Cancer Physiotherapist | Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and enthusiastic physiotherapist to join an innovative, new Macmillan Therapy Team at Great Western Hospital Trust. You should have relevant experience working in physiotherapy with an interest in specialising within cancer to deliver health and wellbeing, and prehabilitation and rehabilitation to all cancer patients.

This new Band 6 Cancer Physiotherapist post is a part-time post and will be supported by a Band 7 Physiotherapist through a supervision and appraisal process.

We will offer training and support to develop your existing experience to deliver both group-based rehabilitation, prehabilitation and 1:1 clinics, as well as supporting health and wellbeing events for cancer patients.

There are also opportunities for paid study leave and/or course funding both internally/externally.

If you are suitably experienced, then why not apply?

You will be working as part of a small, friendly multidisciplinary team to deliver group-based exercise rehabilitation and health and wellbeing education for patients who are living with and beyond cancer. You will be able to work flexibly with the ability to drive to venues within Swindon and the surrounding areas, as well as office and home working.

As part of this pioneering team, you will also be supporting health and wellbeing workshops both virtual and face to face and collaborating with the team to look at new proactive ways to improve wellbeing and access to rehabilitation to those affected by cancer.

You will also lead group based Targeted Cancer Prehabilitation sessions to help prepare patients for their cancer treatments and assist in symptom management and post treatment rehabilitation either in 1:1 clinics, group settings or via telephone/video consultation.

Finally, you will be an integral part of this developmental team to showcase the benefits of health and wellbeing and rehabilitation as part of the Cancer Patient Pathway in improving quality of life, physical outcomes and empowering patients to self-manage and live active, healthy lives.

Our Values

Our STAR values are at the heart of everything we do. You can expect to see them in the way we act and the way we treat each other. Our values make us who we are. We will expect your values and behaviours to reflect the STAR Values of the organisation:

Service We will put our patients first

Teamwork We will work together

Ambition We will aspire to provide the best service

Respect We will act with integrity

Main Purpose of the Job

As part of the Macmillan Personalised care team you will be expected to provide cancer prehabilitation and rehabilitation. The ambitions of the team are to holistically support and empower people affected by cancer to take an active role in their health and care.

The post holder will provide high quality, specialist physiotherapy care, supporting and treating patients diagnosed with cancer.

The post holder will provide professional clinical supervision and advice to the team and wider health care professionals working alongside people living with and beyond cancer.

The post holder will contribute to service development and implementation of policy to support the expansion of Macmillan Personalised care team.

This service provision delivery allows people with a diagnosis of cancer to interface with the type of bespoke support they require whilst filling a gap in current services which will allow an MDT focused service and provision of bespoke individualised self-management and interventions.

Patient Care

Clinical

1. Work within 1:1 clinics as well as offering group work within the Trust or in the community providing cancer specialist physiotherapy input and support to people living with and beyond cancer to promote on-going recovery with prehab and rehab needs.

2. Triage and deliver cancer prehabilitation and rehabilitation, either as specialist 1:1 clinics, targeted groups or sign posting to universal services within the community. To teach and provide education on health and wellbeing and symptom management.

3. To support in the planning and delivery of health and wellbeing workshops on topics such as cancer related fatigue, and cancer site specific workshops.

4. Undertake diagnosis, assessment and treatment of people living with or beyond cancer, to assist people to adapt and cope with living with the long-term physical consequences of cancer treatment including breathlessness, fatigue, axillary web syndrome etc.

5. Update all patient records in line with professional code of conduct, clinical governance and risk management at each contact and instigate appropriate and timely communication of information to the patients primary and secondary care teams.

6. Activity and exercise management advice for low-risk patients on self-managed follow-up pathways including supporting health and wellbeing events.

7. Advise and educate patients and their families /carers on the management of individual problems.

8. To provide highly specialist advice to other physiotherapist colleagues within the Trust and Primary care.

9. To continually evaluate physiotherapist interventions to ensure up to date evidence-based practice is delivered across cancer services, in line with professional clinical standards and guidelines.

10.Communicatesensitive, complex and contentious information, to enable positive self-management using approaches such as motivational interviewing.

11.Sign-posting to approved local educational programmes and support groups and managed referrals for more significant support requirements e.g. health psychology in secondary care.

Communication:

1.Communicate complex information and enabling positive self-management using approaches such as motivational interviewing.

2.Communicate effectively with patients and carers to maximise rehabilitation potential and ensure understanding of the condition. Advanced communication skills of persuasion, motivation, explanation, empathy and gaining informed consent will be used with a wide variety of patients.

3.Communicates specialist information on a range of service development issues within the organisation and across other providers.

4.Maintain networks to provide resources of clinical knowledge and research for the service.

5.Be able to use a range of presentation skills to suit the audience that may be patients, carers, peers and managers.

6. To deliver training to patients and staff on cancer prehabilitation and rehabilitation and promote the physiotherapy profession in cancer services to the multidisciplinary team.

Professional

1. Delivery of an evidence-based physiotherapy and physical activity education programme to people affected by cancer, health and social care colleagues and fitness professionals.

2. Support the development and implementation of a training needs analysis and identify learning needs of health and social care colleagues and fitness professionals.

3. Deliver colleagues learning and development (L&D) programme to increase health and social care professional's confidence, communication and awareness of the rehabilitation and support needs of people.

Leadership

1.Contribute to service delivery evaluation and development.

2. Line management of other allied health professionals in arranging supervisions, appraisals and in service training.

3. Responsibility for 'Risk Assessment' for all aspects relating to the physiotherapy and physical activity within the Personalised care team.

4. Lead on the delivery of the community exercise programme based in gyms and community centres, provided for people affected by cancer.

Financial Responsibilities

Not applicable - this is not a budget-holder post

Responsibilities for People or Training

1. Provide patients, families and carers with advice and support.

2. Evaluate the impact of these training programmes, for patients and carers, to ensure that they provide the necessary knowledge and skills to gain independence, safely manage changing circumstances and plan for unavoidable progression of conditions.

3. Be responsible for providing and maintaining a learning environment and maximise opportunities for education and development in the clinical area to enhance individual development and performance in the delivery of high standards of care.

4.Take part in the process of clinical supervision and participate in clinical supervision and mentorship of others.

5.Take responsibility for your own personal and professional development; maintain competence, knowledge and skills commensurate with role.

6. To be actively involved in clinical staff recruitment of other AHP within the team as necessary.

Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.