, to assess, diagnose, triage, and manage patients, taking responsibility for prioritising and managing a caseload of the PCNs Registered Patients;

2) work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role, using their expert knowledge of movement and function issues, to create stronger links for wider services through clinical leadership, teaching and evaluation;

3) develop integrated and tailored care programmes in partnership with patients, facilitate behavioural change, optimise individuals' physical activity, mobility, and utilising a range of first line treatment options including self-management, referral to rehabilitation services and social prescribing;

4) make use of their full scope of practice, developing skills relating to independent prescribing, injection therapy and investigation to make professional judgements and decisions in unpredictable situations, including when provided with incomplete or contradictory information. They will take responsibility for making and justifying these decisions;

5) manage complex interactions, including working with patients with psychosocial and mental health needs, referring onwards as required and including social prescribing when appropriate;

6) communicate effectively with patients, and their carers where applicable, complex and sensitive information regarding diagnoses, pathology, prognosis and treatment choices supporting personalised care;

7) implement all aspects of effective clinical governance for own practice, including undertaking regular audit and evaluation, supervision and training;

8) develop integrated and tailored care programmes in partnership with patients through:

i) effective shared decision-making with a range of first line management options (appropriate for a patients level of activation);

ii) assessing levels of Patient Activation to support a patients own level of knowledge, skills and confidence to self-manage their conditions, ensuring they are able to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of self-management interventions, particularly for those at low levels of activation;

iii) agreeing with patients appropriate support for self-management through referral to rehabilitation focussed services and wider social prescribing as appropriate; and

iv) designing and implementing plans that facilitate behavioural change, optimise patients physical activity and mobility, support fulfilment of personal goals and independence, and reduce the need for pharmacological interventions;

9) request and progress investigations (such as x-rays and blood tests) and referrals to facilitate the diagnosis and choice of treatment regime including, considering the limitations of these derived from these and the relative sensitivity and specificity of particular tests diagnostic services, interpret and act on results and feedback to aid patients diagnoses and management plans; and

10) be accountable for decisions and actions via Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration, supported by a professional culture of peer networking/review and engagement in evidence-based practice.

Wider Responsibilities

The following sets out the key wider responsibilities of the First Contact Physiotherapist:

1) To work across the multi-disciplinary team to create and evaluate effective and streamlined clinical pathways and services;

2) To provide leadership and support on MSK clinical and service development across the PCN, alongside learning opportunities for the whole multidisciplinary team within primary care;

3) To develop relationships and a collaborative working approach across the PCN, supporting the integration of pathways in primary care;

4) To encourage collaborative working across the wider health economy and be a key contributor to supporting the development of physiotherapy clinical services across the PCN;

5) To liaise with secondary and community care services, and secondary and community MSK services where required, using local social and community interventions as required to support the management of patients within the PCN; and

6) To support regional and national research and audit programmes to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the First Contact Practitioner (FCP) programme. This will include communicating outcomes and integrating findings into own and wider service practice and pathway development.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Essential criteria
• Qualifications and ongoing learning and development Completion of an undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy
• A Masters level qualification or the equivalent specialist knowledge, skills and experience Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council Member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)
• Hold relevant public liability insurance May hold or be working towards a prescribing qualification May hold or be working towards a postgraduate physiotherapy qualification

Desirable

• Desirable criteria
• If you are considering becoming an employee with us you will be required to provide a copy of evidence of your COVID Vaccination status, also referred to as a COVID Vaccination passport, which is available either from your online access or via the NHS App, if you do it via the NHS app you will need to select the one for travel and not personal.

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. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Fareham & Portchester PCN

Address

Fareham Health Centre, 1st Floor

Osborn Road

Fareham

Hampshire

PO16 7ER

Employer's website

https://farehamandportchesterpcn.gpweb.org.uk/our-primary-care-network (Opens in a new tab)