Clinical Psychologist (Stroke Service)

Job summary

The post holder will be responsible for providing psychological assessments, treatments and advice on the management of stroke patients whilst in hospital and during their rehabilitation in the community. This will involve direct clinical work, demanding particular skills in communication where barriers often exist and in providing creative psychological interventions in a highly specialised area. The post holder will carry out formal neuropsychological assessments and provide formal reports, as well as providing feedback to other professionals working with that patient. The post holder will be expected to provide clinical input to patients who demonstrate challenging behaviour and to train and supervise other staff in the management of challenging behaviour. The post holder will be managed by the Stroke Services Manager and will be professionally accountable to the Consultant Psychologist, CCSRS.

This is a fixed term 1 year Maternity Leave cover post for 15 hours (2 full days) split between the Stroke Ward and Early Supported Discharge Service.

Please note: We will consider a newly qualified Psychologist in a Band 7 post as well as Band 8a. Job share is also an option.

Interviews will take place in person at Norwich Community Hospital.

Main duties of the job

1. Responsibility for providing psychological assessments, treatments and advice on the management of stroke patients whilst in hospital and during their rehabilitation in the community.

2. To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers.

3. To maintain records and other client related materials.

4. To participate in Continuing Professional Development and other developmental activities.

5. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.

6. To undertake necessary administrative responsibilities to enable effective clinical practice and the efficient running of the service.

About us

Apply now to join an organisation that has been awarded an 'Outstanding' rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the highest possible rating and the first stand-alone NHS community trust in the country to be awarded the title.

Please note, the selection processes at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust are in place to ensure we recruit candidates with the right values and skills, please be advised that the use of AI in applications are monitored. We remain watchful of candidates who misuse these tools to generate an application that doesn't accurately reflect their skills.

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description for further details of the post. Do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology or equivalent.
• Currently eligible for Chartered Clinical Psychology status.

Desirable

• Post qualification training in therapeutic skills

Experience

Essential

• Experience of/interest in working in multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience in Neuro-psychology.
• Experience with clients who have challenging behaviour.
• Experience of supervising other psychology staff, i.e. assistants and trainees.

Desirable

• Formal training in behaviour management or CBT, e.g. diploma.
• Research experience relating to neuro-rehab.
• Service evaluation and audit.
• Teaching and training of health care professionals.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Ability to organise and prioritise client caseload.
• Ability to write concise reports/letters.
• Capacity to communicate complex clinical information effectively and empathetically to patients and their families.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and implications for clinical practice (e.g. Mental Health Act).
• Evidence of CPD programme.

Personal

Essential

• Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
• Able to sit in constrained positions for a substantial proportion of working time.
• Able to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
• Able to manage effectively frequent exposure to highly distressing/highly emotional circumstances and exposure to traumatic circumstances.
• Able to manage effectively verbal aggression from service users, families, etc and the risk of physical aggression.
• Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.

Other

Essential

• Competent in use of IT packages - word processing, e-mail and internet, Excel and Powerpoint.
• Must be capable of accountability for own work, of autonomous clinical practice, of being guided by precedent and of working towards defined results.
• Ability to make own travelling arrangements to meet needs of service

Communication

Essential

• Able to communicate effectively in written and verbal English Language