Band 4 Senior Therapy Assistant

You should have experience working as an OT/PT or generic therapy support worker and should hold an NVQ 3 or equivalent. You should be able to work independently as well as part of a team and demonstrate excellent communication, clinical reasoning and prioritisation skills. This will involve accepting patients referred by the therapists for treatment, working unsupervised, reporting back regarding patient progress, informing the therapists of any problems and maintaining appropriate records.

• *Education to GCSE level or equivalent including English and maths at grade C or above
• *Able to demonstrate competence in maths and written and spoken English
• *Educated to A Level / NVQ 4/ BTEC or equivalent (e.g. NVQ 3 or similar vocational qualification PLUS substantive experience working in a care setting)
• *Care certificate or be willing to work towards this
• *Comprehensive experience supporting therapists in a relevant clinical setting
• *Comprehensive experience of delivering acute inpatient rehabilitation programmes across a variety of clinical settings with evidence of MDT collaboration and hospital discharge planning
• *Can demonstrate an in depth understanding of relevant areas of therapy, the effect of illness/clinical conditions / disability on function and health and basic aims of rehabilitation
• *Comprehensive experience as a therapy support worker
• *Understanding of confidentiality and data protection in healthcare
• *Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• *Good clinical reasoning skills
• *Confidence to feedback to the multidisciplinary team in a formal setting and to communicate effectively with a wide variety of other professionals to represent therapies internally and externally
• *Able to communicate information and instructions to patients/carers/relatives who have communication difficulties of English as a second language
• *Evidence of being able to work effectively as part of a team / across teams
• *Physical skills, fitness, dexterity and coordination needed for manual handling and treatment of patients
• *Good IT and Keyboard skills
• *Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills
• *Able to understand the priorities within team / service respond appropriately
• *Able to solve problems and contribute own ideas seeking guidance if necessary
• *Able to follow instructions
• *Motivated to learn new skills
• *Able to work as part of an interdisciplinary team
• *Enthusiasm to work as therapy support worker within team
• *Ability to take responsibility under guidance
• *Know own limitations and role boundaries
• *Able to seek support from others when required
• *Able to deal with potentially upsetting clinical settings/situations
• *Demonstrates empathy to a wide range of patients, carers, staff
• *Demonstrates commitment to patient centred care
• *Reliable and trustworthy
• *Able to work under pressure
• * Demonstrates commitment to work flexibly to meet the challenging demands of the service
• *Ability to contribute to weekend working and evening day case cover

• *Evidence of recent education / personal development related to Healthcare.
• *Demonstrated has been proactive with continuing professional development
• *Experience of communicating with and motivating patients who may have communication difficulties
• *Experience of working in Acute Hospital Setting
• *Good understanding of working environment --healthcare/NHS/UHB trust/acute care/community as applicable
• *Able to demonstrate and teach practical skills to others, including safe use of equipment.
• *Willingness to participate and at times lead in departmental activities i.e. group supervision, course development, delivery of training
• *Demonstrates a commitment to CPD