Occupational Therapist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

As part of the Care Home Team you will:

• Work to ensure that patients and their carers/families are able to express their preferences with regard to care planning and ensure these finalised discussions are recorded appropriately.
• Help patients to adapt to and manage their physical and mental health long-term conditions, through the teaching of coping strategies.
• Support the non-medical management of dementia and associated behavioural issues in care home patients.
• Communicate with patients and carers explaining difficult, hard to hear concepts such as end of life care in a compassionate and caring manner.
• Periodically review, evaluate and change rehabilitation programmes to rebuild lost skills and restore confidence.
• Advise on environmental alterations, such as adjustments for wheelchair access, technological needs, and ergonomic support.
• Use key elements of the framework of the Common Geriatric Assessment and the templates for the Advanced Care Planning to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate treatment plans, with an aim to improve patients health outcomes.
• Work with patients through a shared-decision making approach to plan realistic, outcomes-focused goals that are agreed and recorded.
• Undertake both verbal and non-verbal communication methods to address the needs of patients that have communication difficulties.
• Work in partnership with multi-disciplinary care home team colleagues, alongside the patients' families, and carers.
• Refer to the Community Occupational Therapy teams any patients who are identified as needing long term rehab support.
• Advise patients, and their families or carers, with referrals as necessary to other agencies either health or social care who can support with specialist equipment and organisations that can help with daily activities.
• Work to continuously improve standards of patient care and wider multi-disciplinary team working. Provide training, education and specialist expertise to PCN staff, raising awareness of good practice occupational therapy techniques.
• Ensure delivery of best practice in clinical practice, caseload management, education, research, and audit, to achieve care home team and PCN objectives.
• The post holder will need to be able to undertake risk assessments and crucially evaluate personal risk.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• BSc in Occupational Therapy under training programme approved by College of OTs.
• Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Desirable

• Non-medical prescribing.
• Mentorship and supervisory skills training.

Experience

Essential

• Sound understanding of the NHS and its principles and values.
• Experience of completing patient assessments using theoretical and practical experience, completing assessment, evaluating outcomes.
• Able to write clear and comprehensive clinical notes, care plans and assessments.
• Experience in assessment with long term conditions.
• Aware of GDPR and information governance.

Desirable

• Experience within primary care.
• Working knowledge of IT, Microsoft Office and Practice-based systems, i.e. SystmOne.
• Motivational interviewing and cognitive behavourial techniques.
• Able to undertake risk assessment.
• Experience of working with Dementia patients.

Other

Essential

• Driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• Agreement to Enhanced Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) Disclosure.

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

Yorkshire Health Network

Address

Doctors Surgery

14 Wetherby Road

Harrogate

North Yorkshire

HG2 7SA

Employer's website

http://www.yorkshirehealthnetwork.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)