Position overview

The Division of Allied Health provides a range of allied health services across clinical Divisions based at Canberra Hospital.  A strong emphasis is placed across all sections on accessible and timely care, delivered to a high standard of safety and quality.  This is underpinned by the Division’s commitment to research and training. The Division works in partnership with professional colleagues, consumers, and a range of government and non-government service providers to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients.

Acute Allied Health Services (AAHS) Physiotherapy provides services to a range of clients in acute inpatient and specialised outpatient settings, including but not limited to paediatric orthopaedics, inpatient wards, neonatal intensive care and special care nursery, physiotherapy-led outpatient services and multidisciplinary paediatric clinics including Cystic Fibrosis, Hip Dysplasia, Paediatric rheumatology and Growth and Development Clinics. Our physiotherapists work closely with patients, carers, referrers, other health care professionals and multidisciplinary teams locally and interstate, to achieve safe, high quality patient care. Physiotherapists play a key role in the multidisciplinary management of paediatric patients across the care continuum

The Paediatric Orthopaedic Physiotherapist provides advanced clinical assessment, treatment, and management of infants, children, and adolescents with orthopaedic conditions, delivering evidence-based care that supports optimal physical function, participation, and quality of life. The role demonstrates specialist clinical expertise in paediatric orthopaedic physiotherapy and acts as a key resource for patients, families, and multidisciplinary team members. In addition to direct clinical care, the position is responsible for teaching, training, and mentoring physiotherapy staff, students, and other health professionals to build workforce capability and promote best-practice care. The role also leads and contributes to service development activities, including quality improvement initiatives, clinical guideline development, research translation, and the evaluation of service outcomes, ensuring contemporary, efficient, and patient-centred orthopaedic physiotherapy services are delivered across the continuum of care.

Key Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following.

• Provide advanced physiotherapy clinical reasoning and practice for paediatric patients with orthopaedic conditions across relevant acute and outpatient settings.
• Lead the development of the Paediatric Orthopaedic caseload ensuring evidence-based practices while leading or contributing to service improvement, evaluation, and research activities.
• Provide clinical leadership, education and training in paediatric physiotherapy through supervision, mentoring, teaching, and support of physiotherapy staff and students involved in paediatric orthopaedic service delivery.
• Work collaboratively with the Manager AAHS Physiotherapy, Paediatric Clinical Lead, Senior Physiotherapy Leadership team, Universities, and multidisciplinary stakeholders to establish sustainable models of care and ensure effective, high-quality service provision.
• Support the manager through active participation in leadership forums and accountability for designated portfolios, including paediatric orthopaedic service development and evaluation.
• Actively participate in professional development and contribute to supervision and mentoring of less experienced staff to support workforce capability and sustainability within the Physiotherapy Department.
• Support workforce development through effective utilisation of allied health assistants and students within the service to enhance service capacity and future workforce pipelines.
• Commitment to ongoing professional development and expanding clinical expertise across paediatric specialty areas to enhance service capability and support multidisciplinary team requirements.
• Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.

Competencies

Specific competencies include but are not limited to the following.

• As a Practitioner, integrates all other competencies, applying knowledge, skills and professional values in the promotion of health and provision of culturally responsive, high quality and safe, client centred management.
• As a Communicator, form effective therapeutic relationships with clients that facilitate the gathering and sharing of essential information for effective health care and health promotion optimise management and outcomes within Canberra health services and external health agencies.
• As a Collaborator, work effectively with health care and other professionals to provide safe, high-quality, client-centred management.
• As a Leader, engage with others to collaboratively in shared decision making for the operation and evolution of the service and in roles as individual care provider, educator and as a leader of the service.
• As a Health Advocate, support clients in navigating the health care system and to advocate with, and for, them to access appropriate resources in a timely manner.
• As a Scholar, demonstrate a commitment to maintaining and enhancing professional competency, achieved through engaging in clinical reflection, continuous learning, teaching others and sharing their knowledge and participating in research.
• As a Professional, demonstrate commitment to safety and quality in healthcare through ethical practice, high standards of professional behaviour, accountability, and management of their own physical and mental health.

Qualifications

Specific qualifications include, but are not limited to, the following.

Essential

• Tertiary Qualification in Physiotherapy.
• Registered or eligible for registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

Desirable

• Post-graduate qualification in orthopaedic paediatric physiotherapy (Melbourne advanced practice training pathway)
• Have an understanding of how the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) indicators align with this role.

Experience

Specific experience include, but are not limited to, the following.

Essential

• Minimum of 5 years clinical experience post entry level qualifications.
• Extensive experience in Paediatric Physiotherapy and Orthopaedics.

Desirable

• Previous experience as a clinical supervisor highly desirable.
• Experience in service evaluation and development.
• Experience or knowledge of the CHS Exceptional Care Framework and all other related frameworks.

Please note prior to commencement successful candidates will be required to:

• Undergo a pre-employment National Police Check.
• Comply with Canberra Health Services Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination policy.
• Comply with CHS credentialing and scope of clinical practice requirements for allied health professionals.

Important information

All employees are required to:

• Adhere to the Canberra Health Services Values and the ACT Public Service Code of Conduct.
• Act in accordance and comply with all relevant Safety and Quality policies and procedures.
• Comply with all relevant clinical and/or competency standards.
• Be available for weekend restricted on-call Physiotherapy HP4 roster.

CHS is leading the drive to digitally transform health service delivery in Australia through the implementation of a territory wide Digital Health Record. Computer literacy skills are required which are relevant to this role as you will be responsible for completing the required documentation and becoming a proficient user of the Digital Health Record and/or other Information Technology systems; once proficient, you will need to remain current with changes, updates, and contingencies.

What you Require (Key Selection Criteria)

These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your resumé and experience.

1. Advanced clinical experience delivering high-quality physiotherapy services for paediatric patients with orthopaedic conditions across both acute and outpatient settings, with the ability to apply advanced clinical reasoning and integrate evidence-based practices.
2. Demonstrated ability to supervise, mentor & teach professional staff and students as a clinical leader in paediatric orthopaedics.
3. Highly developed interpersonal, written and oral communication skills, including the ability to establish and maintain relationships with internal and external service providers and stakeholders and the proven ability to work as a member of a multidisciplinary team.
4. Proven ability to lead and implement service development, quality improvement, and/or research activities, including contributing to the establishment and evaluation of new models of care and demonstrating outcomes aligned with organisational goals.
5. Demonstrated understanding and commitment to safety and quality standards, including work health and safety (WHS), patient-centred care, and positive consumer experience, with behaviours consistent with CHS values of reliable, progressive, respectful, and kind.

Work environment description

The following work environment description outlines the inherent requirements of the role and indicates how frequently each of these requirements would need to be performed. Please note that the ACT Public Service is committed to providing reasonable adjustments and ensuring all individuals have equal opportunities in the workplace.