Wellbeing Service Occupational Therapist (Band 5)

Job responsibilities

Clinical: Deliver our therapeutic patient groups, such as our Living Well programmethat support wellbeing, resilience, and self-management, rooted in holistic palliative care. Support the delivery of our lighter touch services, on and off site in community venues. This is in alignment with our new SPH strategy to keep community at the heart of our services. Triage patient referrals for allocation to our different groups. Provide compassionate, evidence-based advice and support within your professional scope, including emotional and spiritual care, and advance care planning. Promotes and embeds a culture of patient and community involvement that supports self-management, improving/maintaining independence, and wellbeing Refer patients to internal and external services as needed, ensuring seamless, joined-up care. Offers support that improves quality of life from a patients perspective Aims to optimise function to empower patients to live as independently as possible, maximising abilities while supporting physical and psychological adaption to their advancing, changing condition Promotes self-management including thorough delivery of patient education to individuals and groups. Maintains active professional registration and to work within the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) Core Standards Works flexibly to facilitate meeting patient and service needs. To work both as an autonomous practitioner and within an MDT. Communication (KSF 3) Develop and maintain communication with people about difficult matters and/or in difficult situations Communicate with empathy, clarity, and professionalismwhether with patients, families, colleagues or external partners. Adapt your communication style to meet individual needs, including cultural background, any reasonable adjustments and preferred methods. Handle sensitive conversations with care, including those involving distress or complex decisions. Keep records accurate, timely, and in line with professional and organisational standards and policies. To communicate professionally and in a timely way with relevant internal and external health care professionals to ensure coordinated care. Demonstrate competent use of Electronic Patient Records and IT systems Promote shared decision-making, respecting patients wishes. Ensures that confidentiality is always maintained. Apply the principles of Information Governance to all aspects of role Participate in and/or facilitate multidisciplinary professional meetings representing both the MDT as required. Act as an ambassador for the hospice, engaging in effective communication with external partners, and contributing to educational initiatives and public, web-based materials where needed. Ensure effective working relationships with other members of the hospice inter-disciplinary team. Be willing to engage with SPH marketing and communication team as required, ensuring SPH is represented in a professional and compassionate manner. Personal & people development (KSF 2/3) Develop oneself and contribute to the development of others Ensures through continuing professional development that high quality clinical practice is maintained and developed using evidence-based approach. Takes responsibility for identifying and addressing own education and developmental needs. Attends relevant training and study days as identified in Personal Development Plan and in line with the needs of the organisation Understands what sustains own resilience and proactively invests in this. Seeks feedback from others about work to help identify own development needs Identifies development needs for own emerging work demands and future career aspiration Keeps up-dated on local and national developments, legislation, and policies relevant to role and services within palliative care, disease management, clinical practice, and research. Attends and use clinical supervision effectively to aid professional development. To participate in the training and mentoring of students and external placements. To participate in teaching sessions where appropriate. Health, Safety & Security (KSF 2) Be alert to risks and take action to keep yourself and others safe. Follow hospice policies, procedures and risk assessments to ensure a safe working environment. Respond immediately and appropriately in emergencies. Report incidents and near misses and suggest improvements where needed. Manages identified risk in the best way possible through the use of risk assessments, including dynamic risk assessment in the moment. Work in a way that reduces risk to health, safety and security. Supports and challenges others in maintaining health, safety and security at work. Work within SPH Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Policy, and Safeguarding policy to ensure you safeguard the interests of all patients and their families. Demonstrate a sound understanding of Clinical Governance and apply your learning to the work situations. Service Improvement and Quality (KSF 2) Contribute to the improvement of services and maintain quality in own work and encourage others to do so Develop positive and productive working relationships with other care providers that enable mature partnership working. Promote care that is effective, safe and provides as positive an experience as possible for service users. Enables and encourages others to suggest change, challenge traditions and share good practice within organisation. Evaluates own and others work when needed Make suggestions to improve the service Constructively identifies where new ways of working, policies or strategies are having a negative impact on the service given to users or the public Understand own role, its scope and how this may change and develop over time in a high-quality organisation. To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work including the management of patients, in accordance with own professional standards and competence. Takes on new work when agreed and make changes to own work, evaluating changes made. This includes consideration of how service improvements will enable equal access to our services and build collaborative services that reach all communities in alignment with SPH strategic intentions. Promotes patient and public experience feedback to influence innovation and change Contributes to meetings and projects on behalf of the team Keep abreast of national agendas and published frameworks, guidelines, standards, protocols, policies, research and evidence, both clinical and professional relating to this specialist area. Identify and utilise appropriate outcome and service impact measures, which accurately evaluate patient response and service development needs Works within the limits of own competence and area of responsibility and accountability. Seeks help and advice where needed Works to support the team. Can be counted on when people ask for help or support Prioritises own workload and manages own time to ensure priorities are met and quality is not compromised Monitors the quality of work in own area and alerts others to quality issues, reporting any errors or issues to the appropriate person Demonstrate a commitment to developing research/audit skills and contribute to the research/audit or others. Maintains professional registration Equality & Diversity (KSF 2) Ensure services are culturally competent, inclusive and accessible. Treat everyone with dignity and respect, actively foster a non-discriminatory approach. Challenge bias, prejudice, and intolerance if appropriate or bring it to the attention of their line manager Aware of the impact of their own behaviour on others

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree in Occupational Therapy
• Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Registration with the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT)
• Evidence of further study and continuous development.

Desirable

• Communication skills training
• Group work skills training

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of 2 years post graduate experience working as an Occupational Therapist with of direct patient care in a health or social care setting working with patients who have life limiting conditions (cancer and non-cancer diseases).
• Evidence of working in a multidisciplinary team (MDT)
• Experience of managing a caseload
• Experience of working autonomously without direct supervision
• Assessment and treatment using holistic approaches and/or standardised assessments as appropriate
• Up to date knowledge of adaptive equipment
• Understanding of partnership working with statutory and voluntary agencies
• Clinical reasoning and treatment planning.
• Possess a working knowledge of clinical governance and evidence-based practice
• Possess a working knowledge of safeguarding individuals who are at risk
• Understanding of health inequalities and barriers faced by marginalised groups and has ideas how to address them.
• Willingness to develop palliative care knowledge and skills

Desirable

• Experience of relevant clinical areas including:
• Rehabilitation
• Energy conservation/fatigue management
• Coordination of care across settings and agencies
• Supporting patients individually and in groups
• Supporting carers
• Experience of working and proven ability to work with diverse communities, building trust and promoting inclusive practice.
• Possess a sound knowledge of issues related to the provision of palliative care in the community
• Experience of holding conversations around advance care planning
• Teaching experience.
• Experience of audit processes

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Excellent communication, both written and verbal
• Confident in engaging with individuals, families, and professionals across diverse settings.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt flexibly to meet changing needs
• Inspirational interpersonal skills able to engage and build effective relationships at all levels
• Excellent organisational and time management skills with the ability to prioritise tasks
• Self-directed learning
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Own and take responsibility for constructive feedback to improve patient care and/or team working
• Robust emotional resilience to manage excessive exposure to dying people and family/carer distress
• Ability to pass on skills/knowledge to others within both formal and informal environments
• Ability to maintain a professional, calm and efficient manner with strong self-management skills
• Takes responsibility for own actions.
• Able to use a variety of IT systems, including Microsoft office, MS Teams and EMIS

Desirable

• Group Facilitation: Skilled in leading inclusive, supportive group sessions.

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Demonstrate ability to work flexibly to meet the challenges and opportunities of working within the hospice environment
• Willingness to learn and adapt
• Demonstrate a commitment to anti -discriminatory practice and equal opportunities
• Self-motivated and able to motivate others
• Approachable, non-judgemental, and empathetic
• Positive, approachable and engaging with the common goals and strategy of the hospice.
• Works inclusively and has a genuine appreciation of the value of diversity
• Be able to demonstrate and uphold the hospice values
• Demonstrates enthusiasm and commit to work in palliative and end of life care
• Able to work under pressure
• Driving license and access to a vehicle for work purposes

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).