Oncology Health Play Specialist

Main area: Oncology Health Play Specialist Grade Band 5

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday)

Job ref: 213-CAX-

Employer: King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Employer type: NHS

Site: King's College Hospital

Town: LONDON

Salary: £35,964 - £43,780 per annum including HCA

Salary period: Yearly

Closing: 24/02/:59

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1.8 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King's College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

Job overview An amazing opportunity has arisen for a Qualified and Registered Health Play Specialist to join the Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Unit (POSCU) multidisciplinary team, working alongside them to support children and young people with a diagnosis of cancer.

This is an exciting and challenging role where you can apply your skills in providing therapeutic play, preparation, distraction therapy and normalised play to children and young people with cancer, providing a varied and stimulating programme; ensuring children and young people are distracted and continue to focus on normalised and familiar activities.

You should have excellent communications skills, requiring a high degree of empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty, integrity and sensitivity due to the nature of cancer. You will need to have experience of working effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, maintaining confidentiality throughout. You must be able to accurately document all patient interventions on the patient's electronic notes.

You will need the Health Play Specialist qualification and be a registered Health Play Specialist and have experience of working with young people (ages 0 - 18 years) children in a healthcare setting and to be able to deal sensitively with families under stress; as well as individual, groups and multi-agency work. You will need an understanding of the differing needs of patients with additional and special needs.

Main duties of the job The post holder must be registered and Qualified Health Play Specialist holding the foundation degree in Health Care Play Specialism or the Edexcel certificate or diploma as a Hospital Play Specialist.

1. To work with children and young people with a diagnosis of cancer across wards and departments.
2. To work with CYP and families from the initial stages to identify the child's emotional and developmental need and develop a play intervention plan.
3. To manage and be responsible for the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of play strategies which encompass the developmental and emotional needs of the children/young people and their families or carers within the hospital setting.
4. To adhere to the safeguarding policy and guidance within the Trust to ensure the safety of CYP within the organisation.
5. To ensure that all children and young people have appropriate access to play and recreation resources whilst at the hospital and home.
6. To respect the individuality, values, cultural and religious diversity of CYP and their families, and contribute to the provision of a service sensitive to these needs.
7. To deliver training and education on the importance and impact that therapeutic play intervention has on child and young person to the multi-disciplinary team (MDT).
8. Be responsible for acting in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the good standard and reputation of Play (Acknowledgement-SoHPS Code of Professional Conduct/ SoHPS Standards).

Working for our organisation King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1.8 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King's to another level.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King's is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone's contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust's carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. To create a welcoming, caring and safe play environment for the CYP with cancer and their families.
2. To use play as a tool to communicate and build a rapport with children and young people with cancer attending the hospital.
3. To manage and be responsible in using theoretical knowledge and evidence-based practice to assess, plan, implement and evaluate therapeutic play interventions in hospital which encompass the development and emotional needs of CYP. (This includes distraction and preparations techniques).
4. To take individual referrals for children/Young people and their family members experiencing difficulty in managing hospital admissions/procedures.
5. To work with members of the Oncology MDT.
6. To document therapeutic interventions and outcomes on patient records system.
7. To ensure that patient records and activity data are maintained contemporaneously in accordance with Professional and Trust standards.
8. Attend MDT meetings and contribute to treatment and care plans.
9. Devise play programmes for CYP with cancer in hospital or home, according to their individual needs and as part of their overall care plan.
10. To plan and implement individual therapeutic play programmes to include preparation for invasive, such as chemotherapy or biopsy and non-invasive procedures. (This includes distraction therapy and post-procedural play).
11. To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions using reflective practice to achieve best outcomes.
12. To support and involve parents and carers in their child's distraction and play plans.
13. To empathise with and provide and/or facilitate emotional support to parents, carers and siblings during times of stress or crisis, such as at a time of medical diagnosis or bereavement.
14. To establish effective communication, both verbal and written, with all members of the multi-disciplinary team.
15. To establish communication links with other agencies/hospitals involved with the CYP.
16. To work as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, contributing to patient treatment/care plans.
17. To provide play-based observations to influence and support the overall assessment of CYP.
18. To contribute and provide expert knowledge when involved in specific projects, audits and plans sharing at a local level.
19. To contribute to the development of protocols, standards (including cancer standards), guidelines and competencies for the department and devise standards for the Play and Youth service.
20. To be responsible for mentoring and clinically supervising Play Workers in your team, with support from your team.

Personal and professional development

1. To comply with the SoHPS Code of Professional Conduct.
2. To actively participate in maintaining own professional development, identifying own educational and clinical training needs with Line Manager.
3. To maintain a continuing professional portfolio in line with SoHPS recommendations for re-registration, recording learning outcomes from practice and participation in internal and external development opportunities.
4. To ensure own mandatory training certificates are current. To be actively involved in relevant special interest groups.
5. To contribute to policy development demonstrating the ability to evaluate current research and apply to practice.

Departmental

1. To contribute to the planning, evaluation and audit of practice, care pathways and protocols to ensure a consistent and high-quality service.
2. To be proactive in the delivery of the play service development plan as part of the overall business plan for the Paediatric oncology, Therapies, Dietetics and Play and Youth Services.
3. To attend staff meetings to share relevant information related to the Trust and the Play & Youth department.
4. To attend CYP service user groups to ensure the safe, meaningful and ethical participation of children and young people within the delivery of quality child health services.
5. To select, order and monitor play resources to reflect the needs of the patient group; specialist resources for the use in preparation and distraction will be ordered by the HPS.
. click apply for full job details