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Job overview

We are looking for dynamic and motivated individuals to join our ward-based Therapy associate teams at both Tunbridge Wells Hospital and Maidstone Hospital sites.  This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a new team being introduced into MTW with the purpose of enabling patients and preventing hospital acquired deconditioning.  As a founding member of the team you will be involved in its initiation, growth and development and will be essential for its success. 

You will be ward based but you will be supervised by a Senior Therapist. As such you will have wide and varied opportunities for career development and training.  The department offers a supportive working environment which actively supports Continuing Professional Development, through an established appraisal system, in-service training, and post graduate library facilities.

You must have experience at Band 3 or Band 4 level, and ideally within the acute NHS environment.   

You will provide therapeutic care to patients on the wards with a view to enabling patients to be actively engaged and progressing in tasks such as washing and dressing, toileting, mobilising and eating and drinking.  You will also carry out regular exercise and communication programmes as prescribed by the ward therapists.

Main duties of the job

You must have excellent communication and negotiation skills and be able to work with a variety of disciplines in a collaborative manner.  Your role will involve liaising and working closely with nursing and therapy colleagues as well as communicating progress reports with discharge teams and the wider MDT both verbally and in written formats.

If the opportunity to drive change for the benefit of patients and be part of an innovative and forward-thinking service excites and inspires you then this is the post for you.

To deliver enabling care to inpatients as part of the “Therapy Associates on the Wards” service to:

1. Minimise the deconditioning of individual patient’s while on an inpatient ward
2. Optimise the independence of individual patients in personal care, mobility, transfers, nutrition and hydration etc
3. Reduce the dependency of double handed packages of care
4. Reduce number of avoidable patient falls

To be based on a ward and to work as a member of the Multidisciplinary ward team

Working for our organisation

MTW is a large acute hospital trust in the south-east of England. We provide a full range of general hospital services and some aspects of specialist and complex care to around 600,000 people living in west Kent and East Sussex. We have a team of over 8,000 full and part-time staff. We also provide specialist cancer services to around 2 million people across Kent and East Sussex via the Kent Oncology Centre.

Would you like to work flexibly?  In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.

Please contact the Recruiting Manager for an informal discussion should you have any queries relating to the role for which you are applying. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted via an email as soon as possible after the closing date. Should you receive an invitation to attend interview, please confirm or decline your attendance. Interview slots will then be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, that as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system and Human Resources personnel.