Specialist Respiratory Occupational Therapist

Please note: at this stage, the role is open only to colleagues currently employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts, the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Medway Community Healthcare or working on the Staff Bank within these organisations. Nursing and AHP vacancies are also open to Student Nurses and Newly Qualified Nurses/AHPs. Are you a Respiratory Specialist Occupational Therapist or an Occupational therapist with demonstratable experience and wanting to take the next step into a specialist role? Supporting patients with a respiratory condition is more important than ever before as illustrated in the NHS 10-year plan and the move towards neighbourhood working.OTs with experience in symptom management, utilising a solution focused and behaviour change approach can make a positive difference to patients. The service has developed over recent years into a multi-disciplinary team, utilising both a proactive and reactive approach to keepmore patients with respiratory disease at home and out of hospital. That's where you come in. This role is based in East Kent supporting patients livingwith respiratory disease, with an emphasis on self-management and support in the community as part of their care pathway. You'll support patients through groupinterventions and individual home visits. We aim to enhance the quality of life for people living with respiratory disease, whatever stage they are at.

• Undertake assessment, planning, delivery and evaluation of care required for patients with complex, long term, high risk respiratory conditions
• Provide necessary health education and advice resulting in fewer hospital admissions
• Identify vulnerable/complex service users and support the provision of effective programmes of support that protect and promote patients' health and wellbeing. Intervening when a person's safety or welfare is at risk
• Deliver symptom management programmes utilising a Cognitive Behaviour approach, both in a 1-1 and group setting focusing on fatigue, anxiety, breathlessnessmanagement and sleep hygiene
• Undertake both equipment and environment assessments as clinically indicated.
• Maintain your own specialist area of competence and ensure a supervision framework is in place for staff under your care and support in the development of competencies across staffing groups
• Act as a source of specialist knowledge on respiratory conditions to primary and secondary care
• Autonomously manage a caseload of respiratory patients requiring specialist services
Whilst this is a full-time role, we would consider 0.8 WTE (30 hrs) or above. If you are able to demonstrate a passion and commitment to this role but do not fully meet all desirable criteria, we would consider a one-year development pathway from Band 6 to Band 7. If you can bring fresh ideas and a genuine interest in helping people with respiratory disease to live well for longer, we'd love to hear from you. Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is due to integrate with Medway Community Healthcare on 1 October 2026. Following integration and to align our community services to the new Neighbourhood Model of care delivery, there will be a period of consultation which may result in changes affecting some services, teams or roles. Depending on the area you are applying to work in, this could include potential changes to your role, work base, reporting arrangements, or terms and conditions of employment. Any changes would be subject to consultation and managed sensitively and in line with relevant employment processes. Please do contact the recruiting manager if you have any concerns about this so they can answer any questions you might have. Rated 'Outstanding' by CQC, we deliver high-quality care that improves the health of our communities. We are looking for people who share our values: Compassionate, Aspirational, Responsive and Excellent. We are proud to be an inclusive, welcoming organisation and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We use protected characteristic information for monitoring only and it is not seen by recruiting managers, except where applicants choose to be considered under our disability guaranteed interview scheme. We know life outside work matters. As a flexible working-friendly organisation, we welcome conversations about arrangements that help you thrive while supporting excellent care for our patients.

At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non-clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve. Find out more about the community difference here. Good luck! We can't wait to meet you and welcome you to #teamKCHFT, #cometocommunity.