Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1.      Clinical and Professional Leadership 

•        To provide clinical leadership and lead and develop a team of highly specialist podiatrists in the field of diabetic foot care.

•        To provide appropriate advice on care practices, delivery and service development to both podiatrists working within the Diabetic Foot Pathway and other professions.

•        To provide podiatry advice at the highest level to colleagues.

•        To lead change across professional and organisational boundaries by developing and sustaining appropriate relationships, partnerships and networks to influence and improve outcomes.

•        To maintain effective communication with other departments and services in order to ensure the best clinical outcomes.

•        To guide and develop best practice clinical guidelines and standards, locally, nationally, and internationally, in order to enable the delivery of specialist services.

•        To provide visionary leadership, motivating and inspiring others to deliver the best, multi- disciplinary, integrated care for people with diabetic foot disease.

•        To facilitate change, practice development and robust evaluation of services and practice 

•        To explore and facilitate opportunities for change, facilitate staff ownership of change, and ensure robust systems of evaluation are in operation.

•        To contribute to debates within the multi-professional arena by challenging current structures/traditional ways of working which may limit or inhibit services and to facilitate innovative ways of working in partnership with other care providers, when appropriate.

•        To promote and facilitate patient and public involvement in the planning and delivery of client centred, evidence based practice.

•        To promote and demonstrate best practice and advanced theoretical and practical skills at all times by integrating evidence into practice and creating innovative ways of incorporating new evidence into service delivery.

•        To provide professional leadership for the podiatry service and provide Senior Management/Clinical Commissioning Groups with professional advice regarding podiatry services in relation to diabetic foot disease as and when required.

•        To deliver professional leadership in national fora, representing podiatry and/or OUH NHSFT. 

2.      Education 

•        To lead and review the educational needs of the service and Diabetic Foot Pathway.

•        To lead on the design and delivery of a best practice, evidence based model of diabetic foot care.

•        To be responsible for the design and delivery of education and professional development programmes for staff.

•        To promote and facilitate the development of a learning environment amongst the MDT by facilitating and supporting reflective practice and work based learning so that Podiatry services continuously improve and develop.

•        To maintain and foster genuine partnerships with higher education institutions and other professional AHP bodies

•        To provide expert education and training in Podiatry, locally, nationally and internationally by lecturing, training and through publishing in professional journals.  To develop and undertake highly skilled teaching programmes for staff that support professional and personal development.

·         To contribute to the development of guidelines and standards at local and national level and international level. 

3.      Practice and service development 

·         To lead and review the service provision and delivery.

·         To contribute to client-centred services, working in partnership to provide seamless care across traditional health and social work boundaries, with team leaders, managers and service providers.

·         To develop and evaluate models of service delivery which are patient focussed as part of a cycle of continuous service improvement.

·         To promote and demonstrate evidence-based best practice, integrating current research theory into practice, through an advanced level of clinical reasoning and decision making and displaying innovative methods of incorporating new evidence into service delivery.

·         To guide and develop best practice clinical guidelines and standards, locally, nationally, and internationally, in order to enable the delivery of specialist services.

·         To explore and facilitate opportunities for change, facilitate staff ownership of change, and ensure robust systems of evaluation are in operation to ensure appropriate change management.

·         To clarify referral pathways and establish new efficient working practices to facilitate timely, safe and appropriate discharges.

·         To consistently evaluate systems of care, rehabilitation and research and plan for service development and improvement.

·         To oversee the delivery of targets in line with national targets.

·         To lead and present annual service reviews of Podiatry services. 

4.      Expert Clinical Practice 

·         To have overall responsibility for a caseload of complex patients with active diabetic foot disease.

·         To assess highly complex cases using a range of assessment and diagnostic methods and reach valid, reliable and comprehensive conclusions and diagnoses.

·         To provide expert clinical advice across the multi-disciplinary team.

·         To undertake a detailed physical and psychosocial assessment of complex patients by using investigative and analytical skills and expert clinical reasoning in order to establish diagnosis and implement an appropriate treatment plan.

·         To be responsible for the diagnosis and subsequent management of highly specialised treatment of patients with diabetic foot disease.

·         To practice at an advanced level beyond the scope of podiatry treatments including referral for and interpretation of investigations (MR scans, X-ray, Pathology tests).

·         To assess patients understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid consent, and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack the ability to consent to treatment.

·         To practice and promote confidentiality at all times, and adhere to data protection legislation, also ensuring that all staff do likewise.

·         To provide advice to patients/ carers / families regarding treatment and future options available to them, often presenting complex and highly sensitive information to people with complex communication deficits which will require a high level of interpersonal and communication skills.

·         To provide expert advice regarding the management of patients with diabetic foot disease to other podiatrists and healthcare professionals. 

5.      People Management 

·         To oversee the management of the hospital podiatry team.

·         To supervise and act as a mentor to all grades of qualified and unqualified podiatry staff and students within the service.

·         To contribute a professional perspective regarding the analysis of training required to support staff in their CPD.

·         To maintain a cycle of appraisal for members of these teams including creation of personal development plans and identification of areas for development and recognition of personal strengths.

·         To advise on issues relating to workforce planning within the specialist field.

·         To maintain overall budgetary responsibility for the department. 

6.      Research and evaluation 

•        To support best practice in the clinical area and promote evidence based practice.

•        To consider the outcomes of relevant research, evaluations and audits and work with relevant teams to implement research findings into everyday work. 

•        To guide practice development by supporting a culture of research and enabling staff at all levels to develop research skills and to integrate these into practice.

•        To facilitate research in relation to podiatry practice and to support others in completing research projects.

•        To create opportunities for research through the identification of gaps in evidence, knowledge or practice

•        To lead service evaluation through selection and design of complex clinical audit, and through the dissemination and implementation of the findings.

•        To support peer review.

•        To collaborate with Trust nursing and AHP consultants to ensure a consistent approach to supporting research and evidence use. 

The job description is not intended to be exhaustive and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the post holder. 

The post holder might be required to work across the Trust at any time throughout the duration of his/her contract, which may entail travel and working at different hospital.