Senior Occupational Therapist - Acute Medicine

The Acute & Emergency Medicine Therapy team at Luton & Dunstable Hospital is seeking a highly motivated Band 6 Occupational Therapist. This role offers an excellent development opportunity for an experienced Band 5 OT ready to progress.

The team delivers therapy input across a 7-day extended hour's service, supporting key front-door services including the Emergency Department , Medical Assessment Units and the Frailty Unit.

You will work within a friendly, supportive ED environment that promotes learning and skills development, helping you to further advance your clinical career. The therapies team is committed to ongoing service development, maintaining high clinical standards, and striving for excellence in patient care.

Working closely with the multidisciplinary team, you will play a vital role in facilitating timely and effective discharges, ensuring patient-centred decision-making at all times. The service is actively involved in quality improvement initiatives aimed at enhancing pathways and service delivery.

The post includes contributing to the supervision and development of students, apprentices and junior staff. Staff are supported through regular supervision, OT Excellence training and enhanced CPD opportunities.

Applicants must demonstrate the Trust's values and meet the responsibilities outlined in the job description and person specification. You should have proven experience working in an acute hospital setting, with at least Band 5-level experience.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Dip COT or BSc (Hons) in OT
• HCPC registration
• Evidence of CPD maintained in a portfolio including attendances at recent post graduate courses/ in-service trainings relevant to the speciality

Desirable

• Membership of BAOT/RCOT or similar
• Practice educators certificate
• Membership of relevant clinical interest group
• Experience in wheelchair prescription

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in an acute hospital environment
• Substantial broad based postgraduate experience to include a reasonable amount of experience in the relevant acute setting
• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of supervision of staff or students including staff appraisal
• Work experience, student or therapy assistant supervision
• Teaching/training groups or individuals
• Decision making involving complex facts / situations

Desirable

• Committee membership e.g. Health & Safety Committee
• Knowledge of working in liaison with community therapy services and intermediate care services

Involvement in service improvement via project management or clinical audit

Experience of contributing to the development of treatment guidelines

Experience within the NHS

Skills

Essential

• Understand the legal responsibilites of the profession
• Ability to organise, prioritise and delegate appropriately
• Ability to comprehend and work within the Trust's policies of data protection, equal opportunities and health and safety and meet the differing needs of the patients
• Remain updated with professional practice and new research
• Ability to keep accurate and legible patient notes
• Competent IT skills
• Effective decision making skills
• Ability to relate theory to practice
• Effective time management skills
• Ability to be highly organised and responsive to changing workloads and situations
• Ability to work to deadlines and under pressure
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced work environment
• Ability to adapt to change

Self directed learning

Desirable

• Research skills
• Evidence of assessing and prescribing adaptive equipment

Communication

Essential

• Excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills
• Ability to communicate where there may be barriers to understanding
• Good interpersonal skills
• Ability to disseminate complex information to others
• Ability to pass on skills/ knowledge to others within formal and informal environments
• Able to present information, written and orally, in a clear and logical manner

Desirable

• Evidence of internal/external leadership and communication courses

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of the need of confidentiality awareness at all times.
• Knowledge of legislation, policies and procedures

Developed working knowledge of broad range of illnesses, injuries and conditions. Particularly those relevant to the clinical setting

Developed working knowledge of a broad range of occupational therapy assessment and treatment techniques relating to the clinical setting

Awareness of research process and critical evaluation of evidence

Understanding of clinical governance and its implications for services including experience of quality issues and audit

Experience of clinical audit

Desirable

• Awareness of the wider local and national agenda around occupational therapy and NHS developments
• Understanding of resource management
• Knowledge of theoretical concepts

Personal Characteristics & Relationship Skills

Essential

• Ability to work both as a team member and independently
• Empathetic
• Flexible
• Reliable
• Innovative
• Confident
• Committed to personal and team development

Able to maintain judgement and work under pressure

Problem Solving

Motivated and Enthusiastic

Driven

Ability to demonstrate personal and professional integrity and present a profession image of the team/profession

Clear vision of role with commitment to relevant speciality

About the employer

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.