Job overview

We currently have a permanent vacancy for a Band 5 Occupational Therapist to join a comprehensive rotation on a permanent basis. Rotations include surgery, medicine, older person's unit, orthopaedics, acute stroke and hospital at home  with a focus on acute rehabilitation, reduction of patient deconditioning and readying patients for discharge.  Each rotation has its own in-service training sessions and competencies.

In the summer of 2019 we opened the doors to the new Therapies and RNHRD (Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases) department which is home to state of the art equipment, gym, hydrotherapy pool and ADL suite. The Therapies department is forward thinking with new projects and has monthly CPD (continuing professional development) sessions for the whole of Therapies.

 This post is suitable for newly qualified Occupational therapists, or for therapists with some experience who would like to develop further in the above areas or gain experience in the acute setting.  Our values; Everyone Matters, Working Together, Making a Difference, represent our aspiration for the type of hospitals we want to be and you can join our dedicated and talented staff to make this happen.  There is an expectation that the successful candidate will participate in weekend working, likely over a 7 day pattern. 

Main duties of the job

The post provides Occupational Therapy assessments and treatment to adult inpatients on designated acute wards at the Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust and in the surrounding community setting.  The majority of the clinical work is delivered within the hospital but our Hospital at Home service provides therapy input out in the community at patients residence.

The 6 month rotations include staff gaining clinical experience in orthopaedics/ acute medicine / acute surgery/ acute stroke/ older people’s unit and community.   The rotations are aimed at developing staff’s clinical assessment skills, case load management, acute rehab skills, team working and discharge planning which will include risk management of patients with a variety of diagnosis, providing opportunity for staff to gain sufficient evidence to demonstrate their competencies.   

The Band 5 post holder will be expected to demonstrate a progression in their ability to produce clear clinical reasoning for their interventions based on national guidelines or evidence based practice. 

Working for our organisation

At the RUH we're proud to put people at the heart of what we do, working together as one team to make a difference for our patients, each other, and our community. No matter what your role is, we value everyone's contribution in supporting the exceptional, person-centred care we pride ourselves on.

We are one of the region's acute hospitals which provides treatment and care for a diverse population of more than 500,000 people in Bath, North East Somerset and West Wiltshire.

Over the past ten years we have completed some major building projects to make the RUH "Fit for the Future".

Our staff are working in some amazing new buildings and departments that provide modern facilities and services that we are proud of, such as the RNHRD and Brownsword Therapies Centre, a new Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery department. We're now on the next phase which is building the Dyson Cancer Centre which is scheduled to open for patients in late 2023.