Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has an opportunity for a full time Band 7 Orthoptist. You will be responsible for a personal orthoptic case-load of a highly specialised / complex nature including direct implementation of treatment/management over a range of conditions. The post is based at St James's University Hospital in the Multi-Speciality Out-Patients in a dedicated unit for paediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus.
In addition to our hospital work, we provide a paediatric orthoptic and optometry service for Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust at various sites around the city. You should be able to travel to undertake these sessional clinics.
The post offers opportunity to participate in adult orthoptic clinics, consultant-led neuro and motility clinics, paediatric orthoptic sessions and consultant-led paediatric ophthalmology clinics.
Ideally you will have areas of interest that you have developed, undertaken audit, and presented at clinical meetings/conferences.
Main duties of the job
You will undertake orthoptic assessment and management of children and adults in standalone Orthoptic clinics and joint clinics with optometrists and ophthalmologists. Clinics will be hospital and community based. The Orthoptic Department is committed to high quality care for our patients. We encourage detailed orthoptic investigations and you will be expected to be aware of evidence for your clinical decisions. You should have significant post qualification orthoptic experience to support this. Ideally you will have worked in tertiary referral adult strabismus clinics and paediatric ophthalmology clinics.
Ideally you will be able to undertake Octopus Goldmann Visual Fields and be confident on accuracy to enable you to comment on small relevant changes for our brain tumour colleagues in Endocrinology and Neuro.
You will provide leadership support and advice to Band 6 / Band 5 orthoptists and participate in their development.
You should be forward-thinking and self-motivated to identify and support opportunities for development of the orthoptic service for patients and the team.
We take at least 8 orthoptic undergraduate clinical placements per year so you should have experience in this and have enthusiasm and commitment to provide supervision, education, and assessment for students.
You will be a self-directed learner with a drive to provide audit and other projects with a willingness to submit/present at National and International conferences.
About us
We are a team of 16 orthoptists and 3 paediatric ophthalmologists/strabismologists with support from consultant oculo-plastics, retinal and corneal. A number of optometrists provide paediatric refraction, contact lens and low vision clinics plus complex adult refraction for motility patients.
We have some very experienced staff who will support your development.
Our Eye Clinic is spread across a number of hospitals with 30 consultants covering all sub-specialities. We also work with a number of other Specialties across our Hospitals. Excellent communication skills are required to convey relevant and important clinical details clearly and concisely to non-ophthalmic consultant colleagues.
At Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust we have defined a culture based on values and behaviours known as the Leeds Way - Patient Centred, Fair, Collaborative, Accountable and Empowered. We will expect you to uphold these values to provide an excellent service.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.
Job responsibilities
As an autonomous practitioner to be legally and professionally responsible and accountable for the management of patients, prioritise own workload and keep accurate contemporaneous records.
Provision of highly skilled and specialised autonomous orthoptic assessment, diagnosis and management/treatment of all types of ocular motility defects, imparting information to patient/carer. Management includes the formulating of individualised treatment plans.
Development of Services with support from senior colleagues.
Effective verbal communication with patients/carers to gain co-operation and handling complex, sensitive and contentious information regarding diagnosis, prognosis and treatment e.g. baby with little or no sight.
Supplies and instils eye drops under exemptions, Patient Group Directives and doctors' instruction.
Community paediatric orthoptic clinics.
Plan and manage clinical workload within appointment system/clinical time.
Clinical supervision of less experienced orthoptists.
Orthoptic teaching of multidisciplinary professionals.
Orthoptic teaching, supervision and assessment of undergraduate orthoptic students.
Undertake patient data collection as required for the management of the service/audit/research and development.
Person Specification
Experience
* Post qualification practice, development and training in a number of areas e.g. paediatric cataract, complex ocular motility.
* Detailed understanding of visual field defects and assessment.
* Supervision and assessment of orthoptic students.
* Clinical audit practice.
* Leadership training.
* Research ability.
Qualifications
* Degree or diploma in orthoptics with HCPC registration.
* Clinical teaching qualification or BIOS Clinical Tutors' Course.
* Masters related to Orthoptics, research, teaching or other relevant topic.
Skills and Behaviours
* Ability to work independently in complex motility but recognises own limitations and when to refer to superiors.
* Effective verbal communication and interpersonal skills to provide and receive complex information for patients/staff.
* Team worker and able to demonstrate leadership.
* Self-directed learner.
* Able to undertake visual field assessment.
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.
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