Detailed job description and main responsibilities

JOB PURPOSE 

The Physiotherapy Team Lead for Emergency Department Therapy Team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) provides clinical leadership to physiotherapy staff working in this pathway on this site. The postholder is an experienced clinician who independently manages a significant clinical caseload and supports other team members. 

The postholder, alongside the other band 7s within the team, supervises the day to day running of the Emergency Department Therapy Team, leads Same Day Emergency Care Services (SDEC), as well as covering ED, AMU and Ambulatory Care as required, and is line managed by the AMU Clinical Lead and Physiotherapy Inpatient Site Lead for QEH. 

The team works closely alongside the Occupational Therapy Team for the same area, and together they provide a 7-day service in this area, covering extended hours 8-6pm. Generic competencies are in development between the two professions.

In conjunction with the Physiotherapy Inpatient Site Lead for QEH and the AMU Clinical Lead, the postholder coordinates a rolling program of education, clinical evaluation, audit and research within the Emergency Care clinical pathway at QEH.

As part of the senior clinical physiotherapy team on the QEH site, the postholder will deputize for the inpatient lead as required.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Clinical

1. To undertake all aspects of clinical duties and to carry a significant caseload of patients as an autonomous practitioner, including those with complex presentations

2. To work at an advanced level and to be professionally and legally accountable for a highly specialized patient caseload and to decide priorities for own work area, balancing other patient related and professional demands 

3. To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work, and of the local pathway teams’ work.  This will include the management of clinical risk, clinical governance, knowledge of indications and precautions of chosen techniques in line with national and trust clinical guidelines and protocols where they exist.

4. To assess patients’ capacity, gain valid and informed consent to treatment and where such capacity is lacking/absent to work within a legal framework in the management of the patient 

5. To undertake the comprehensive assessment and accurate diagnosis of patients including those with complex presentation, using investigative, palpatory, analytical and clinical reasoning skills 

6. Under supervision of the AMU Clinical Lead and Physiotherapy Inpatient Site Lead to request diagnostic procedures that will inform clinical decision making as appropriate to individual competency level and the job role 

7. To undertake physical treatment techniques utilizing highly developed manual skills 

8. To formulate individualized clinical management programs, utilizing a wide range of treatment skills and options to plan a highly specialized program of care 

9. To use recognized outcome measures to evaluate the effect of physiotherapy interventions and ensure that treatment programs are progressing appropriately 

10. To provide spontaneous and planned expert advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers, other disciplines and agencies.  To promote understanding of the aims of physiotherapy and to ensure continuation of the treatment program.  To be consulted by staff within the local pathway and the trust 

11. To participate in and where indicated, initiate multidisciplinary / multi-agency team meetings and case conferences to ensure the co-ordination of patient care.  This may include the review of patient progress and discharge planning 

12. To ensure accurate, comprehensive and up to date clinical records are maintained in accordance with Trust guidance and professionally agreed criteria 

13. To identify and employ suitable verbal and non-verbal communication skills with patients where there may be barriers to understanding or the inability to accept diagnosis.  To facilitate the best possible communication outcome in every situation and use appropriate services, e.g. interpreters, SALT 

14. To ensure that individual practice and that of the local pathway team is patient focused and patient views are incorporated into treatment planning 

15. To employ appropriate skills such as persuasion, motivation and negotiation to gain co-operation in the continuation of the agreed treatment program 

16. To communicate with empathy, patient information which may be of a complex and sensitive nature including details of prognosis or disability that may be unwelcome 

17. To receive complex patient related information from patients, relatives, carers and other professionals to effectively plan and develop individual case management 

18. To communicate and advise regarding complex patient related information effectively to ensure collaborative working within the physiotherapy service and with other professionals across health and other agencies to ensure the delivery of a coordinated multidisciplinary service 

19. To be integral in discharge planning including liaison with referring hospitals or community staff to which patients are discharged, providing timely discharge reports 

20. To produce comprehensive patient related reposts for other disciplines or agencies relating to assessment findings and or treatment outcomes 

21. To undertake an extended scope role as appropriate to the needs of the service and supervised by the AMU Clinical Lead and/ or Physiotherapy Site Lead (an extended scope practioner undertakes delegated responsibility on behalf of medical practioner(s) including the independent management of complete episodes of care of patients from referral to discharge) 

22. To undertake the measurement and evaluation of work through audit, outcome measurement, the application of evidence-based practice and research where appropriate.  To identify and initiate audit projects to review current clinical practice within the pathway 

23. To facilitate the implementation and evaluation of physiotherapy clinical outcomes within a designated pathway and monitor adherence with professional and national standards 

24. To work to Trust and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy clinical guidelines and have a good working knowledge of relevant national standards to which quality of practice should be monitored. 

25. To raise physiotherapy staff awareness of current clinical developments and the implication these may have on clinical practice 

26. To be accessible and provide expert clinical advice to colleagues in particular for complex case management 

27. Once considered competent to participate in the on-call, weekend, bank holiday and extended working rotas where clinically appropriate 

28. To fully participate in whatever pattern of working (including 7-day rosters) is required by the service in the future 

All clinical staff are accountable and responsible for their own clinical competence and should limit their actions to those for which they are deemed competent in line with guidance from their professional bodies.