Job Description
Job title:Team: /
Specialist Teacher of the Deaf (Habilitation)
Paediatric Auditory Implants & Audiovestibular Medicine
Division: / Royal National Throat, Nose and EarHospitalBoard/corporate function: / Specialist Hospitals Board
Salary band: / 8A
Responsible to: / Head of Department: Specialist Teachers of the Deaf
Accountable to: / Head of Department: Specialist Teachers of the Deaf
Hours per week: / Full time or part time job share
Base Location: / Royal National Throat, Nose and EarHospital, Grays Inn Road.
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is one of the most complex NHS trusts in the UK, serving a large and diverse population.
We provide academically-led acute and specialist services, to people from the local area, from throughout the United Kingdom and overseas.
Our vision is to deliver top-quality patient care, excellent education and world-class research. We provide first-class acute and specialist services acrosseight sites:
- University College Hospital (incorporating the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing)
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
- Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital
- Eastman Dental Hospital
- Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine
- University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre
- The Hospital for Tropical Diseases
- University College Hospitals at Westmoreland Street
- We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women’s health and the treatment of cancer, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease.It has world class support services includingcritical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.
We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women’s health and the treatment of cancer, cardiac, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease.It has world class support services includingcritical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.
Royal National Ear, Nose and ThroatHospital – Audiology and Hearing Therapy Services
The Royal National, Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (RNTNEH) and the NationalHospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) are internationally renowned hospitals for clinical practice and world-class clinical research in Ear, Nose & Throat surgery, Audio-vestibular medicine and rehabilitation.
The department of Audiology and Hearing Therapy includes cochlear implants, paediatric audiology, adult and paediatric diagnostic audiology, hearing aid centre and hearing therapy. The department also offers dedicated vestibular rehabilitation through a vestibular scientist and with links with UCLH physiotherapy services.
Within the surgical unit of the hospital all aspects of complex ear surgery are undertaken including: external ear reconstruction, middle ear surgery for hearing restoration, inner ear surgery for dizziness, cochlear implant surgery for children and adults with severe to profound hearing loss. The Cochlear implant service was the first in the UK and is now developing into an Auditory Implant centrewhich will provide all types of implantable auditory devices
The departments of adult and paediatric Audiovestibular medicine are amongst the largest and most advanced Audio-Vestibular medicine groups in the UK. They include a world-class audiological rehabilitation team, including integrated clinical psychology services, cognitive behavioural therapy, speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf. The group provide the most up to date audiological rehabilitation and therapy for which there is an established evidence base. Specialist help is provided for people with acquired hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, vestibular disorders, auditory processing disorder and other associated conditions.
The RNTNEH is closely associated with the UCL Ear Institute and through the Neuro-otology services at Queen Square the UCL institute of Neurology. Together with the UCL institutes the RNTNEH and NHNN represents the premier ENT and audio-vestibular medicine centre in the UK.
Job Purpose
The post-holder will be highly skilled in the assessment and management of deaf children including babies, infants and those with complex additional needs. In addition the post holder will be skilled in using a range of approaches to enhance communication with deaf children of all ages and their families which may include British Sign Language or Sign Supported English. You will be required to work as an integral member of a multi-disciplinary team working in the paediatric auditory implant and audiovestibular medicine departments. You will work closely with specialist teacher of the deaf colleagues on the team.
You will be an essential resource in the comprehensive assessment of newly referred patients, in the rehabilitative and diagnostic management of implanted patients and the regular review of care plans and packages of care.
You will be expected to show a particular interest in auditory re/habilitation and take the lead in the further development of the teacher of the deaf managed auditory re/habilitation service in the auditory implant department. This is offered to patients immediately following the completion of the initial MDT initial connection process and for selected patients who demonstrate a difficulty with making auditory progress with cochlear implant/s. You will also work closely with the MDT specialist clinics in the audiovestibular medicine department.
Outreach work is required for cochlear implant patients as identified in the national professional guidelines for specialist teachers of the deaf working on cochlear implant teams (ICTOD) and in accordance with the implant team protocols. You will be expected to provide a highly specialised level of advice and support to local educational, specialist services for the deaf and other professional groups and work with a high level of responsibility and autonomy.
It will be expected that you will be an influential team member both within the teacher of the deaf team, in the team as a whole and act in a consultative capacity. This will include the development of strong professional partnerships between local specialist education services, other locally involved professionals and the MDT over the recognition of patient needs and management. You will participate in the further development of the specialist teacher of the deaf service and multi-disciplinary working, patient management and service initiatives. You will also be involved in the teaching of medical and non-medical staff to MSc level and lead on or contribute to relevant audit and research both within the department, team and on a multi-centre basis. A consistently high level of skilled clinical and/or teaching practice is required to meet team, national and international standards in paediatric cochlear implantation.
Key Working Relationships
The following organisation chart shows the reporting arrangement and job titles in the Specialist Teacher of the Deaf department. The Head of Department has full line-management responsibility.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
i) Clinical
To work closely with clinical colleagues from a range of disciplines contributing to a highly skilled and integrated, multi-disciplinary clinical service for the management of the complex and specialist caseload of patients referred to the two departments. You will need:
1)To excel as a highly skilled member of a specialised clinical service essential to the diagnosis, selection, treatment and care of paediatric candidates for cochlear implantation and Bone Conduction devices. It is essential that you demonstrate highly developed communication skills and be able to empathise with and motivate patients and carers in sometimes stressful and challenging circumstances as families learn to come to terms with deafness and the implications of deafness in a child for everyday life.
2)To be involved in the specialist teacher of the deaf clinics and multi-disciplinary clinics for newly referred deaf patients and offer an expert opinion as to the patient’s candidature for full assessment for cochlear implantation.
3)To be involved in the specialist teacher of the deaf Information Clinics for all patients and their families prior to the full MDT cochlear implant assessment process.
4)To respond to consultant electronic referrals from the consultants in audiovestibular medicine for skilled functional use of hearing assessment or hearing aid consultation with parents and patients.
5)To be involved in the MDT specialist clinics in the audiovestibular medicine department as required.
6)To be take a lead in the further development of the specialist teacher of the deaf post-implantation re/habilitation clinics and re/habilitation clinics for children and young people finding it a challenge to make auditory progress. You will provide highly individualised direct auditory habilitation and expert advice to parents, local teachers of the deaf and other involved professionals on the generalisation and forward development of auditory skills in the home and educational settings.
7)To work jointly with the audiologists in the fitting and evaluation of hearing aids assessment of benefit and functional use of hearing.
8)To train deaf children with complex/additional needs to comply with audiometric assessment in order to expedite full assessment and advise the auditory implant team over patient selection and ongoing management.
9)To provide specialist opinion and detailed clinical and educational advice over cochlear implants as requested by other members of the team or local specialist education services and be an expert resource.
10)To adopt the role of key worker for individual patients and provide clearly accessible information to patients, carers and local specialist educational and health professionals in a sensitive manner and act as first contact with the team.
11)To carefully consider with the team all factors that will have a bearing on making clinical judgements over outcome of cochlear implant in order to offer highly individualised counselling, information and packages of care. This will require a highly developed ability to manage complex and sensitive information and problem solve often under difficult situations.
12)To provide counselling, expert advice and information to families, patients and local professionals. This may be provided in the hospital, patient’s home or educational setting. Highly skilled communication skills are essential in managing the necessarily complex and sometimes contentious information to enhance understanding and co-operation in order that the needs of patients are being recognised and met.
13)To identify and resolve clinical and practical management issues as they arise and maintain high levels of patient confidentiality and security while complying with relevant legislation such as the data Protection Act.
14)To administer a skilled and sophisticated package of assessments for patients referred for cochlear implant assessment and specialist teacher of the deaf assessment in the audiovestibular medicine department employing highly developed communication skills in motivating patients of all ages and eliciting the required clinical information from them and their carers. It will be essential that highly complex issues are identified and assessed and the implications are recognised, considered and shared with the team in the design of multi-disciplinary approaches to intervention.
15)To use specialist knowledge to analyse and interpret the outcomes of both formal and informal assessments and observations in evaluating the likely benefit of cochlear implantation to inform team decision making, patient/family counselling and patient selection.
16)To assess and make judgements over patient care needs; develop, advise on implementation, monitor and review individual specialised packages of care in liaison with the team to meet the needs of patients, carers and local professionals following cochlear implantation.
17)You will need to have a detailed knowledge of the range of additional or alternative specialist educational and clinical approaches to patient care and the development auditory, language and communication skills. This will be long term, require monitoring and review and may take place in the hospital, patient’s home or educational setting.
18)To provide the audiological scientists with the outcomes of specialist objective measures and careful observations as to patient auditory performance and progress in a range of contexts in order to inform the process of tuning the cochlear implant devices.
19)To work closely with the audiological scientists on the team and local specialist teacher services and other involved professionals in the assessment of a patient’s readiness for a personal FM radio aid fitting and be involved in the fitting of the device in the clinic. You will need to provide expert advice to the local services over the management of FM devices and cochlear implant devices.
20)To identify and alert the team of the outcomes of assessment and clinical observations which indicate that a patient is not making the expected progress, be involved in the implementation of sessions of diagnostic therapy and plan the appropriate intervention strategy with the team.
21)To provide expert advice to local specialist education and health services (which will be ongoing) on the management of the cochlear implanted patient and facilitate close contact and liaison between the implant centre, local specialist education professionals and the carers of the patients.
19) To maintain up-to-date clinical notes and reports of a very high standard and update databases of patient assessment outcomes/measures. To ensure that data is of good quality, accurate and relevant to purpose and be meticulous over patient confidentiality and security, complying with relevant legislation such as the data Protection Act.
20) Monitor and advise the specialist team on trends in assessment outcome measures which willinform decision making over the changing needs of patient assessment and management.
ii) Teaching
21) To provide, deliver and develop comprehensive core training to specialist teachers of the deaf,other non-specialist education staff, sign language communicators and other professional groups involved in patient care and management. This service will be delivered in a variety of ways and on a 1:1 basis and to small and large specialist educational and mixed professional audiences.
22) To identify and be responsive to the training needs of these groups over time and to provideongoing expert training to meet the needs of particular professionals and services and maintain an expert consultative role.
23) To provide expert training to members of the cochlear implant team on the educationalimplications and management of cochlear implanted patients and issues for the design of packages of care and implementation in educational settings.
24)To plan, deliver and audit training workshops, with team members, for the parents, carers and families of patients being formally assessed for cochlear implantation or those who have been implanted.
25)To liaise with specialist national bodies such as the Ear Foundation and contribute to their teaching programmes by contributing to courses and workshops.
26)To provide specialist and comprehensive clinical teaching to under and post graduate students
to MSc level.
iii) Professional Development
27)To participate in the PDP process; identifying own key training needs and ensuring the set objectives will develop clinical skills and knowledge and the clinical service provided by the specialist teachers of the deaf and multi-disciplinary team in line with Trust plans.
28)To attend and contribute to regular supervision sessions with the Head of Department, Specialist Teachers of the Deaf over case management of complex patients, multi-disciplinary working and clinical and service issues.
29)To attend and participate in monthly specialist teacher of the deaf departmental meetings to include peer review through case study presentations and to lead on consideration of current evidence based material from the specialist literature on paediatric deafness and cochlear implantation.
30)To attend and contribute to multi-disciplinary team meetings and propose/assist in thedevelopment, implementation and review of care pathways, protocols and service operations and delivery across disciplines. To take formal minutes of these team meetings as required.
30)To attend specialist short courses and workshops which provide advanced training tofurther develop specialist clinical skills while maintaining a high level of academic knowledge in the field of paediatric cochlear implantation.
32) To present the outcomes of your own and multi-disciplinary clinical audit and research at hospital audit days, local, national and international meetings and conferences.
33)To remain up to date and advice the multi-disciplinary team on current and developing specialist patient management assessments, approaches and techniques and their clinical and educational applications.
34)To provide expert support, advice and coaching to university based student teachers on placement on the programme in liaison with the Head of Department.
35)To liaise closely with specialist teachers of the deaf/auditory verbal therapists working on cochlear implant teams in the UK and specialist teachers of the deaf/auditory verbal therapists at a regional and national level to build clinical skills knowledge and practice and to attend Implant Centre Teachers of the Deaf (ICTOD) and/or other relevant academic meetings.
iv) Evidence Based Practice
36) To initiate/contribute to departmental and team audit and research proposals and be involved in implementation and analysis of outcome measures. To attend and contribute to regularteam research meetings.
37) To propose policies and procedures that will ensure that evidence based practice is identified and implemented and reflected in clinical guidelines, protocols and packages of care to ensure the highest levels of clinical effectiveness.
38) To suggest, be involved in or co-ordinate multi-disciplinary team working parties reviewingparticular aspects of clinical practice or service and be involved in making proposals which will influence the clinical work of the specialist teachers and the other disciplines representedon the team.
39) To initiate and/or contribute expert knowledge and clinical skills to multi-centre/service research projects in the scientific, clinical and specialist educational fields.