Job responsibilities
To establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships with other staff, clients and their carers. Positive relationships are characterised by open communication, trust and respect.
To use tact and diplomacy to provide and communicate complex, sensitive information where motivational negotiating, empathetic and reassurance skills are needed, where barriers exist to understanding, maintaining confidentiality within Trust Policies.
Communicate and work together with other teams within Provider Services and other providers to ensure optimum patient centred care.
To involve patients and carers in the planning of care/rehabilitation programmes and encourage self-management where appropriate.
To represent the service at county-wide forums.
To ensure all patients and their relatives cultural wishes are respected and their special mental and physical needs are met.
To recognise potential communication barriers and implement effective strategies to facilitate communication.
To have a good knowledge of supporting services available to clients from health, social care and voluntary agencies.
To provide support and supervision to junior members of staff.
Nature of work
To form professional relationships with clients and communicate condition related information to them in a way that respects their views, autonomy and culture.
To manage and hold accountability for a defined caseload involving specialist and complex assessments using evidence-based client centred principles. To assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions.
To work flexibly across bases within Bedfordshire, including rehabilitation bedded units, as service needs require.
Where barriers to understanding exist staff will need to use tact, motivational negotiating and reassurance skills. Information received and given may be sensitive and will need to be handled in a empathic and professional manner
To involve patients and carers in the planning of rehabilitation programmes and encourage self-management where appropriate
To communicate effectively with all members of the Neuro rehab team , acquired brain injury service and wider Clinical Care at Home team. To support and promote team working generally.
Communicate and work together with other teams within the provider services, and other providers to ensure optimum patient centred care. Using various methods of communication, this will include oral, written, electronic or other verbal or non-verbal methods
To have a good level of knowledge of support services within the community
Clinical Duties
To undertake comprehensive therapy assessments of patients who may have complex conditions including multi pathology. Use well developed clinical reasoning to select appropriate assessment techniques.
To analyse the information gained from the assessment to formulate an accurate physiotherapy treatment plan for the patient and then discuss and agree goals and outcomes for treatment with them. To set realistic timescales for achieving these.
To select and be able to perform appropriate treatment techniques from a wide range of specialist skills. The selection of techniques will be based on both theoretical and practical knowledge and evaluated past experience.
To demonstrate the physical ability to carry out physiotherapy assessment and interventions.
To be responsible for all aspects of safety relating to equipment used. To be responsible for checking and/or teaching competency of junior staffs in using equipment e.g. appliances, gym equipment, NMES items etc.
To produce clear written information and exercise programmes for patients to follow at home or when not with a physiotherapist. This may include teaching carers and care-givers in patients own homes.
To use developed clinical reasoning skills to review and evaluate patient progress and their current condition at each treatment session and to amend the treatment programme as appropriate to achieve agreed goals.
To plan and undertake discharge of patients from Neuro rehab service when agreed goals have been reached or treatment is no longer appropriate (e.g. the patient has reached a plateau or there is a change in their medical circumstances). To be able to negotiate this with patients who wish to continue treatment on an on-going basis.
To be able to correctly identify inappropriate referrals to Neuro rehab/ESD service and have the confidence to refer on or back as required.
To produce timely and accurate patients records and reports in accordance with Health Professions Council and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy regulations.
Planning
To deputise for the senior staffs in matters related to the daily running of the service as and when necessary.
To work in collaboration with patients, relatives, carers and the multi-disciplinary team in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating care.
To act as a case manager for clients, coordinating their intervention whilst with the service.
Plan delegation of work to assistant practitioners and rehabilitation support workers.
To arrange for provision of assistive equipment from appropriate agencies as required and use equipment PIN numbers responsibly and effectively
To liaise with other services to ensure planned care and intervention as agreed with clients is given.
To have a good knowledge of supporting services available to clients from health and social care as well as voluntary agencies in the community
To be responsible for prioritising and organising own caseload, managing conflicting demands on time.
To participate in and facilitate group work, committees and workshops as required.
To organise and attend multidisciplinary case conferences and liaison meetings as necessary.
Communication Skills
Using verbal, non-verbal and written communication tools, ensure that patients and carers (if appropriate within the scope of patient confidentiality) have an understanding of their condition and the role and aims of Physiotherapy in relation to this. The physiotherapist must be able to persuade, motivate and negotiate, as well as demonstrate empathy and reassurance. The physiotherapist must effectively amend their communication techniques according to individual needs of the patient
To be confident in their own diagnosis and be able to communicate that effectively to others (including medical professionals and other Allied Health Professionals).
To share information in a timely manner with the band 7 physiotherapist if there are concerns about a patients safety, condition or progress.
To urgently report and take appropriate action if there are any concerns about staff and/or patient safety to more senior staff.
To represent the Community Physiotherapy service in meetings with other professionals with an aim of accurately contributing and reporting back relevant information to their line manager or team leader.
Research & Development Activity
To contribute to meetings about clinical governance and service development
Undertake audits in line with Trust policy and clinical governance agenda
Undertake or participate in research in order to improve service as required
To participate in the delivery of the Neuro rehab & ESD Team development plan
To be an active participant in the Supervision and Appraisal process. This includes prior preparation and being able to identify own learning needs and objectives.
To take responsibility for booking and attending mandatory training as specified in Trust policies and take action as required in the work place (e.g. basic life support, fire, manual handling).
To continue to develop specialist Physiotherapy skills in a specific clinical field.
To actively review the service you provide with an aim of promoting better patient care using audit, research, case studies and reflective practice.
To be responsible for own competence to practice by on-going continuing professional development (CPD) and the recording of it in a reflective diary/portfolio. To maximise the learning opportunities available in order to support evidence based practice and influence clinical practice.
Human Resources
Responsible for day-to-day supervision of staff within Neuro and ESD service
Development of staff
Maintaining own professional development and requirement to take part in appraisal and KSF process
