Job responsibilities
Main
Tasks and Responsibilities
Clinical
Responsibilities
1. To be professional and legally responsible
and accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of all
patients in your care.
2. To work flexibly and be able to adjust to
the constantly changing demands of the service.
3. To have holistic understanding of patient
and family dynamics, the patients condition and its impact on function.
4. To ensure a high standard of clinical care
for the children under your management at all times and support more junior
staff to do likewise.
5. To use clinical reasoning skills in
developing individual care plans that may include a treatment programme of
therapeutic intervention as well as education and advice to parents, carers,
school stuff, multi-disciplinary and multi-agency professionals.
6. To undertake the comprehensive assessment
of children including those with complex presentations using investigative
and analytical skills to formulate individualised management and treatment
plans.
7. To accept clinical and managerial
responsibility for a designated caseload of children and to organise this
effectively and efficiently with regards to clinical priorities, available
resources and use of time in order to facilitate safe, timely discharge.
8. To assess for and order equipment for
short term use to facilitate discharge; to advise regarding its safe use and
to justify to manager provision of high value adaptive equipment. To also
assess and advise on long term equipment needs and liaise with external
agencies as required.
9. To formulate, evaluate and progress
specialised treatment programmes and recommend the best course of
intervention for the children, setting realistic goals jointly agreed with
all parties concerned.
10. To be responsible for equipment used in
carrying out occupational therapy duties and to adhere to departmental policy
including competence to use equipment and to ensure the safe use of equipment
by yourself and others through teaching, training and supervision of
practice.
11. To work with other therapists and agencies
to ensure the safe physical management/handling of children. This will
include the use of risk assessments and highly developed manual handling
techniques.
12. To work within Trust and Royal College of
Occupational Therapys professional, operational and clinical guidelines and
have a working knowledge of national and local standards for monitoring own
quality of practice.
13.
To
evaluate emergency situations and act accordingly working within procedures
and protocols laid down by the service and the Trust.
14.
To
accept personal responsibility for the actions and quality of own work and
those staff whose responsibility is delegated to you.
15.
To
treat as confidential all information obtained during the course of duties
undertaken.
16.
To
demonstrate an ability to deal effectively with sensitive and contentious
information, particularly with respect to difficult social situations and
child protection issues.
17.
To
maintain and develop current knowledge of evidenced based practice,
developing specialist knowledge and integrating theory into practice.
18.
To
continually undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work in light of
current and developing protocols, standards, evidence based research, audit
and outcome measures.
Communication
& Professionalism
1.
To
communicate and discuss complex information with all members of the
multi-disciplinary team and to attend multi-agency meetings.
2.
To
effectively communicate assessment findings and treatment/intervention plans
to service users and external agencies. This may occasionally include issues
regarding child protection.
3.
To
demonstrate the ability to evaluate and modify own communication style
suitable for differing situations and the needs of the individual, including
listening, observing, and interpreting.
4.
To
provide advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers and other
professionals to promote understanding of the aims of occupational therapy.
5.
To
liaise and effectively communicate through verbal and written form with
community agencies e.g. community therapists, schools, social services,
equipment providers to ensure safe and timely discharge.
6.
To
maintain accurate, comprehensive and up to date patient records according to
professional (RCOT and HCPC) and Trust standards.
7.
To
work within relevant Professional Standards of Practice of the Royal College
of Occupational Therapy (RCOT) and adhering to Trust policies and procedures.
Planning and Organisational Skills
1.
To independently
priositise own caseload, balancing other occupational therapy related and
professional demands and ensure that these priorities remain in accordance
with those of the service as a whole.
2.
To
attend and participate in the Trust mandatory training, including child
protection and departmental in-service training.
3.
To
participate in appropriate Clinical Governance activities such as risk assessments,
incident reporting, etc.
4.
To
undertake risk assessments on a daily basis, e.g. work space, equipment,
patients and self, using judgment skills to make the necessary adjustments in
line with health and safety regulations.
5.
To
carry a bleep and respond to calls and requests when based in the hospital in
a timely and effective manner.
Service and Personal Development
1. To work within relevant professional
standards of practice (RCOT) adhering to Trust procedures.
2. To participate in the development of the therapy
service.
3. To manage and undertake audit,
benchmarking and research into specific areas of clinical practice and
service delivery using a range of methodologies.
4. To actively participate in the fieldwork
education and training of OT students to graduate level.
5. To assist in the supervision, teaching and
appraisal of junior staff and assistants.
6.
To
actively participate in continuing professional development to further own
learning and personal development, including regular supervision, peer review and
annual appraisal.
7. To participate actively in sharing and
receiving in-service training and development, to ensure sharing of learning,
skills, knowledge and expertise and promote continuous professional
development.
8. Gain further knowledge by attending
external courses identified at appraisal and demonstrate reflection on and
use of that new knowledge in your work.
9. To be responsible for complying with your
agreed objectives and personal development plan while maintaining own
competency to practice through CPD activities.
10.
To
record continuing professional development in own portfolio, linked to the
annual appraisal and personal development plan.
11.
To
actively seek peer and clinical support by participating in national clinical
and special interest groups in order to keep up-to-date with professional
information.
12.
To
contribute towards service reviews, audit, research and development within
the childrens therapy service.
Information and Resource Management
1.
To
make proposals for securing funding for equipment, or study days.
2.
To be
aware of and abide by the criteria for provision of equipment including
financial limits and referring onto other organisations as necessary.
3.
To be
competent using the online equipment ordering system to facilitate patient
discharge.
4.
Ensure
all equipment is used appropriately and safely, according to RCOT service
guidelines.
5.
To
take responsibility for the maintenance of the departments equipment and
information files.
6.
To
compile, record and collate accurate statistics for treatment interventions
in a timely manner.
7.
To
maintain patient records and statistics in line with Trust Standards and the
Department Policy and the Data Protection Act.
8.
To
maintain up-to-date records or all leave (annual, sick, professional, study)
and to take responsibility for the reporting of absence.
9.
To
use the Trust intranet, EPR systems, PAS and data bases and assist in
training of other staff on how to use it.
10.
To be
able to use e-mail for communications across the sites, and to use the
Therapy IT system for sharing / using information.
