Practitioner Psychologist in Adult Haematology | Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Would you like to join a forward-thinking and supportive psychology team, who are integrated within a well-established Adult Haematology department?

We have a vacancy for a part-time Band 7 HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist who has a doctoral degree or equivalent in clinical, counselling or health psychology.

This role is0.5 wte (2.5 days/18.75 hrs), 24 month fixed-term (secondment cover) from 15/07/24 to 14/07/26.

You will be working in a team who values your unique experiences and interests, alongside Clinical and Health Psychologists and a Senior Assistant Psychologist. We provide regular placements for Doctoral Clinical Psychology trainees, MSc Health Psychology trainees and psychology undergraduates.

Our team strives to take a proactive, inclusive and reflexive approach to integrating psychological care into the treatment provided for people living with haematological conditions. We engage in regular reflective spaces, CPD and aim to continually learn about how to embed anti-discriminatory practices in our service delivery. We invite applicants who share this ethos and have a strong interest in the relationship between psychological and physical health and multidisciplinary working across inpatient and outpatient care.

We would particularly welcome applicants who can add to the diversity of the existing team and who value working with diverse communities. We strive to be as representative of the local population as much as possible.

Our mission is to be a visible, accessible, high quality service that takes a patient-centred, evidence-based, and needs-led approach to providing psychological support to adults with blood disorders and their families in inpatient and outpatient settings.

This varied role involves:

• Triaging, assessing and providing therapy to outpatients, relating to the psychological aspects of living with their health condition(s).


• Provide input into multidisciplinary team meetings, clinics and providing regular inpatient liaison and support to patients under the care of the haematology department.


• Opportunities to supervise junior members of staff and be involved in larger projects such as audits and service development.


• Opportunities to get involved in teaching and training events for other professions, to represent psychology and contribute psychological thinking into physical healthcare.


• There is also access to a range of department wide and trust-wide learning opportunities and events to further develop your experiences of working within physical healthcare and GSTT.


We welcome applications from trainee psychologists who are in the process of completing training requirements and obtaining HCPC registration. If HCPC registration has not been achieved by the time the post starts, candidates would start on B6 and move to B7 once conditions for that banding (including HCPC registration) have been achieved (providing this can be done within a reasonable and agreed time frame).
Haematology Psychology Service (HPS)

Since 1997 the HPS has provided psychological support to patients with blood disorders and their families at GSTT. We are mainly located within the haematology department at Guy's Hospital and are therefore well integrated within the multidisciplinary haematology teams. We also provide some integrated care to the Centre for Haemophilia and Thrombosis at St Thomas' Hospital. We strive to be a visible, accessible, high quality service that takes a patient-centred, evidence-based, and needs-led approach.

We see inpatients and outpatients and offer individual psychological therapy, group therapy/support, cognitive assessment, and joint multidisciplinary consultations. We also work with staff (e.g. medical doctors and ward nurses) to support them in providing quality care.
Other key activities include teaching, training, research, audit, and contributing to the development of psychology in haematology on a London-wide and national basis. The HPS is led by the Consultant Clinical/Health Psychologist and comprises of one Band 8b, one Band 8a, two Band 7 Practitioner Psychologists, a Senior Assistant Psychologist, trainees and students. We meet regularly with other psychologists across GSTT and are involved in Trust-wide initiatives.

See document attached for full Job Description
Job Summary

Under supervision of the senior practitioner psychologists, the post-holder will contribute to the ongoing development and delivery of a high quality Specialist Clinical Health Psychology Service for people aged 16 years and above with hereditary blood conditions (including sickle cell disorders and thalassaemia), people with acquired and inherited bleeding and clotting disorders (including haemophilia, antiphospholipid syndrome and thrombotic problems) and individuals who have been diagnosed with haematological cancers (myeloproliferative neoplasms) and other haematological conditions. The provision of evidenced-based, time-limited psychological interventions to promote psychological well-being and physical health is a key requirement.

The post-holder will exercise autonomous professional responsibility for his/her own actions and will provide psychological assessment (and cognitive assessment according to competencies), therapeutic interventions, and psychosocial support to patients and their families (including 1-1 and groups), and play a role in the development of psychologically informed working practice within the areas. Group therapy support may occur on a weekly basis in the evening and the post-holder would take time back for this.

The post holder is expected to collaborate with other members of the haematology psychology team and with the wider multi-professional haematology teams in order to achieve the service's aims and to contribute to service developments in the area of understanding, evaluating, and managing people with haematological conditions. The post involves frequent staff consultation and team formulation in the context of complex client working. The post holder will utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research. She/he will work autonomously within clearly defined policies and procedures of the Health Psychology Service, professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
Key Relationships

The post holder will have day-to-day contact with patients, families, psychologists, trainees, assistant psychologists and placement students in the haematology psychology team. They will work alongside and have regular clinical supervision with a senior Practitioner Psychologist within the team. They will also have access to the various peer supervision groups led by psychologists across the Trust.

They will have regular contact with and the opportunity for joint work with all members of the multidisciplinary haematology teams such as consultant haematologists and clinical nurse specialists, and have contact with ward staff, the other medical specialities who contribute to the service, administrative, and clerical support staff. The post holder will also have contact with members of the GSTT (Adult and Paediatric) Psychology Service (clinical, health, and counselling psychologists, trainees and assistant psychologists). There will be less frequent contact with external organisations including representatives from NHS England, colleagues working in haematology within the UK and internationally, the charitable sector (e.g. Sickle Cell Society) and regulatory bodies such as CQC.