About this role
Job summary
We are delighted to be recruiting to the post of Practitioner Psychologist (Band 7, 1.0 wte, fixed-term). This is an exciting post providing a wide variety of experiences.
The post-holder will be based within the diverse and welcoming Cardiac Respiratory and Intensive Care (CRIC) Paediatric Psychology Service at Evelina London (Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust) with work split across paediatric respiratory and paediatric cardiology services. Clinical work will encompass a combination of outpatient and inpatient (including intensive care) work with children, young people and their families as well as collaborative working with professional colleagues to provide high quality holistic care.
We would be very happy to share more about the post. For further information please contact Dr Jo Blundell at [email protected] or 0330 128 8251.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be joining a team of paediatric practitioner psychologists providing psychological care for children, young people and families under the care of the Cardiac, Respiratory and Intensive Care Directorate at GSTT. Our service is highly valued by families and offers good opportunities for collaborative working with other team members, audit & research, teaching and training. We meet regularly as a team to explore clinical dilemmas and share new learning across the service. Supervision will be provided by an experienced psychologist within the team. Additional opportunities include, but do not stop with, monthly peer supervision as well as participation in SIG networks locally and nationally. Service relevant CPD is actively encouraged.
Inpatient services are located at Evelina London Children's Hospital whilst outpatient services are split across Evelina London Children's Hospital and Royal Brompton Hospital sites. This post will therefore require flexibility, with regards to working across the two sites according to patients', colleagues' and service requirements. Equipment such as a laptop and mobile phone is provided to support this way of working.
About us
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK's best-known hospitals - Guy's, St Thomas', Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield - as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high-quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.
We are among the UK's busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.
We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and - as part of King's Health Partners - we are one of England's eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research.
We have over 23,500 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.
We strive to recruit and retain the best staff as the dedication and skills of our employees lie at the heart of our organisation and ensure that our services are of the highest quality, safe and focused on our patients.
Job description Job responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification document for full information and details regarding the current post.
Person Specification
Professional / Statutory Registration Essential
HCPC Registration as Practitioner Psychologist
Education/Qualifications Essential
Doctorate level qualification in clinical psychology, counselling psychology or health psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 as accredited by the BPS) Good honours degree in Psychology Eligibility for Chartered status with the BPS.
Experience Essential
Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of patients with physical health problems. Experience of working psychologically with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems. Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts. Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team. Experience of using evidence based psychological interventions (which may include systemic, cognitive behavioural, motivational interviewing and behaviour management approaches) for the assessment and treatment of a wide variety of psychological problems, working in multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary teams. Experience of providing both group based and individual psychological interventions. Experience of teaching and training other professionals in psychological concepts.
Desirable
Experience in the psychological management of health conditions. Experience of frequent management of 'behaviour that challenges' to a satisfactory and safe outcome. Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for patients' care and management, both as a professionally qualified psychologist and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary team and interdisciplinary teams Experience of supporting families through distressing experiences over time. Experience of working within a health care setting. Experience of supervision of trainee/assistant psychologists/students. Experience in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups in the area of physical health.
Skills Essential
Knowledge of psychological interventions, application and supervision of others particularly systemic and third wave cognitive behavioural approaches. Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological, neuropsychological and behavioural assessment and intervention, requiring sustained and intense concentration. A strong ability to communicate at both a written and oral level, imparting complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, and carers and a wide range of lay and professional people within and outside the NHS. This may require negotiating, motivating, training, reassuring others and demonstrating empathy. Experience and ability to undertake risk assessment of children and families in relation to self and others, and refer on to appropriate services as necessary. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HCPC by completion of CPD log demonstrating a minimum of 40 hours per year. Awareness of racial, cultural and diversity differences/issues.
Desirable
Specialist knowledge of the theory of psychological therapies in areas of physical health. A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the field.
Physical Requirements Essential
Ability to maintain periods of prolonged concentration frequently throughout the day as required for complex methods of psychological assessment and delivery of interventions.
Additional Information Essential
Willingness to broaden range of skills and take initiative in both own professional development and the development of the service. Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical/health psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary physical health care services setting. A commitment to promoting equality of opportunity through all aspects of working and professional practice with both colleagues and all client groups. Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others. Commitment to continuing professional development, partnership working and to reflective clinical practise. Well-developed IT skills including data entry and analysis of research data using Microsoft programmes and appropriate statistical packages such as SPSS.
Desirable
Experience of working within a multi-cultural environment.
Knowledge/Ability Essential
Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings. Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group. Ability to work independently as an autonomous practitioner with appropriate level of clinical and managerial supervision. Ability to take initiative and contribute to the development of the psychology component of busy and expanding service at a local and national level. Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team and contribute to effective team functioning. Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging interactions. Ability to undertake research according to needs of the service, bringing doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including multivariate data analysis, as appropriate for the field of clinical psychology.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details Employer name Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Address Evelina London Children's Hospital and Royal Brompton
London
SE1 7EH
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/careers/careers.aspx (Opens in a new tab)