About the service
The inpatient neurological rehabilitation service at Hillingdon Hospital comprises of 2 wards:
1) Alderbourne Rehabilitation Unit has 20 inpatient beds, 4 of these beds have been commissioned by NHS England as part of the Rapid Access to Acute Rehabilitation (RAAR) initiative, delivered in partnership with Imperial.
2) Daniels Rehabilitation Unit has 16 beds and broadly admits similar cases, with less acutely medically ill patients.
Both Units admit patients from outer North West London and adjoining areas and work closely with the Charing X Neurorehabilitation Unit where patients from Central London are admitted. The Units admit approximately 350 people each year and contribute to the UK Rehabilitation Outcomes Collaborative which benchmarks our service with national standards.
Patients are admitted with a range of neurological impairments due to Acquired Brain Injuries, Spinal Cord Injuries and peripheral nerve injuries from a range of conditions like Trauma, Hypoxia, Complex strokes, Vascular, Neoplastic and inflammatory / infective conditions.
The expertise of the psychologist is particularly relevant for patients with cognitive and communicative impairments following acquired brain injury. This cohort of patients will constitute approximately 40% of our inpatient case load, though this may fluctuate from time to time depending on the number of patients with Spinal Cord Injuries.
The purpose of this assistant psychologist role is to support the lead clinical neuropsychologist in delivering specialist psychological care for patients within the inpatient neurorehabilitation units.
The assistant will be providing psychological and neuropsychological assessment and intervention under the management and supervision of the senior psychologist, working according to agreed plans and within the overall framework of the unit’s policies and procedures. The assistant will also be providing clinically related administration, data collection, analysis and audit, and other input to clinical and operational projects as required.
For this quick-start, fixed-term role we are looking for an experienced assistant psychologist with a strong profile in neuropsychology who can see this as an opportunity to get an extra boost to their portfolio and impress a senior neuropsychologist who will give them a glowing reference for DClin applications.
Therefore, specific experience and availability to start asap will be important selection parameters, and in return we can consider top-of-band payment.
You're welcome to use all the AIs for your personal statement, but it's on you to think very clearly about what we are looking for, and our attention span.
This role will be supervised by a senior clinical neuropsychologist and will have access to developmental activities within the wider Department of Clinical Health Psychology at Hillingdon Hospital and the expansive free CPD available to all Psychological Professionals in CNWL.
Main Duties & Responsibilities
- Undertaking clinically supervised work with Unit inpatients on a one-to-one basis.
- To undertake defined, protocol-based psychological assessments of patients, including via self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patients’ care.
- To reliably administer a range of psychometric tests assessing a range of cognitive functions [e.g. intelligence and problem-solving, memory, language, visuospatial and executive abilities]; setting up and manipulating test materials, some involving fine motor dexterity; conducting observations of patients’ cognitive abilities, emotional state and behaviour during examinations and recording assessment results.
- To assist MDT in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the neuropsychological treatment and/or management of a patients’ problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional neuropsychologist.
- Under supervision, planning and delivering a range of psycho-educational and therapy groups, e.g. cognitive therapy group, relaxation group.
- To be involved in Research and Development activities under the supervision of the Lead Clinical Neuropsychologist.
- Working jointly with other professionals, attending and contributing to a range of multidisciplinary meetings.
