Prehab Support Worker

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and motivated individual to join the UCLH Prehabilitation team. Our Prehab service started in 2021 and is run by a close team who are passionate about improving patients’ fitness for surgery. In the last year we have seen over 100 referrals. Our data shows that all patients have benefited from an improvement in fitness, fatigue and quality of life following completion of the prehab programme, optimising them for their surgery.

We are looking for an excellent team player who has experience leading exercise classes and providing one-to-one exercise training to join our team and help grow the service. The current team consists of Doctors, Physiotherapists, Dieticians and admin support. Patients can also be referred for coaching, psychology and smoking cessation as required.

The post holder will be responsible for providing virtual exercise classes, one-to-one exercise sessions, basic nutritional advice and some follow up phone calls. There is admin provision for the service but you will be expected to undertake tasks to facilitate the running of the service and data collection.

This role is ideal for someone who feels passionately about exercise, nutrition, wellbeing and patient experience.

Current funding only allows for 26 hrs/wk on a 9-month fixed-term contract. There is some flexibility in the hours and ability to work from home.

Duties may include:

• Implementation and progression of treatment plans delegated by qualified staff.
• Running of virtual group exercise classes.
• Complete follow up telephone calls with patients on the prehab pathway
• Completion of outcome measures
• Review patient goals and progress as appropriate.
• Explore potential barriers to engagement and escalate as appropriate to wider team
• Reinforce the physiotherapist's advice and patient education.
• Documentation of all patient contact in electronic health records system in accordance with the Trust and professional guidelines.
• Admin tasks to support the running of the service
• Data collection for service improvement and research
• To complete accurate nutritional screening with patients.
• To gather nutritional information from patients.
• To assess tolerance of ONS prescribed by the dietitian.
• To help dietitian to develop and deliver group education to patients.
• To provide basic nutritional advice to patients with support and supervision from dietitian.

The Acute Therapy Service at UCLH is a dynamic, innovative and forward-thinking department where everyone is enthusiastic and passionate about providing high quality care to patients. Our staff are committed to service development - continuously improving patient experience through quality improvement projects, research and patient engagement. We are proud of what we achieve and celebrate this through staff recognition events and awards.

Clinically the department is made up of OT, Physiotherapists and Support Staff, who are divided into small specialty therapy teams who join with similar specialties for education, training and service development. There are extensive opportunities for training through internal and external courses and staff are supported to showcase work at conferences.

Creating an inclusive and welcoming environment is key for us. The department aspires to be a warm, friendly and supportive place to work, enabling all staff to maximise their potential. We encourage staff to contribute through staff groups championing equality, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, staff wellbeing and patient and staff experience.

Staff feedback consistently highlights the approachability of the leadership in the department. People feel they are always treated as individuals, given time, listened to and supported.

The Acute Therapy Service aims to live the UCLH trust values and we welcome applications from people who embody these in their working life.

For more information regarding the main responsibilities of the role, please refer to the attached Job Description.