Job responsibilities
The Southampton Childrens hospital neonatal service based within Princess Anne Hospital offers medical and surgical care to infants born prematurely or who are unwell across the region. As a regional neurosurgical and cardiac centre, it is the only unit within the region to support babies needing to access these specialties. This rewarding role will provide specialist therapy input within the units brand new, purpose built SCBU.
We are looking for an enthusiastic, proactive paediatric physiotherapist who is passionate about working alongside families and colleagues to optimise the best possible outcomes for infants born sick or premature.This post is part of the wider Therapy services department. You will have many opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge through our in-service training. You will be part of a large department of over 290wte Therapy staff including Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Therapy support staff.
The Childrens Hospital is one of 10 largest childrens hospitals within the UK and located within University Hospital Southampton which is a large regional teaching hospital with links to the university and Wellcome Trust research facility. Childrens services have been graded as good by CQC. We have a vast range of Paediatric specialities including a level 3 PICU, and being a designated Major Trauma, neurosurgical, neuro-rehabilitation and cardiac centre. The neonatal services are housed within The Princess Anne Hospital (PAH) which is located on Coxford Road in Southampton, just across the road from Southampton General Hospital.
PAH is a centre of excellence for maternity care, providing a comprehensive service, including home birth, for about 5,000 women each year from around Southampton. It is also a regional centre for fetal and maternal medicine, providing specialist care for women with medical problems during pregnancy, and for those whose baby needs extra care before or around birth.
Our state-of-the-art, purpose-built neonatal intensive care unit has been specially designed as a bright, welcoming and spacious environment for babies and their families. We have 23 intensive and high dependency cots and 14 special care cots. Each cot has monitoring equipment and is colour-coded to give each baby its own place in the world. Parent and carer facilities are available on the unit as well as within the hospital site.
As one of the largest neonatal units in the country, we treat around 900 babies a year and look after babies from across the south and the Channel Islands. We also take babies from other parts of the country for specialised care when needed.
Good communication skills are key to enable close working relationships alongside a team of highly skilled Paediatric Physiotherapists /Occupational Therapists / therapy assistants as well as with the wider multi-disciplinary and multi- professional teams.
The post holder must be able to build a good rapport with the children and their families/ carers to encourage participation and will be working with children with a wide range of presenting conditions and often in emotive situations.
As an acute trust with unpredictable workloads we are looking for someone with the ability to work under pressure, problem solve and prioritise tasks. They should be self motivated and have the ability to work on their own or alongside other staff. As caseloads can often include patients that are acutely unwell we are looking for someone who has experience working in challenging and emotive situations with active coping strategies and resilience
Key duties: You will undertake a specialised paediatric clinical caseload of complex patients as an autonomous practitioner, according to service needs, using clinical reasoning skills and evidence-based practice to provide daily patient assessment, diagnosis and treatment, supporting appropriate and timely discharge across inpatient, and outpatient areas. You will use a range of assessment and treatment skills to support premature and high-risk infants and their families largely within the neonatal units. Considering their respiratory, neurological, development and orthopaedic needs holistically. As a regional centre you will provide specialised clinical therapy advice both within the Trust and externally to other team members and healthcare professionals, as necessary. You would be expected to be involved with service development supporting clinical pathways. You will be involved in supporting education and training to students, in house staff and staff across our regional network. You will also be part of our 7-day service rota working within the wider paediatric service and therefore core competencies with other age groups required and on the whole hospital physiotherapy on call services.
Essential skills and qualifications: Qualified Physiotherapist HCPC registered, or in the process of applying Post graduate experience working as a qualified physiotherapist in a rotational position, including an acute respiratory on-call rota Experience and specialist knowledge in Paediatrics, including neonates Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and written Excellent team working skills Clear, expressed desire to work in Paediatrics Clear, expressed desire to work in UHS Able to work flexibly across 7 days, on a roster basis, including BH and weekends
Desirable skills: Clinical Educators course Experience of supervising staff / students Previous experience of audit/service evaluation/Research CSP registration
UHS Therapy services department runs a 7-day service, using a rota system so weekend/BH working and active participation in the On-call out of hours unscheduled acute respiratory services will be expected.
Please note:1. Please ensure you fulfil all the essential criteria and have read the job description before applying.2. We appreciate people taking the time to write and submit applications, however those written using AI, or a computer system, might not be considered.3. We do not accept CV applications.
Due the unique nature of this post we welcome informal enquires or visits please contact Michelle Geary on 02381204560
If you are interested in other Therapy opportunities, please email Annette.Purkis@uhs.nhs.uk
We look forward to hearing from you.
