Sr Psychologist

Overview

This position requires the Senior Psychologist to provide psychological assessment, individual and group intervention in the management of patient care within a multi-disciplinary setting. Quality standards in delivering clinical service and professional relationships within the multi-disciplinary team are maintained. The Senior Psychologist works independently to manage clinical cases within a range of complexities. The Senior Psychologist contributes to staff supervision and postgraduate students’ supervision. The Senior Psychologist contributes to professional education at hospital and cluster level with a lead role in quality and research-related programs.

Major duties & responsibilities

• Independently interviews, assesses and manages cases through the application of evidence-based knowledge and therapy intervention.
• Conducts psychometric testing which includes intelligence, memory tests and other neuropsychological assessment batteries specific to the needs of the patient population.
• Delivers professional education at a standard appropriate to specialisation.
• Leads/co-leads quality and research-related programs as required.
• Leads work team activities and supports team members to improve team performance.

Specific

Clinical Care

• Quality of work
• Demonstrates clinical competency as assessed in the clinical competency checklist, annually.
• Documents assessment findings, interventions, progress and care plan in patient’s case file and/or electronically, in accordance with the department/hospital’s expected time frame and general guidelines.
• Keeps workload statistics and manages the necessary administrative duties as required.
• Participates actively in quality improvement initiatives.
• Maintains consistent standards of patient care.
• Practises and complies with the department and hospital’s quality and safety standards, guidelines and practices.
• Develops and review department work processes including training and equipping staff to carry out their work correctly and safely.
• Adheres to legal and ethical standards.

Education

• Provides supervision, training and consultation to junior staff.
• Provides supervision and guidance for managing complex and medico-legal cases.
• Takes on the role of Clinical Educator/ supervisor to postgraduate psychology interns.
• Delivery of Education: conducts continuing education talks or workshops at inter-departmental, hospital and/or cluster level; conducts or facilitates the delivery of professional talks, workshops or seminars in psychology-related areas to the public, agencies or organisations; plans and provides consultative services to other organisations as necessary; presents at local / international conferences.
• Planning and Development: plans, organises and delivers continuing education programme at department level; plans and organises public education events at department, inter-department, hospital, cluster or national level; assists senior co-workers to review the training and learning needs of junior staff.

Research

• Keeps abreast of evidence-based research and practice applications in broad areas of psychological application and area of specialisation.
• Implements knowledge and evidence-based models and methods to develop and improve own practice.
• Critically review current research/journal literature and present for discussion; show how research findings add to current knowledge in relevant areas.
• Develops research ideas and study design to be conducted at department level and with the inter-disciplinary team.
• Participates in clinical and quality research projects and supports research data collection/design/analysis.
• Leads a clinical or quality research project at department, division and inter-disciplinary team level.
• Presents poster/abstract/research paper at local, regional or international conference.

Management/Leadership

• Manages a section of service delivery, its manpower and clinic resources to achieve key performance indicators of the department.
• Assists senior co-workers to develop, implement, co-ordinate new initiatives and track outcomes in health, psychology-related and specialised programmes to meet department and hospital targets.
• Involves in the appraisal and planning of learning needs of junior staff.
• Helps to promote a working environment of collegiality and effective teamwork.
• Leads or co-leads inter-professional/inter-department workgroups to deliver quality service and care.
• Participates in inter-department and multi-disciplinary team collaborations and projects.
• Engages, communicates and collaborates with healthcare professionals in patient management through participation in multi-disciplinary team rounds/discussions.
• Setting strategic direction: assists senior co-workers in managing key performance indicators, IRIS incidences, feedback from other departments and hospital wide surveys to identify gaps and potential areas of change in line with the directives set at allied health division and hospital level.
• Collates, evaluates and audits department clinical and quality outcomes, presenting relevant findings to influence improvement/change to department services.

General

• Supports and provides services at inpatient, outpatient and community-based settings as assigned.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the hospital’s service vision, mission and values.
• Participates actively as a member in department, division and wider hospital initiatives.
• Exceeds patient needs and expectations and handles service challenges with a positive mindset.
• Undertakes any other duties assigned by the supervisor, Senior Psychologist, Principal Psychologist or Head of Department.

Job requirements

Education / Training / Experience

• Bachelor’s qualification (with minimum 2:1 Honours) in Psychology
• Postgraduate qualification in a relevant specialised discipline in Psychology with clinical attachment in a relevant and specialised clinical field of Psychology.
• At least 5 years work experience as a psychologist in a patient-centered care setting.
• Preferably with experience in a community-based setting.
• Ability to demonstrate competencies expected of this job grade.

Professional License(if any)

• Registered Psychologist with the Singapore Psychological Society (SPS)
• For overseas trained post-graduate program, registration with one other professional psychology body is preferred (e.g. Australian Psychological Society, British Psychological Society, American Psychological Association).

Attributes

• Ability to monitor organisation operational procedures and staff compliance to ethical practices, legal and regulatory requirements, to ensure work practices providing care and support of patients are executed in the best interest of patients.
• Knowledge and ability to coordinate the implementation of emergency response and crisis management plans relevant to the identified emergency scenarios.
• Ability to lead case conferences as part of multidisciplinary teams, including facilitating or leading case conferences for complex cases.
• Ability to facilitate adaptations to personal and professional behaviours by other healthcare professionals amidst patient interactions, ethical dilemmas, conflicts and misalignments in personal values and beliefs.