Assistant Practitioner

We're looking for an Assistant Practitioner to join our team at AAC WEST. You will work alongside a highly experienced multi disciplinary team to deliver AAC services to people with service communication difficulties living in the South West region.

AAC WEST is funded by NHS England to provide specialist Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) assessments and equipment for clients who meet the service specification living in the South West region.

The multidisciplinary team at AAC WEST provide an AAC service to both adults and children who have sever communication, physical, sensory and cognitive impairments.

Please note \- you must have a valid UK driving license for this post.

The role of the Assistant Practitioner within the AAC WEST team is to:

Prepare equipment as directed by the MDT for assessment and loan

Programme specialist AAC software as directed by MDT

To deliver software training sessions to those using AAC

To deliver 1:1 support sessions with patients as directed by MDT

North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing high quality healthcare to the population we support. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.

We commit to treating each patient as an individual with respect and dignity, aiming to deliver excellent clinical outcomes and a first\-class experience for everyone who uses our services.

North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an antidiscriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all underrepresented groups

Duties within this role will include:

During Assessments

Input into the assessment planning sessions by sharing knowledge of the software, hardware and vocabularies contained within the various AAC devices used

Prepare equipment as requested by the MDT in equipment planning sheets

Programme equipment with relevant information as directed by MDT

Provide basic technical support during assessments to support MDT

Write clinical observations during assessments to feed back to MDT

Support the MDT with admin during assessments

To contribute in the driving to and from patient visits with MDT

Equipment Programming

With guidance, prepare equipment for use during trial loan period. This will involve personalising AAC vocabularies and occasional programming basic EAT operations

Liaise with local teams to collate relevant vocabularies

A broad knowledge of each of the commonly used specialist AAC software packages

Training

To provide training to patients and their carers on the care and programming of communication aids prior to the short term loan of equipment.

Contribute to the rolling programme of software training in conjunction with departmental peers

Support in the admin of delivering a rolling programme of AAC training

To deliver bespoke training on AAC where requested

Support

To support patients and their carers through the assessment process and provide feedback to the MDT re: the progress of targets.

To provide basic technical support to individuals during an equipment evaluation loan period.

Where required, partake in communication partner work to model good practice

To independently run support clinics either face to face or via remote platforms

General

To participate in and attend departmental meetings

To participate in appraisal process in line with Trust policies

To identify own training needs and to participate in appropriate training accordingly

To assist with the planning and delivery of awareness raising events and training courses to professionals and members of the public as appropriate

To bring to the attention of the BCAS lead clinicians any issues appropriate to the post and the department

Bring to the attention of line manager any service improvement suggestions

To maintain up to date and accurate case notes and records in line with Trust Policy, as needed.

To gather activity data accurately and to record this in line with Trust Policy

This listing is from indeed. View original listing ↗