This Band 8a Applied Psychologist post, providing maternity leave cover, offers an exciting opportunity to join an established Weight Management Service and Bariatric MDT in which psychological perspectives, skills and interventions are highly valued. It offersa great opportunity to develop clinical skills in a specialist area delivering psychological services to adults living with obesity. Psychological support, and specialist assessment is an integral component of the care these teams provide and multi-disciplinary team working central to the service delivered.
This post provides a perfect opportunity for a psychologist with a commitment to patient care who wants to develop their skills. Prior experience of working in physical health is not essential, the key qualities are good communication skills, working co-operatively and thinking creatively. You will join a growing team of psychologists, led by a Consultant Psychologist, providing a specialist physical health psychology service. We are passionate about offering psychological support to people in a variety of physical health areas and supporting our staff to be the best they can in delivering this care.
The post-holder will enjoy considerable variety within their role, though the priority will be providing bespoke individual input, team formulation and supervision.
This post is based at Worcester Royal Hospital though hybrid and home working will be supported.
To provide a highly specialist clinical psychology service to specialist Weight Management, and work alongside the multidisciplinary teams to address the psychological needs of these patients.
To manage and hold clinical responsibility for a specialist caseload and provide highly specialist assessment and interventions focusing on identifying and treating complex psychological issues associated obesity.
To provide highly specialist advice, consultation, supervision and training as appropriate to colleagues within the Service and to work effectively within the multi- disciplinary health team.
To contribute to service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
To promote psychological thinking in collaboration with MDT colleagues.
To provide clinical and/or research supervision to less experienced psychologists.
Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester
Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Duties and Responsibilities
The post holder will:
Administrative
1. Be responsible for designing, developing and using appropriate clinical and administrative records in line with Trust policies and other professional guidelines, verifying the functionality of some, and auditing correct usage.
2. Coordinate and chair meetings, prepare agendas, check and ensure distribution of accurate minutes.
Managerial
1. Develop the ability to lead in relation to the development and organisation of psychological interventions within a given clinical area, under the guidance and supervision of more senior psychology colleagues.
2. Manage the workload of trainee and assistant psychologists as required and contribute to their appraisal under the supervision of a more senior clinical psychologist.
Clinical
1. Work as an independent and autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, taking full responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions.
2. Carry a defined caseload of patients who have a varying range of severity and complexity of psychological issues, and provide support to their families and carers, as appropriate.
3. Undertake the assessment, formulation, treatment and management of patients as required within the Service with a varying range of severity and complexity of psychological problems. In particular, patients with psychological conditions relating to management of their health difficulties, some of which may be highly specialised. Assessment and intervention to involve families and carers, as appropriate.
4. Use initiative and take responsibility for themselves and the quality of their work and the service they provide to patients and the Service.
5. Collaboratively evaluate the appropriateness of referrals from a number of sources; referrals to be accepted as resources permit.
6. Carry a caseload of appropriate size, complexity and severity, including patients whose problems may be complicated by biological, social, familial, environmental and educational factors, physical ill-health or bereavement and may be presented in a challenging or distressed manner.
7. Provide specialised psychological therapies which require specialist post-qualification experience, supervision and training to acquire the necessary clinical and therapeutic skills and personal resources.
8. Provide psychological therapy, where appropriate, making use of a variety of psychological models, as appropriate, with individuals, families, parents and/or groups.
9. Collaborate on direct and indirect clinical casework with the Service MDT and staff of other agencies, to enhance the capacity of other professionals to carry out their responsibilities.
10. Promote excellent psychologically-informed practice by staff in the Service and provide clinical leadership to other professionals who practice psychological approaches. Promote a service consistent and compliant with the philosophy of person-centred and evidence based practice.
11. Undertake risk assessments and risk management of individuals presenting with risk of vulnerability or self-harm. Provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
12. Select and provide specialised psychological assessments, including developmental, cognitive and psychometric assessments, which require training and expertise to acquire the necessary dexterity, accuracy and observational skills. Interpret complex psychological data from a variety of sources, including neuropsychological tests, psychometric tests, and self-report measures, rating scales, structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, their relatives and others involved in the patients care.
13. Adhere to appropriate confidentiality guidance from the Trust, the HCPC and the BPS with respect to considering issues of risk, supervision and safeguarding.
Communication and Liaison
1. Communicate highly confidential and sensitive personal information, obtained through assessment, formulation, therapy and interventions, to the patients themselves and where appropriate their relatives, other professionals and others involved in their care. The information may be highly distressing and communications are to be in a skilled and sensitive manner, making judgements involving highly complex facts or situations concerning what information is to be shared, how and when to convey it in the best interests of the patient and having regard to issues of safeguarding, mental capacity and potential sensory and cultural barriers to communication.
2. To formulate and communicate sensitively psychological assessment findings and implement psychological treatment plans; individual, couples/family or group interventions as appropriate.
3. Provide specialist advice and consultancy to the MDT, patients relatives, carers and other involved professionals from other agencies.
4. Raise awareness within the Service MDT of a psychological and systemic framework for thinking about illness and physical health.
5. Act as an expert professional resource for the Service and other health professionals.
6. Present and participate in relevant Service meetings and appropriate professional groups and meetings, as agreed with the Lead Psychologist.
7. Contribute to the effective working of the two service MDTs in order to deliver comprehensive clinical care, ensuring that psychological well- being is central to the planning and delivery of health care.
8. Maintain excellent working relationships with colleagues and local services and agencies.
Analysis and Judgment
1. Provide formulations of the patients problems based upon analyses of complex information gained from multiple sources including assessment findings, psychological theory and a range of available psychological and other clinical information.
2. Exercise autonomous clinical responsibility for the development and implementation of psychological treatments, strategies, and interventions, adjusting and reformulating as appropriate on the basis of feedback.
3. Be able to make independent and autonomous clinical judgments on the way in which expected clinical outcomes are to be met using a variety of sources, including policy, professional guidelines, peers and colleagues within and outside the Service.
4. Provide a problem solving, trouble-shooting role in response to issues for which there is no documented or acceptable practice, drawing creatively upon psychological models, theories and approaches and research skills.
Planning and Organisation
1. Plan own work.
2. Coordinate the use of tests, books and other equipment used by the post holder, psychology assistants, trainees and more junior psychologists, in collaboration with colleagues.
Physical Skills
1. Submit statistical information, activity and quality data of own work as required and as appropriate.
2. Use information technology as appropriate within direct clinical work and treatment interventions.
3. Undertake computerised literature searches, using major clinical databases such as PsychInfo, MedLine and Cochrane, to inform routine clinical work and/or research/audit.
Policy and Service Development
1. Implement Trust policies, follow guidelines from professional bodies and make proposals and recommendations about the process of psychological care and service delivery in own clinical practice and the Service. Contribute to the service development though undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
2. Advise Psychology Lead of current areas of need and gaps in the service provision.
3. Work with team leaders to develop services and improve quality, after appropriate consultation with the Lead Psychologist.
4. Contribute to the production of annual reports, as requested, and ensure that the principle of clinical governance and other professional, NHS and Trust policies and procedures are implemented, after appropriate consultation, interpreting these where necessary.
5. Contribute to the development of Trust policies and procedures which impact within the Service, as appropriate, after consultation with Lead Psychologist.
Research and Development
1. Be responsible for supervising research within the Service in conjunction with the Lead Psychologist.
2. Supervise Clinical Psychology trainees with their doctoral research projects, drawing from formal research methods, both qualitative and quantitative. Ensure ethics approval and liaise with their research tutor and with staff or patients who may be potential participants.
3. Keep up to date with research developments in psychology, which are relevant to the psychological interventions, and follow a reflective scientist-practitioner approach appropriate to the Clinical Psychologists role.
4. Be responsible for the regular audit, monitoring and evaluation of services provided by the Service and investigate ways of improving the quality of the service offered.
5. Participate in clinical governance and service audit and follow evidence-based practice.
6. Undertake and facilitate clinically relevant research and write up for publication and/or present and disseminate as agreed with the Lead Psychologist, as appropriate.
Improving Diversity and
Inclusive Recruitment:
As part of the Trust's aim to
improve diversity across the Trust, positive action is being taken and all
applications for this post from BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ candidates can request
to be considered under an expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme if they meet the
minimum criteria as specified in the person specification for this role.
Applicants will be prompted
in the application form to declare if they wish to be considered under this
expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme, and their response would be visible to
the Shortlisting Panel.
If you have any queries about
expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please contact Rob Saunders (HR Manager -
Recruitment) in confidence via email [email protected]