Senior Speech and Language Therapist

Come and join our adult acute SLT service at Harefield Hospital and grow your skills in managing the communication, swallowing and airway needs of people with complex heart and lung conditions. We have significantly expanded the SLT service over the last few years and in addition to our core clinical work, we are focused on driving service and quality improvements that demonstrate impact and improve functional outcomes. We are ‘research aware’, translating and aligning our practice with the best currently available evidence, and on a journey to becoming ‘research active’.

The post holder will be a member of the multi-professional therapy team and SLT service, working within adult services at Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Group. They will develop advanced skills in the field of dysphagia managing a caseload of acutely ill adults with complex communication and swallowing problems related to complex cardiac and respiratory disease, cardiothoracic surgery and transplantation who may be tracheostomised or ventilator dependent (adult intensive care unit). They will be supported to provide specialist assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning and intervention, as well as advice/liaison to patients and those caring for them.

This will be guided by broad local & occupational policies, procedures/protocols from the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

The post holder will receive clinical supervision from the Highly Specialist SLT. They

will be involved in discharge planning and ensure a seamless transfer to SLT colleagues and services in the community. They will manage their own caseload and liaise closely with SLT colleagues.

The post is embedded within the multi-professional therapy team at Harefield hospital made up of a dynamic group of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietetians, psychologists and therapy assistants. You will work collaboratively with your colleagues to deliver a responsive, patient-centred, high-quality and effective service to inpatients. Continuous professional development will be provided through regular clinical supervision, line management, 121s, appraisal, inservice training and access to study leave funding for external learning opportunities.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Sarah Stagnall Job title: Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Email address: s.stagnall@rbht.nhs.uk