- Assess, plan, implement and evaluate treatment plans, with an aim to increase patient’s productivity and self-care.
- Work with patients through a shared-decision making approach to plan realistic, outcomes-focused goals.
- Undertake both verbal and non-verbal communication methods to address the needs of patients that have communication difficulties.
- Involve MDT colleagues, physiotherapists, social workers, alongside patients, families, teachers, carers, and employers in treatment planning, to aid rehabilitation.
- Where appropriate, support the development of discharge and contingency plans with relevant professionals to arrange on-going care in residential, care home, hospital and community settings.
- Periodically review, evaluate, and change rehabilitation programmes to rebuild list skills and restore confidence.
- Where appropriate, advise on home, school, and workplace environmental alterations, such as adjustments for wheelchair access, technological needs, and ergonomic support.
- Teach coping strategies and support adaptation to manage long term conditions for physical and mental health.
- Advise on specialist and organisations to help with daily activities.
- Excellent communication skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills including negotiation and conflict management
- Evidence of effective organisational skills
- Evidence of Leadership Skills
- Expert Clinical Supervision Skills
- Evidence of maintaining accurate and contemporaneous record keeping.
- Evidence of excellent Report writing.
- Evidence based clinical / psychological skills and advanced nursing practice.
e-Learning for Healthcare
The following resources can be accessed via e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH). E-LfH provides free e-learning programmes which can support you in your professional development.
If you do not already have an account, click here to register using your NHS email address. If you already have an account, please use the same link to firstly log in to access the following resources.
The below resources are available to support Allied Health Professionals in their understanding and their development:
- Allied Health Professional Careers Resource: The AHP Careers Resource takes eight potential areas for career development, the resource provides a wealth of information to highlight the wide range of available option, all whilst continuing to work clinically if desired. AHP colleagues taking different career journeys from across the 14 disciplines appear on film and share what has helped, what barriers they have overcome, and what they enjoy most about their work.
- The Wow Show: A video resource that introduces you to individuals in AHP roles within the NHS to give an understanding of their roles and their experiences.
- Resources for AHP in a primary or community setting This package provides training materials and resources useful to Allied Health Professionals working in a primary care or community setting during the current COVID-19 pandemic. It covers a comprehensive set of topics including breathlessness, fatigue, nutritional support, and rehabilitation.
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New Fit Note: From 1st July 2022, new legislation came into force which allows nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists to legally certify fit notes, in addition to doctors. To support this, the government has published some guidance.
- Work and Health Programme: This programme is intended to improve healthcare practitioner’s confidence to support patients with long term or chronic health conditions, via brief conversations in routine consultations. It does not cover work-based health initiatives, but instead focuses on the relationship between health professionals and patients.
The below resources are specific to the role of Occupational Therapists:
- College of OT Disability Matters e-Learning packages: This package contains a variety of resources surrounding disability and occupational therapy, such as supporting independence, environmental challenges and decision making.
- Occupational therapist and perinatal mental health: The session will investigate the role of occupational therapy in supporting women experiencing perinatal mental health problems.
- Assessment tools and processes: This session focuses on the assessment stage of the occupational therapy process. It will enable you to identify tools and approaches to evaluate a woman's occupational performance and participation, including the mother/infant relationship and their co-occupations where appropriate.
- Shared Decision Making: The Shared Decision Making e-learning resource provides guidance on what Shared Decision Making (SDM) is and how to implement it in practice. It provides resources to help health professionals learn the required skills, such as films to illustrate examples of good and bad consultations and prompts, along with resources to help implement shared decision making in practice.
- Leadership foundations: Leadership Foundations is a multi-professional online e-learning resource designed for newly qualified and aspiring leaders. The resource has been written by clinicians for clinicians. The learning resource is made up of 21 thirty minute e-learning sessions which describe the basic concepts around the five core components of the Leadership Competency framework.
These lists are not exhaustive and the programmes available are regularly updated, so we recommend visiting the e-LfH portal and reviewing the available resources via using the “View full catalogue” function, or the “Search the e-learning" function.
If you currently work in primary care, and have found e-learning resources that were helpful, and were not included on the above lists, please let us know on traininghub.nenc@hee.nhs.uk and we will update this resource so that it can be of use to others.
To ensure the role is supported within primary care, the OT will have access to appropriate clinical supervision and an appropriate named individual in the PCN to provide general advice and support on a day to day basis. Clinical Supervision of Occupational Therapists can be conducted by:
- Experienced Occupational Therapists
- GP
- ACP (3+ years)
Guidance from HEE and NHSEI regarding Supervision for Occupational Therapists can be found below:
A BSc degree in Occupational Therapy under a training programme approved by the College of OTs
- HEE Primary care FCP training must be completed as the minimum threshold for entry to primary care and be supported by appropriate governance and indemnity
- HEE primary care FCP training can begin 3-5 years after the completion of the postgraduate degree
Local providers that deliver BsC in Occupational Therapy:
The Complete University Guide provides a full list of the Universities where you can study a Bsc in Occupational Therapy which can be found here.
100% of actual salary plus defined on-costs, up to the maximum reimbursable amount of £60,401 over 12 months.
Professional Body Resources
RCOT is the governing body of Occupational Therapists and provide resources and events that you may find beneficial. They have provided this article which specifies the role of Occupational Therapy in Primary Care.
Role Overview
HEE have provided this resource to summarise the role of Occupational Therapists within Primary Care.
This updated DES outlines the role of the Occupational Therapist and what is expected from the PCN (page 99-100).
HEE have provided this resource to cover the most common areas that dietitians support with in primary care.
Career Pathway
This document provides a roadmap of education for practice when moving into First Contact Practitioner (FCP) roles, and onward to Advanced Practice (AP) roles in Occupational Therapy.
Jobs
If you are looking for a new position related to this role, we recommend checking both NHS Jobs and HealthjobsUK.
NHS Jobs is the official online recruitment service for the NHS in England and Wales, with over 30,000 jobs posted every month.
Hosted by trac.jobs, HealthJobsUK is among the leading job boards in the health and public sector within the UK.
