Clinical Psychologist for Intensive Care (ICU)

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job description

Clinical Psychologist for Intensive Care (ICU)

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Clinical Psychologist for Adult Intensive Care Unit (AICU) at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHNT) - Band 8A

ICHNT provides expert critical care to patients across the St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospital sites. The post holder will join an established team of psychologists working in adult ICU's within the Trust and the wider clinical health psychology service. The post involves clinical work with staff, patients and relatives, primarily at Charing Cross Hospital, but may involve travel to other sites as needed.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Main duties of the job

Main duties for this post involve specialist assessment and intervention with patients admitted to the adult Intensive Care Unit (AICU) at Charing Cross Hospital, as well as post-discharge follow-up, and providing support to their families. A critical aspect of the post will be to support staff working in AICU, by developing a culture of continual reflection and striving for improvement by working with patients in a psychologically informed way, through providing staff consultation, teaching and other support.

It is not expected that applicants will necessarily have prior experience in ICU but they should be able to demonstrate a real interest in these aspects of psychological function and have experience in working with people with physical health conditions. Interest in other areas of health psychology and trauma-informed care will also be encouraged.

Health psychology is developing apace and allows for innovative thinking and creative approaches. The post holder will find themselves in a supportive department with many opportunities for development. A critical mind and research interests are encouraged. Intelligence, kindness and humour are required.

About us

Click here to find out more about working at CNWL! Psychological Professions :: CNWL Extranet

CNWL is recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ in line with our values, our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy & policy, & many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries. With us, you will get -

A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing at its core.

• An opportunity to work for one of the top 10 NHS employers
• Variety of work
• Access to a variety of CPD opportunities.

As a Trust we are committed to investing in our staff through a range of initiatives, both profession-specific and organisation wide. Psychological professions staff are able to access a range of trust-wide CPD initiatives. We have partnered with Bespoke & Contextual Consulting to provide some of the profession specific CPD, alongside additional CPD sessions we commission as part of CNWL CPD programme for Psychological Professions.

In the ICU Psychology team, there is access to clinical supervision and line management as per standard practice, and also access to peer supervision support and reflective practice specific to the role.

Job responsibilities

ICHT provides expert critical care to patients across the St Marys, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospital sites. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the value of psychology has been recognised and this postholder will join an established team of ICU psychologists. The post involves clinical work with staff, patients and relatives.

Clinical and Client Care

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients and staff of the ICU, including specialising in an awareness of, and ability to work with, traumatic injuries/illnesses interacting with other aspects of psychological functioning.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To act where appropriate as coordinator for someone's care within the hospital or as liaison between the acute hospital and community services.
• To support families and other significant members of a patient's network, in responding to the patient's state, needs and, where appropriate, death.
• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To offer support to staff members of the ICU in their delivery of optimal care to patients.
• To offer support to staff members of the ICU who experience stress or distress in relation to their work role.
• To contribute to the team or service's delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and supporting the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the relevant Multi-Disciplinary Teams on specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Counselling Psychology, or equivalent.
• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in a health psychology speciality.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.
• Experience of carrying out post-doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects.
• Experience of working with families and/or staff groups.
• Experience of working in ICU or physical trauma.
• Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for a range of problems addressed by Clinical Health Psychology.
• Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
• Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
• Familiarity with factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.
• Experience of, or interest in, contributing to funded or unfunded research projects in the area of specialisation.

Skills

• To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
• To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources.
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and for meetings such as case reviews.
• To plan allocation of tasks to assistant psychologists.
• Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.
• Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups.

Abilities

• Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings.
• Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these.
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
• Ability to manage, with appropriate support as necessary, verbal aggression and hostility directed at self.

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.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust