Occupational Therapists
Occupational Therapists
About the department
Occupational Therapy is part of the therapy service working across the Trust’s community settings and hospitals, maintaining people at home and ensuring that patients return home as soon as possible with strategies, equipment and advice to manage the activities they need and want to do.
We work alongside all the other therapies and devise personalised plans with the patient. Occupational Therapists (OTs) in Buckinghamshire work in Medicine, Orthopaedics, Surgery, Hand Therapy, Paediatrics, Learning Disabilities, Stroke Rehabilitation and Acute Rehab.
The Trust supports us all to be leaders and empowers you to be part of decision making. We always provide supervision, induction and training and there is always a senior therapist for support and advice whenever you need it.
About the role
The Occupational Therapy roles are extremely varied from being a Band 2 assistant, supporting the teams to gain information or provide equipment to enable a patient to manage at home, to a Band 3 assistant who undertakes some assessments and feedback to OTs, while Band 4 assistants are more experienced and able to have independence in the team, assessing and treating some patients by themselves. This is taught on the job and in-service training is provided to all in our teams.
The qualified roles Band 5 to 8a clinical specialists work across the teams and career progression and development is encouraged. We also usually have Occupational Therapy students with us, which is so inspiring and allows you to put into practice what you know about how people learn and what you yourself have learned through educator training.
Career routes
To practise as an occupational therapist, you must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). To register with the HCPC, you first need to successfully complete approved degree-level training in occupational therapy.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust are planning to offer an apprenticeship route into OT so you would be able to join us as an assistant and we would support you to qualify in collaboration with local universities.
If you used to be an OT, why not return to practice? We will support you in many teams to gain the work hours to achieve HCPC accreditation again. We have already done this several times and now have three members of staff who were out of practice for many years!
Mini case study
My name is Vicky Strother and I am a Clinical Specialist Neurological Occupational Therapist.
My role is based on the Stroke Unit at Wycombe Hospital, although I also provide support for the complex neurological patients within Stoke Mandeville and the Buckinghamshire Neurological Rehabilitation Unit.
Most days are spent assessing patients and undertaking joint sessions with members of the team. I am proud of the high quality of assessment and treatments that the Occupational Therapy team deliver across the neurological service. We are always encouraged to ‘think outside the box’ and provide patient-centred care. This could include a trip to the local shops to check road safety for the patient, helping them with planning and money management, or introducing the patient to an upper limb programme in collaboration with the music therapist and physiotherapy colleagues! We consistently achieve an ‘A’ rating within the Sentinal Stroke National Audit Programme.
I love that occupational therapy is a well-respected profession within the Trust, and that our ability to fully assess and treat physical, sensory and cognitive impairments is well recognised, along with our fantastic discharge planning skills.
I have always felt very supported by senior managers, and am lucky enough to work with very highly skilled nursing and therapy colleagues.
