Hand Therapist

The Therapy Department at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has a vacancy for a Highly Specialist Band 7 Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist to work in the Hand Therapy Team.

The post holder will manage a complex clinical caseload of adult and paediatric patients following trauma or with acquired conditions. The role will comprise working alongside the Hand Surgeons in their clinics, assessing and managing patients following their injury or surgery. The role will further include being the on-call hand therapist; attending ward rounds and prioritisation and clinical reasoning for patient referrals.

There will be involvement in the day to day operational running of the hand therapy team, alongside the band 7's and 8's.

You will work in an ever developing integrated and specialist hand therapy OT/Physio team (15 therapists) alongside 2 other band 7 therapists, with the support of the Advanced Clinical Practitioners and Consultant Hand Therapist.

You will also have a role in teaching and supervising static and rotational band 6 and band 5 therapists in the team.

To have the opportunity to participate in, or lead departmental research projects.

To be one of the therapy services expert clinicians for the hand therapy department.

To work as an autonomous practitioner in providing hand therapy assessment, treatment and management of their own designated caseload of adult and paediatric patients and to maintain up to date therapy records.

To utilise expert clinical reasoning and specialist skills to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions in trauma and acquired hand and wrist conditions and to provide specialist support and advice to other therapy staff whilst maintaining a caseload as an autonomous practitioner.

Use evidence based principles and current best practise to assess, plan, implement and evaluate hand therapy interventions.

Will be responsible, alongside 2 other band 7’s, for the operational day to day running of the hand therapy service ensuring organisation of the dairies, caseloads of team members and staff management are effective and timely.

To provide supervision, teaching and support to more junior staff, therapy assistants and students on placement.

To have the opportunity to participate in, or lead departmental research projects.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of England's top-performing and safest trusts. We operate two main acute hospital sites—Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital—along with award-winning clinics across North West London.

Our nearly 7,500 staff care for a diverse population of 1.5 million, providing full clinical services, including maternity, A&E, and children’s services, plus specialist HIV and sexual health clinics. The Care Quality Commission rates us 'Good' in safety, effectiveness, care, and responsiveness, and 'Outstanding' in leadership and resource use.

We continually invest in our facilities, including a £30m expansion of critical care at Chelsea and Westminster and an £80m Ambulatory Diagnostic Centre at West Middlesex.

We welcome applications for flexible working arrangements, accommodating requests where possible to support our staff and patient needs.

The Trust is committed to equality and welcomes applications from all, regardless of background. Adjustments can be made for disabled candidates. Early application is advised as vacancies may close once sufficient applications are received. If you haven’t heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, your application was likely unsuccessful. Employment is subject to a six-month probationary period.

Some roles may require weekend shifts at multiple sites.

Clinical:
To prioritise and manage a specialist clinical caseload, working as an autonomous practitioner and to monitor the caseloads of all hand therapy team members to ensure that an efficient and effective hand therapy service.
To provide treatment to patients in various locations including hand therapy outpatients, in-patient wards, day surgery/hand management unit and consultant clinics.
To undertake highly specialised hand therapy assessments and incorporate into treatment session, utilising appropriate therapy techniques and therapeutic handling skills of all types of hand conditions and trauma to form diagnoses and/or establish impairments and disabilities.
To carry out highly specialist diagnostic assessments on request from consultants when a diagnosis and clinical opinion is required.
o To monitor and evaluate treatment to measure progress and to ensure effectiveness of the intervention and to identify quickly when treatment requires modifying.
To cross traditional professional boundaries and demonstrate use of hand therapy assessment and treatment techniques usually performed by occupational therapists and physiotherapists, including static/dynamic splinting, sensory assessments/re-re-education, pressure garment as well as electrotherapy, exercise therapy and some mobilisation techniques.
To use advanced clinical reasoning skills to determine if any other treatment is required and if necessary ensure timely written and/or verbal referral to other professions
To support more junior staff, both physiotherapists and occupational therapists in the development of their assessment, treatment and clinical reasoning skills to ensure a high standard of care to hand therapy patients.
To be available for spontaneous highly specialist advice to patients, therapists and other professionals.

Leadership and Management

To be responsible for providing an efficient and effective hand therapy service, by demonstrating good leadership, organisational, time management and prioritisation skills.
To work closely with the other band 7 team leads, as well as the band 8a and 8b at all times to ensure that all organisational roles are covered but without needless duplication.
To be heavily involved in service development, in conjunction with the clinical specialist and Consultant hand therapist and MDT
To take a lead role in the teaching, supervision and appraisal of static and rotational band 5 and 6 therapists (both physiotherapist and occupational therapists),
To jointly organise with the other band 7’s the hand therapy team schedule in order to cover all clinical areas with the requisite number of staff and relevant level of experience and to update at least one month in advance
To be involved in and lead the recruitment and selection of more junior staff

Professional Development

To be responsible for personal continuous professional development and mandatory training

To participate in the appraisal system as appraiser and appraisee, and be responsible for fulfilling your agreed objectives and personal development plan

Education and Research

To participate in and contribute to in-service training programme
To be responsible for the training and induction of all new members of staff to hand therapy team
To participate in or lead teaching at a high level including to senior medical and nursing staff
To provide clinical supervision and teaching to more junior staff, students and therapy assistants
To be involved in developing, leading and completing local and multicentre research and audits undertaken in hand therapy
To provide highly specialist advice, teaching and training to other professionals