Therapy Assistant Practitioner

Job Overview

Are you:

• Ready for a new challenge,
• Driven to promote the value of Occupational Therapy and therefore influence the narrative of OT for future generations,
• Committed to making the NHS having a brighter future
  
  

Do You Want To

• Learn in a fast-paced hospital setting,
• Grow your knowledge about equipment provision and your clinical skills,
• Work with the Medical Team with an opportunity to collaborate with both internal and external multidisciplinary partners
• Develop your knowledge and skill with support from peers, specialists, clinical educators, and experienced Occupational Therapy leaders
  
  

We have an exciting opportunity for a Band 4 Occupational Therapy Assistant Practitioner to join our friendly and welcoming team.

Main duties of the job

Upon Completion Of Your Competencies, You Will

• Assist in the assessment and treatment of patients with guidance from a qualified staff
• Assist in the assessment, provision and installation of equipment
• Assist in completing onward community referrals
• Contribute to the planning and implementation of therapy programs
• Participate in training, supervision and appraisal
  
  

Working for our organisation

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.

Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.

Frimley Health Trust benefits on Vimeo

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

• Assist in the provision of care to patients, supported and supervised by a qualified therapist.
• Carry out clinical tasks (such as instruction/supervision and prescription of individual exercise programmes), delegated by qualified staff, requiring a wide range of technical ability, manual therapy skills, as well as an excellent level of interpersonal skills.
• To take handover and undertake discharge planning
• To manage a specified patient caseload, to include patients with complex rehabilitation goals
• To provide high quality group exercise sessions to patients and conduct Gym induction sessions to patients
• To provide and order patient equipment from NRS (or equivalent supplier) within set competencies or as directed by an appropriate qualified therapist
• Participate in continued personal development
• To contribute in the induction and training of new therapy staff, therapy students and other non-qualified health care staff within the therapy team
• To order and monitor stock of disposable therapy equipment.
• To contribute to the supervision and training of other therapy assistants
  
  

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• GCSE or equivalent qualification in English and Mathematics
• Knowledge of anatomy/physiology
• , Specific clinical knowledge relevant to speciality
• NVQ Level3 or equivalent
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Foundation Degree or equivalent in related field or willingness to work towards
  
  

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience as Band 3 Therapy assistant within a NHS setting
• Leading and delivering exercise programmes in a hospital setting
• Working within a team
• Experience of working directly with patients
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Undertaking exercise prescription for people with long term conditions
• Evaluating outcomes of exercise or use of equipment
• Knowledge of therapy interventions acquired through training or experience within a healthcare setting
  
  

Skills

Essential criteria

• Interpersonal skills to include concise and effective verbal and written communication.
• Ability to instruct and motivate
• Organisational skills, ability to prioritise and manage day.
• IT skills
• Ability to critically appraise own performance. To be able to organise and deliver a health education session either in 1:1 or group sessions.
• Basic understanding of the patient condition and its impact on the therapy intervention.
• Ability to conduct and respond to risk assessments
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Negotiation skills, able to overcome barriers to exercise.
  
  

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (FHFT) has an outstanding reputation and a proud record of achievement. As a well performing, well led and ambitious Foundation Trust, we have exciting times ahead of us. We have an ongoing commitment to improving the health and care services for the 900,000 people we serve across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.

We are proud of the ambitions laid out in our strategy, Our Future FHFT, including our vision to be a leader in health & wellbeing, delivering excellence for our communities.

We continue to invest in our services and facilities, including a £10 million upgrade to the hospital maternity unit as well as £49m major new Emergency Assessment Centre on our Wexham Park site. The opening of a brand new £100m state of the art hospital which replaced the existing hospital facility at Heatherwood and are planning to invest further in diagnostics and inpatient capacity at Frimley Park.

We have also made significant investment in our quality improvement and digital programmes to support our vision and we will ensure that we achieve our aim of providing the highest quality healthcare to our patients. Our new EPR – Epic – went live in June and we are already beginning to reap the benefits of this ambitious investment.

Our three core values, and the behaviours that support them, guide everything we do and set out what we expect of our staff in the way they treat patients, visitors, service users and each other, Committed to Excellence, Working Together and Facing the Future.

Apply online now