First Contact PhysiotherapistJob summaryWe are looking for a
First Contact Physiotherapist to join our friendly and supportive practice in South Bristol close to the bustling harbourside and vibrant North Street.
Hours: 25-28 hours a week, ideally working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, however we are open to flexibility regarding the days worked.
Bridge View Medical is an established practice and Primary Care Network in its own right. We have 4 sites in South Bristol with c39,000 patients cared for by a wonderful team of 150 dedicated Partners and staff. We are a larger practice with all the benefits this has to offer while still retaining a friendly and supportive culture.
We are a teaching, training and research practice and recently became the proud recipient of South Bristol Academy Teaching Practice Award for our outstanding contribution to medical teaching.
We operate a personalised patient list offering continuity of care as we strive to provide quality patient care and job satisfaction for our staff.
Main duties of the jobTo deliver the first contact physiotherapy service within Bridge View Medical by diverting patients from traditional GP appointments through the triaging of patient self-referrals and GP Care Navigated referrals.
To practice as an autonomous, extended scope practitioner providing a high standard of specialist (brief) assessment and advice to musculoskeletal patients across the operational sites of Bridge View Medical.
You should be able to use evidence-based principles/ current best practice and expert specialist skills and clinical reasoning to assess, plan, implement, evaluate and onward refer patients.
Job responsibilities- Follow local MSK pathways and abide by wider Health care system and refer through appropriate referral systems
- Work independently, with access to supervision, to assess, diagnose, triage, and manage patients, taking responsibility for prioritising and managing a caseload of the PCNs Registered Patients
- Receive patients who self-refer (where systems permit) or from a clinical professional within the PCN, and where required refer to other health professionals within the PCN
- Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role, using their expert knowledge of movement and function issues, to create stronger links for wider services through clinical leadership, teaching and evaluation
- Develop integrated and tailored care programmes in partnership with patients, providing a range of first line treatment options including self-management, referral to rehabilitation focussed services and social prescribing
- Make use of your full scope of practice, developing skills relating to independent prescribing, injection therapy and investigation to make professional judgements and decisions in unpredictable situations, including when provided with incomplete or contradictory information. You will take responsibility for making and justifying these decisions
- Manage complex interactions, including working with patients with psychosocial and mental health needs, referring onwards as required and including social prescribing when appropriate
- Communicate effectively with patients, and their carers where applicable, complex and sensitive information regarding diagnoses, pathology, prognosis and treatment choices supporting personalised care
- Implement all aspects of effective clinical governance for own practice, including undertaking regular audit and evaluation, supervision and training;
- develop integrated and tailored care programmes in partnership with patients through:
1. effective shared decision-making with a range of first line management options (appropriate for a patients level of activation)
2. assessing levels of Patient Activation to support a patients own level of knowledge, skills and confidence to self-manage their conditions, ensuring they can evaluate and improve the effectiveness of self-management interventions, particularly for those at low levels of activation
3. agreeing with patients appropriate support for self-management through referral to rehabilitation focussed services and wider social prescribing as appropriate - Designing and implementing plans that facilitate behavioural change, optimise patients physical activity and mobility, support fulfilment of personal goals and independence, and reduce the need for pharmacological interventions
- Request and progress investigations (such as x-rays and blood tests) and referrals to facilitate the diagnosis and choice of treatment regime including, considering the limitations of these investigations, interpret and act on results and feedback to aid patients diagnoses and management plans
- Accountable for decisions and actions via Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration, supported by a professional culture of peer networking/review and engagement in evidence-based practice.
Leadership Responsibilities:- Work across the multi-disciplinary team to create and evaluate effective and streamlined clinical pathways and services;
- Provide leadership and support on MSK clinical and service development across the PCN, alongside learning opportunities for the whole multi-disciplinary team within primary care
- Develop relationships and a collaborative working approach across the PCN, supporting the integration of pathways in primary care;
- Encourage collaborative working across the wider health economy and be a key contributor to supporting the development of physiotherapy clinical services across the PCN;
- Liaising with secondary and community care services, and secondary and community MSK services where required, using local social and community interventions as required to support the management of patients within the PCN; and
- Support regional and national research and audit programmes to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the First Contact Practitioner (FCP) programme. This will include communicating outcomes and integrating findings into own and wider service practice and pathway development
- Any other duties that may arise appropriate to the role.
We encourage early applications, as we reserve the right to close this vacancy and appoint prior to the advertised closing date should a suitable candidate be identified.Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position.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.Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website. 
